Linux on a USB stick and desktop unreadiness

I got my Dell Latitude D600 to boot off a Sandisk 1GB CruzerMicro USB stick  running Knoppix 5.1. It booted much much faster than my normal Windows XP2 (which is a real pain). Booting off a USB was easier than I thought it would be. The screen passes my eye-candy requirements and the icing on the cake is a sophisticated female voice, arguably on the bridge of a USS Enterprise, saying "Initiating startup sequence".

 

If you try this, you may need to change the BIOS bootup sequence, which may confuse Windows when you get back to your normal, boring life.

 

I had a good mind to boot up from my cell phone by extracting the Knoppix image on the phone itself. However, with just 512 MB of expandable memory, it would not have made the cut. Interestingly, I have Motorola A1200 "Ming", which runs  a customised Linux distro from Motorola.

 

I could not get my WiFi to work with pump or Kwifi Manager. That was the sad part. I wish these things were easier. Is Linux ready for the desktop yet ?

 

My answer is a thundering no. Brief reasoning.

 

• Display and Fonts. Windows font kerning rules anyday. You may attribute it to better driver compatibility owning to non-disclosure agreements that Microsoft signs with most major hardware vendors. But at the end of the day, viewing characters on Windows is far more pleasant than on Linux. One can argue subjectivity, one man's witch is another man's Moonielizzo.  However, I hold a fair amount of confidence that if you sample 300 unbiased people, the jury will rule in my favor.  you will have to arrange for the logistics though :-)
•  Device Support. Support on Windows for common devices is way much more better than on Linux. Once again, the non-disclosure element come into play. Specific hardware device details are not available to the Linux developer and so the device drivers operate at a generic level unable to utilise vendor-specific optimizations of feature-improvements. The other problem is that for many vendors, Linux is not considered mainstream enough to warrant writing a device-driver. Take my M-Audio FastTrack USB guitar recorder for example. It comes with only a Windows and Mac driver :-(

 

The second one could change. I am not optimistic enough to say "soon", but it could. Earlier in January this year, Linux kernel maintainer/developer Greg Kroah-Hartman made an astonishing announcement. It was an open announcement addressed to the large number of companies that have devices and corresponding drivers on Windows/Mac/ Sun but not on Linux. His rather generous offer to these companies is that :

Linux Kernel developers will develop complete and working device drivers (free-of-cost) for their devices and the source will be distributed as a part of the Linux kernel. In return (or rather, to assist), the company would have to provide:

1.  some kind of a spec of the device
2. an engineer with who Linux kernel developers can talk to, send emails etc for clarifications and deeper understanding (XP: The Customer is always available)
3. a sample device to test and debug ( methinks its so that the dev knows whether it is a stun-gun or a washing machine (s)he wrote the code for.

The good news is that apparently Greg and his team has figured out some ways around the non-disclosure agreements.

I would recommend you checkout Greg's Monkey Log for a very well articulated description.