Linux users are frustrated by the lack of functionality
of open source desktop products, according to a major survey by the
Open Source Development Lab.
Members of the OSDL, which aims to boost the take up of Linux in
the enterprise, include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, CA, Intel, Novell and
NEC.
The Desktop Linux Client survey of 3,374 IT professionals,
conducted by the OSDL Desktop Linux Working Group, highlighted key
areas of Linux functionality that end-users want to see
improved.
Fifty per cent of those surveyed said the web browsers supplied
with Linux distributions were critical. Forty eight per cent said
browser plug-in support needed improving or was "severely
inhibiting" the use of Linux on the desktop.
Office productivity tools were deemed critical to the desktop
deployment of Linux by 51% of the survey's respondents, and a
further 31% said they were extremely important.
However, application support and end-user training were cited as
factors inhibiting the adoption of Linux.
More than 70% of those asked said application support needed to
be improved or was restricting what they could do. Some 27% of
respondents said the need for end-user training was severely
limiting their deployment of Linux desktops.
Desktop management was another area of concern, with 38% of
respondents looking for an improvement. In addition, 48% of those
surveyed felt that hardware support could be improved.
Claude Beullens, European director of the OSDL, highlighted
hardware support issues. "Not all USB devices have drivers
available for Linux," he said. This means it is not possible to
simply plug them into the PC and use them.
Another area that needs improving is printer support. Although
Linux offers generic printer support, Beullens said, "Printer
integration for the Linux desktop is not there yet."
In August, analyst firm Gartner suggested that few companies
were using desktop Linux and other open source software products
because the cost of migrating from Microsoft Windows was too
great.
Surveying users at its conferences in Europe and the US, Gartner
found that just 1% of enterprise IT users run any Linux desktops.
It also estimated that the proportion of enterprise users with some
Linux desktops would only increase to 3.2% by 2008.
Some public sector bodies have deployed desktop Linux. Bristol
Council has migrated 5,000 desktops from Microsoft Office to open
source application suite Staroffice. And Birmingham City Council is
trialling Linux desktops in its 40 libraries.
Reasons for deploying desktop Linux
The Open Source Development Lab survey revealed a range of
reasons for the deployment of Linux on the desktop. They
include:
- Employees requesting Linux
- Competitors successfully deploying Linux
- Total cost of ownership
- Reduced software licensing costs
- Security
- Source code availability (ability to customise)
- Corporate direction
- Unhappy with existing desktop operating system.
The OSDL said it was surprised by the top two results.
"Conventional wisdom suggests that Linux is initially adopted as a
developer tool but is generally not viewed as a competitive issue,"
the organisation said.
The results, it suggested, represented a cultural shift within
organisations to "stay aggressive" in analysing and deploying open
source software and to not be left behind.
"We also found it interesting that total cost of ownership and
the reduction of licensing costs, which are more economic than
technical benefits ranked higher than security," the OSDL said.
Critical applications for Linux roll-outs
The Open Source Development Lab survey highlighted the following
applications (listed in order) which were deemed most critical to
Linux desktop deployments:
- E-mail/messaging
- Office productivity tools such as text documents, spreadsheets,
and presentation software
- Browser
- Database applications
- Developer tools (editors, compilers, development environments,
etc)
- Applications specific to the business
- Internally developed applications
- Secure remote access/VPN
- Personal information manager
- Audio or video players.