Top Reasons Why People Leave Linux: Is There Anything To These?
by Sam Dean - May. 01, 2009Comments (5)- Related Blog Posts
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In January, we wrote about a free, downloadable book on Ubuntu called Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference, which is helpful for diving into Ubuntu. The book's author is Keir Thomas, who has written other books on Linux. Today, he reports in a post that over the years he has heard from many readers and other people who have quit Linux to move to platforms such as Windows or the Mac. He supplies the Top 7 Reasons People Quit Linux here. There are some interesting reasons why people quit, and some interesting rebuttals from Thomas. There are also some implied usability lessons for the Linux community.
Thomas cites these, based on communications he's had with many Linux users, as the top reasons that people abandon ship:
1. Linux doesn't run a program I use
2. I installed Linux but some element of my hardware didn't work
3. I tried Linux but I had to type commands
4. I did *this*, and *this* happened. That doesn't happen with Windows
5. I posted a message on a forum, but Linux people were mean to me
6. I just don't like it
7. I installed Linux and things went honey-nut-loops crazy
I had to laugh at reason number five: "I posted a message on a forum, but Linux people were mean to me." Linux people. Could it be that members of the Linux community are ideologues, as is true of many people in the Mac community, and that this results in a generally attitudinal way of talking to new users? Maybe I'm overthinking it, and Linux users are just anti-social.
Seriously, though, Thomas does a good job on his rebuttals to many of the seven points, although I think points number two and seven represent areas where Linux needs improvement. Hardware incompatibility and inexplicable errors are too prevalent across most Linux distros I've used.
The new Jaunty Jackalope version of Ubuntu actually does a much better job with hardware compatibility than previous versions, which is good to see. Still, though, Windows and the Mac--particularly the Mac--remain easier to use hardware with on a plug-and-play basis. There are efforts to level the playing field, but more needs to be done.
Inexplicable errors are indeed another prevalent Linux problem, and part of the problem is simply how Linux distros report back when there is a problem. Thomas dismisses these problems as usually being "one-off events," but they are all too common. Consider this post from PCMag.com, where the site's editor describes his very first attempt to install Ubuntu. After installation, Ubuntu asked for a reboot, and then wouldn't boot. Here's what the editor reports:
"I just got this system screen readout saying: Grub Loading Stage 1.5.1...Grub loading, please wait...Error 18. Grub? Crud. Actually, I know from my Twitter/Linux friends that Grub is supposed to help manage the multi-boot load. Instead, it found an error and simply halted the system. No matter what I did, every reboot was the same. It was time to start over."
While it's true that this is just one single error, Ubuntu is not exactly the least-installed version of Linux. When reporting an error, details should come back in plain language, with suggestions on how to fix the problem. Communicating with hardware and communicating with new users strike me as two areas where Linux does need improvement.
That said, it was good to see the market share milestone today: Linux has just achieved one percent market share on the desktop for the first time, according to Net Applications. That's something for the Linux community to be proud of.
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