What's Holding Linux Back?

Simplicity and Ease of Use

In the early days Linux was fairly hard to use, but we have seen Corel and Mandrake take these issues head on, not to mention the KDE organization. Knock Corel all you want to, but they showed some of us just how good Linux could be for the end user. The installation could not have been any easier or clearer. There were simple choices to wipe out the hard drive and start fresh, use free disk space and install on a DOS and Windows partition without erasing any of the data. Advanced Linux users could edit their own partition tables if they chose. Right off the bat, Windows users could understand that Corel Linux would co-exist peacefully.

Corel Linux Installation Screens
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The already impressive KDE interface was modified by Corel to look even more Windows-like. By default, all system drives were auto-mounted, something most PC users take for granted. The Corel file manager, with its Explorer-ish disposition, was familiar and capable. The work Corel did with Samba was just awesome, with a easy to understand configuration screen and full, automatic activation of the entire Samba configuration. A few clicks and you are on the Windows network without ever having to drop to the command-line.

Corel Linux Display and Samba Configuration Screens
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Corel scored another hit with their Display configuration screen, which provided users a single location for choosing their monitor, resolution, color depth and refresh rate. Add all of those items together and you can see just how easy it is to make a few tweaks to make Linux more accessible to the average user. Unfortunately, Microsoft provided a cash-strapped Corel with a $135 million dollar investment, and suddenly you had a new CEO and a total cessation of all further Linux development. The ports of Corel Office, Corel Draw and Corel Photo Paint for Linux lie dormant, and they have essentially sold off their Linux distribution to Xandros. But just because Corel has bailed on us does not mean that we can't learn from their ideas.

Corel Linux Custom File Manager Screens
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These screen shots show the how drives are auto-mounted in Corel Linux and how they are represented by individual drive letters like they are in DOS and Windows. They also show how Corel custom-tailored the Network Share and Access Permissions dialogs so that they would again be familiar to Windows network users and administrators.

Mandrake Linux continues to be a powerful alternative with a great number of user friendly features. While not quite as impressive in some areas as Corel in terms of appealing to less experienced users, there is an awful lot to like about Mandrake. Their latest distribution, version 8.1, has the very latest KDE and a host of custom utilities designed to make configuration and management easier to handle. With a little more effort, I think that it will be a much easier proposition to demonstrate how open and accessible Linux is becoming.