Is Linux Truly Innovative?

As someone who has been on the fence concerning this question. I thought I would comment a bit to see if I could ruffle any feathers or opinions out there. I’m sure we have all read the typicle articles about Linux being simply an immitation of Windows. If Linux didn’t or should I say certain distros didn’t find that a reasonable charge then why is it that we see so much of Windows immitated. I certainly think there is enough work to clean up any issues there is currently in Linux rather than making sure when the new Windows converts come in they feel at home.

I have just began my Comp Science degree after being a sysadmin in the Windows world. Let’s just say it is somewhat of a distraction making sure I’m focused on the “future”. I know Windows has it’s share of jokes with the maleware and spyware but everytime I go back to my Windows Vista Thinkpad from my Linux learning I really have a hard time seeing how some are saying “Linux has somehow defeated Windows and Vista/Windows is done, is garbage blah blah blah”. I mean the experience I get is somewhat seemless, you know the experience some have claimed Linux has arrived at. Believe me I wish it were true but it is not. Windows seems to be the mature stable polished system that Linux is only immitating and may I say the immitation is probably about ten years behind. Just two examples when I settled in on Ubuntu since the other distros needed more tinkering on every install. I upgraded and did a fresh install with Gutsy only to find that the flash plugin was broken. Oh you could fix it fairly easily but the point being that it seems that if you follow even a stable distro that as kernel upgrades happen and other packages upgrade in newer distros things that worked very well suddenly start to unravel. The next item was the terminals. I liked using since the command line was one of the main draws for me. Suddenly because of some kernel “fixes” I was back to no consoles or very ugly unframebuffered consoles with text on multiple lines to spell a word. The excuse for this was that framebuffers have always been buggy and will no longer be loaded by default. Now before you try and debunk my expectations these items worked without a hitch on the same hardware on the older version of the distro.

Now I know Microsoft is far from perfect but the fact that they are a business does allow for a system of accountability at the very least. But some of the so called awesome opensource support forums are quick to tell novice Windows converts “go back to Windows if you don’t like it” or the classic “submit a patch”

I guess the point is the supposed  superior distributed development has it’s sticky areas. There are some projects that just fade away god forbid you counted on the app for a business. I just think it is a shame to stick our heads in the sand and not recognize the obvious flaws of the so called superior development model.

What I think could work is for a vendor to bring together all the best of the open-source world sell the OS and stand behind it. Until then the Ubuntu’s and RedHat’s will have their cake and eat it to. “Oh the community will get around to that in the next release” Or “Microsoft won’t give us their source code so we can give you those features” HaHa.

Most of this is just me thinking out loud and ranting. I’m sure I’ll continue to learn Linux and OS programming on Linux since that is really a plus on the open-source side of the equation.

Thanks

Joe