[seul-edu] resend- Linux -- the Free, Fast OS Still Has a Long Way to Go. (fulltext attached)

[SteelHead <brk@linuxhelpers.org>]

A commentary that is a bit rough reading, but worth reading for some.
(With the text below there is no need to fight GeoCities pop-ups)

Bill

 http://www.geocities.com/netmaniac00/linprobs.html

Are we there yet?
A member of the Linux Users Group raises issues that need to be dealt with
before The Penguin can claim the coveted OS top spot.
The Indian Linux community can barely suppress its excitement. Linux has
finally reached the top, and we want to shout it from the rooftops. It is
the best OS in the world, and anybody who thinks otherwise needs a reality
check, right?

Well, not exactly. The OS has served as my primary desktop for two years now
and speaking from that experience, I have to admit that Linux has not yet
reached the top. Major issues continue to daunt the OS at both the server
and desktop level.



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Desktop Dilemmas

There still exists a scarcity of applications. Major projects such as the
Mozilla Web  browser, the Nautilus file manager, the Evolution mailer, and
the KOffice suite, all of which were expected to release stable versions by
the middle of last year [2000], aren't here yet. Until they deliver, Linux
isn't desktop material.

One project did deliver last year: XFree86 4.0. But it came minus all the
functionality the hype promised. TrueType fonts are still a problem, drivers
for older cards haven't been ported over from the older, incompatible 3.3x
releases and new drivers aren't stable yet. I have used XFree86 4.0 on
Mandrake 6.1 with a Trident 3DImage 9750 and with S3 Trio 3D/2X, and the
experience has not been worth the effort of upgrading. While the driver for
the first card consistently caused the system to reboot a few minutes after
startup, that too without warning, the second would freeze every few days
and require a cold boot.

Configuration also remains a problem and features that are standard in
Windows, such as multicolor mouse cursors and on-the-fly resolution
switching, aren't possible yet.

The X server is also superbly bloated. An X server on average requires 10 MB
of RAM. Count in the various system daemons that are required for normal
operation and the base GNOME programs, and you have a Linux desktop that
will easily consume 70 MB of RAM before any application is loaded. If you
choose not to use either GNOME or KDE (which is equally bloated), you'll
have to forgo the desktop layout experience that is responsible for so many
Windows users considering Linux today.

Sound is another issue. Cards from Creative Labs and ESS are well supported
by the OSS/Free (Open Sound System) drivers that most distributions include,
but if you have another card, tough luck. The ALSA project (Advanced Linux
Sound Architecture) does, but ALSA comes minus the friendly sndconfig
utility OSS gives you.

Usability is another problem with existing applications too. Legacy
applications such as Netscape which use the Motif UI tool kit, have very
limited support for keyboard navigation. Access to most parts of a Motif
application requires the mouse cursor. Qt, the widget library for KDE, does
it better but isn't good enough yet. GNOME's Gtk+ meanwhile, has a problem
that's just the opposite -- the keyboard can take you anywhere, even to the
label buttons on a list view (like the right pane in Windows Explorer when
in details view).

Keyboard navigation is meant to work only between frequent used areas of a
UI, to improve speed for touch typists who can press complex key
combinations. Instead, Motif, Qt and Gtk+ all have warped keyboard support
that makes the mouse the fastest way to navigate. And they said Linux was an
OS for keyboard lovers.

Standard applications have their share of quirks and limitations. For
instance, GIMP, birthplace of Gtk+ and regarded by many as a strong
challenger to Photoshop, has a serious limitation: it does not support CMYK
color. That means anyone in the print industry, including this magazine
[Chip], has little or no use for it. That quickly reduces GIMP to a Web-only
tool.



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Server Straits

The picture isn't very rosy on the server front either. While considerably
more mature than the desktop scene, enough issues exist to make an
administrator reconsider carefully before deciding to migrate. To start
with, Linux has a poor security model. File permissions are limited to read,
write and execute, and can be applied only to the 'file's owner', 'group',
and 'everyone else'. There is no way to specify that a group of users A has
read, write and delete rights, group B has read and write but no delete,
group C has only read rights, and everyone else, no rights at all. There is
also no way to explicitly deny rights to a member of group D, when that user
acquired rights via group A or B (users can belong to multiple groups).

This complexity becomes necessary when an administrator delegates
responsibility to sub-administrators. Currently, delegating such
administrative responsibility requires sharing the root account, which is
providing too much power to a sub-administrator.

These limitations are tackled very well by sudo (DO as SuperUser), which
provides for fairly flexible security, but has a problem -- security belongs
in kernel space, while sudo is a user-space implementation, limited to
controlling executable permissions. This makes it impossible to integrate
with security settings in large applications like Samba, the file server.
The Linux ACL (Access Control List) project is working on fixing this by
attaching extra permission settings to each file. Preliminary results are
available in the newer 2.2 series kernels, but reliable ACL-based security
won't make an appearance until 2.4. Linux 2.4 (also delayed) is promising to
fix a number of other issues too. Plug and play does not work that way yet,
and WinModems don't work at all. Despite all arguments, WinModems are
usually the only affordable choice for students (phone bills are the
parents' problem). But even though 2.4 will have the framework, someone will
still have to write drivers.

Samba too has its share of problems. Shares are specified in a single
smb.conf file that can be edited only by root, making it impossible for
non-privileged users to share their folders.



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Community Capers

Even while these issues continue to plague us, community members have
started to express fundamentalist viewpoints. Last July saw me [the author]
in an intense debate with several members of the Mumbai LUG (Linux Users
Group) over whether Linux being free meant anything at all to a company that
could afford to pay for commercial software.

Later in the year, a disagreement over control of the linux.org.in domain
became opportunity for slinging mud at people who were working on improving
the community. The OS is continuing to evolve and issues are being fixed all
the time, but the community's 'we're-the-best' beliefs are not helping any.
If you like Linux, by all means promote it, but not by denouncing the
competition or attacking fellow users. Linux needs working on, and you can
help. The list of issues above is just a sampler. Several projects need
coders; go to www.sourceforge.net and find a project you like. Or if you
can't code, many items also need technical writers, beta testers, etc., and
lots of moral support. Find your place and work on making a difference.
Whatever you do, please don't ever express your support by going around
declaring that Linux is the best.



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Kiran Jonnalagadda
kiran_jonnalagadda@jasubhai.com

in Chip Magazine, January 2001.