Diary of a Web Developer by Edward Tanguay

Getting to know the Penguin

Tuesday, October 31, 2000

As a kid I hated mayonnaise and tomatoes. When I was eighteen I decided to break this habit, so I went to the refrigerator, cut a big, juicy garden tomato in half, heaped a huge spoonful of mayonnaise on it and put the whole thing in my mouth. After chewing and swallowing every last bit of this juicy construction, I realized that it wasn’t that bad. Ever since then, I’ve liked mayonnaise and tomatoes.

And so it is with most things in life, even Linux. As a Web developer, I have always avoided Linux as something that would “probably cost more time than good it would bring” - in any case, learning Linux is a long-term investment for anybody.

Learning Linux will eat hours of your time

Make no mistake. If you are an average Windows-user today with no knowledge of Linux or UNIX, there is no way you can pick up a copy of Linux on the way home, install it in an evening and be using it productively the next day I tried this and here is what happened:

After installing Suse Linux 7.0, I booted the computer and it said “LI” on the screen and then hung. No Linux, no Windows. Nothing. Five panic-filled hours later, I finally had Windows back (clobbering Linux out of the Master Boot Record with a handy DOS FDISK command). Three more days of e-mailing Suse support and editing cryptic configuration files got me to the point where I can boot Linux and Windows ME successfully on the same machine.

Even after multiple installs and deinstalls, Sun’s Star Office 5.2 started with an “unrecoverable error” and then shut itself down. To get it to work, I had to completely reinstall Linux.

It took 5 days of e-mailing Suse-support and editing config files to get Linux to recognize my ISDN card and go online.

Using Netscape 4.7 for Linux is like taking a trip back in Internet time to 1994: it’s painfully slow, renders tables incorrectly and displays ugly, non-anti-aliased text in Times Roman 4 to 6 so that you can barely read it. I’m currently looking around for a better Linux browser (Opera?).

When I tried to print text files from the Linux prompt to my HP Deskjet 890C printer, I got pages full of cryptic printer codes. In other programs it printed text pages one pixel row at a time, completing a full page every 12 minutes (!). I had to try over 15 different settings before the printer finally printed correctly.

Trying to install my WACOM Art Pen led me to semi-secret cadres of Linux programmers “working on WACOM drivers” and writing instructions which you cannot understand because they assume you are a Linux expert. I finally gave up trying to install my Art Pen and am waiting for WACOM to finally just write a driver that works for it.

I still need to install my HP Scanner, Phillips Web Cam and Fast Clip Master Video Digitizer. I expect these to be near impossible tasks which will consume days and weeks of my time.

But Linux has momentum

However, to appreciate what Linux is, all this difficulty needs to be understood in terms of Linux’s recent growth. In the last two years, I have seen Linux make tremendous jumps in usability:

In December 1998, I tried to installed a Red Hat version but could not even get it up to the text login prompt.

In November 1999 I tried Suse Linux 6.1, had to create a messy “swap partition” among other technical hurdles, but got it up to the text login prompt and was able to log into Linux for the first time.

In March 2000, I installed Suse Linux 6.4 with 6 easy CDs, it automatically installed all partitions, recognized my mouse and automatically displayed a Windows-like desktop.

In October 2000 I installed Suse Linux 7.0 with one DVD disk, it automatically recognized my mouse, sound card, graphics card, and after two weeks of the configuring described above, I have a usable system which for the first time compares to a Windows system. Quite an awesome two-year catch-up record!

Linux as up-and-coming graphic based desktop PC system

So far I have referred to “Linux” as a graphics based operating system for use as a personal desktop home PC. This is something that Linus Torvalds never intended it to be and something which Linux has been forced to be only in the last couple years. As a graphics desktop operating system, this “Linux” is actually a constellation of dozens of pieces of software and hardware components interacting together, all made by various companies or individuals. The disadvantage that Linux has now is that many companies (WACOM) have simply not had time or have not realized the market yet enough to create Linux drivers for their products. Give these companies a couple years to catch up and most of the problems I had with my Suse Linux 7.0 installation will vanish.

Linux as stable network server

Although Linux will eventually be a viable alternative to Windows as a PC desktop operating system, its power lies in that it is a stable, text-based Web server, file server and print server. Where Windows has simply added networking capability to a single-PC core, Linux is based on UNIX and is hence at its core a networking operating system. It does not have the .dll-conflict problems of Windows and it has an open text-based configuration architecture where Windows is hidden in proprietary code.

Linux is cost-effective

As soon as Linux hits a critical point of acceptance and standardization, its cost-effectiveness and scalability should make it irresistible to wide sections of the corporate community (e.g. companies who want to buy one $60 CD and install it on 100 or 1000 or 10,000 of their computers at no extra cost). The cost of hiring a team of Linux experts will be small in comparison to the license fees that companies would otherwise pay to Microsoft. Costs of upgrading and scalability will be negligible in comparison.

Learn to like Linux now

As a 21st century Web developer, you need to become familiar with Linux at some level. Linux is very different than Windows and will burn away many of your learning hours before you are productive with it. Yet Linux’s growth shows that it is on the way to becoming both the front and back office operating system of choice for many businesses, organizations, schools and individuals in the 21st century. If you are still a Windows-only Web developer, learn to like Linux now. You may actually like what you’re missing!

10/24 Using Tables for Web Site Layout
10/17 When Hardware Humbles: Advice for Freelance Web Developers
More of Edward's diaries

Edward Tanguay is a Web developer and language trainer based in Berlin. For more diaries and tips on development visit Edward's Web Developer Site.