[SLL] Having things Just Work (was: Re: Linux Comes out on top...)

[Glenn Stone]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 11:26:33AM -0700, Bill Campbell wrote:
>Linux will only become a better choice for workstations when things Just
>Work(tm) without hassle over codecs, drivers, and general
>interroperability.  Linux is better today in most respects than Windows,
>but it has a long way to go to catch up with Apple for desktop applications
>for most users.

Here's a bullet point for having things Just Work:

Last Wednesday (IIRC) I watched the return of the Shuttle _Endeavour_ on
NASA TV.  I was using Firefox 2.0.12 on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.  The site asked
if I wanted to play the feed in an embedded player or standalone.  I chose
standalone, and hit play, and it said, "I don't have that codec.  Can I go
search for it?"  I said yes, and it popped up Adept and went and grabbed a
couple of packages (asking for the admin password as it did).  It retried,
and came up with the same prompt.  "Hmmmm, well, why not?"  Adept grabbed
two more packages (something like gstreamer-codecs-ugly was the deciding
package)... and then the session just started working!  I didn't even have
to restart Firefox.  Got to see the whole re-entry, live CapCom sound, the
whole nine yards.  And note that this was your basic .asx streaming Windows
Media feed.... not QuickTime or anything with a snowball's chance of being
non-proprietary.  

A number of other things will Just Work like that... more and more printers
Just Work when you plug them in... my Canon PowerShot A570IS, when I plugged
it in and fired up gtkam, it said, "I don't know what that camera is, but
it's talking PPTP," and Just Worked... 

I'm also sitting here with T-bird open pointed at an Exchange server, both
IMAP and LDAP work just fine, and the Lightning plugin allows me to track
meetings just as if I was using Lookout.  Well, OK.  It's not 100%.  But it
works well enough that you won't miss meetings.  

Our payroll maven swears that the third-party payroll timesheet website only
works right with IE.  I have yet to lay my hands on a Windows box since I've
been here, and it'll have been a month at the end of the week.  I'm getting
paid. :)  

There are some minor pain points where Linux doesn't quite work 100%.  But
it's awfully close.  The kernel boys have done a lot with wi-fi and media
handling, and GNOME, KDE, Canonical, and Red Hat have done a bunch with
making the desktop itself Do The Right Thing... I keep getting surprised
that I don't have to go tweak stuff.  I think the biggest surprise so far
was that NASA session - I totally expected that to be made of Epic Fail,
given that it was a streaming session rather than a downloadable (which I've
been able to watch for years now).  But it didn't, and what's more, I didn't
have to restart the browser, much less the OS.... IMNASHO that was a
*superior* user experience to the usual restart-reboot-pray dance one has
become so inured to (or not) on the Other Platform.  Yes, it had to look
twice.  But no restart?  For the win.  

-- Glenn
YMMV, IANAL, EIEIO