Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 16 September 2009, 9:23 AM
Voda avoiding Linux netbooks due to user confusion
David Pollington, the operator's head of consumer and internet technical research, said on Wednesday that netbooks — which originally came with Linux rather than Windows as their operating systems — had originally been intended as always-on web-browsing devices, but users had misinterpreted their purpose.
"Unfortunately, when the public got hold of these devices, they thought they were small PCs," Pollington told delegates at the Open Source In Mobile 09 conference in Amsterdam. "They took the Linux variant home and didn't understand why it couldnt connect to the printer, or why they couldn't watch internet video."
"We had a very high return rate on Linux netbooks," he added.
Asked by a delegate whether Vodafone would consider a shift back to Linux on the netbooks they supply in mobile broadband bundles, Pollington said operators needed to work out how to position netbooks as a defined segment, separate from larger and more powerful notebooks, or "users will continue to perceive netbooks as small laptops, in which case it will be very difficult to go back to Linux".
Linux has, however, continued to be popular on many netbooks sold directly from the manufacturer. According to representatives from Canonical, the sponsor company of Ubuntu, that Linux distribution is the preinstalled OS on around a third of the netbooks it sells, with a particularly high proportion of Linux-toting netbook sales in Asian markets.
PreviousComments on this post
This really goes to the heart of the matter, doesn't it? If consumers are buying netbooks (or anything else) with Linux loaded, under the impression that it is going to be identical to their Windows-based PC or Notebook, then they are likely to end up either disappointed or enlightened.
It would be interesting to know a bit more about the problems they had experienced. Why were the consumers not able to connect a printer to the LInux netbooks? I doubt that it would be a hardware issue (no parallel port or some such), because then they would have the exact same issue with a Windows netbook. I would be surprised if it were a software/driver issue, because I have connected a lot of printers to a lot of different Linux systems over the past couple of years, and I have not seen a single case of one not working. In most cases it is the same procedure as it is for Windows, you plug in the printer and either the operating system recognizes it by itself, knows what it is and how to handle it, and simply loads everything up; or it puts up a dialog and asks you to select the appropriate printer manufacturer and model. Canonical (Ubuntu) in particular is one of the best Linux distributions in terms of the breadth of printer support, so I would be very surprised if this were a general problem, unless the specific netbook installation has limited or no printer support for some reason. As I said, more information would be very interesting in this case.
The situation on "watch internet video" is similar, but obviously a lot more complex. The term itself covers a lot of territory, what do they consider "internet video"? Different sources, different formats, streaming or downloaded (not to mention playing DVD or Blueray disks), via media players or browsers, the variations and possibilities go on and on. In the end this is likely to come down to a question of how much additional software the Linux supplier (Canonical) and the OEM/distributor are willing to preload or make easily available on demand. Once again, more information about what the consumers were trying to do, and why it didn't work, would be very interesting here.
It seems to me that the underlying problem, though, is one of information and/or education, both of the consumer and the distributor. Linux is not Windows, and it never will be, so if that is the criteria for acceptance, the consumer is going to be disappointed. But Linux can do essentially everything Windows can do, and especially on netbooks it can generally do it better. The consumer needs to be willing and able to accept that the procedure for connecting printers, viewing video or whatever will initially be different than what they might have experienced on Windows, and the distributor needs to be prepared to either provide sufficient support to enable them to do that, or they need to clearly define their policies and procedures to say that these are in fact being sold as simple "always-on web browsing devices", in which case other activities will not be supported, regardless of whether they are sold with Linux or Windows.
jw
"They took the Linux variant home and didn't understand why it couldn't connect to the printer, or why they couldn't watch internet video."
Maybe if Vodafone chose a decent distro of Linux they wouldn't have this problem.
I mostly use Ubuntu Netbok Remix and Mint and have never had a problem with internet video.
Printers can be an issue particularly if its a fairly new model. It usually isn't too long before a driver becomes available though.
Vodafone's attitude sounds as if they haven't looked at Linux for about five years.
I have an HP MINI netbook, and I have no problem playing online videos. I also have an external, powered, USB, CD/DVD player for use at home. The netbook is running Mandriva 2009 one, and I hooked it up to an HP all in one printer, and it found, and set up the printer and scanner. But the reason I bought this netbook was for my wife while she is in the hospital taking chemo treatments. She can read the news, and email to her heart's content, with no problem. It came with Win XP, which was so slow to boot and start apps that I removed it the first day I got the machine. I was well aware that it was not a full laptop, but it will do everything I bought it for. Mine has the 16 gig SSD, so the speed increase I received from switching to Linux was significant, and my wife had no problem using Linux. If I had kept XP on it I would have had to install the printer from a disk, install antivirus software, a registry cleaner, malware remover, and adware remover. And, it still would not be as safe, or as secure as Linux. Many of the nurses, and doctors were impressed by the small footprint, the speed, and the 3D effects from Compiz-Fusion. Netbooks have their niche, and they are never going to replace a full blown laptop, for gaming, movie editing, or more memory demanding tasks. As Jamie pointed out,"Linux is not windows, and never will be." For these appliances it is better than windows, and less hassle.
Netbooks need to be supplied preconfigured with the flash plugin, a full set of cups printer drivers, and wireless driver, and a PDF or video clip explaining how to select the appropriate printer driver and how to configure wireless. It should also have an EeePC style "restore to factory supplied" by booting and tapping the F9 key. Vodaphone should also make it clear that what the customer is buying is Linux and not Windows when they sell the netbook, and explain that they are selling it as a closed appliance - ie. expansion/addition of peripherals (other than USB storage) and applications is possible but not supported by Vodaphone, and that they should only buy it if they do not want to expand it or add peripherals, or if they know how to use Linux.
If Vodaphone did their homework in this respect, then like Asus' EeePC, the Linux return rate would not be higher than the Windows return rate.
