| One-third of Japanese engineers willing switch to desktop Linux |
Jun. 15, 2006
I couldn't resist. The story I'm talking about today is titled, "Over a third of Japanese engineers won't use Linux on the desktop." Of course, what's funny about this is that it means almost a third would switch.
The author, who appears to be a Japanese engineer, puts himself into the category of those who probably wouldn't switch. That makes it even more amusing to me that he doesn't realize that a third of the population switching to the Linux desktop would be an earth-shaking revolution in office circles.
A closer look at the numbers he cites from the survey by japan.internet.com, in conjunction with JR Tokai Express Research, reveals that 33.6 percent would switch to Linux, while 26.7 percent don't know if they'd switch. Only 35.8 percent want to stick with Windows or Mac OS.
So, it seems that more than half of this group would at least consider moving to Linux. Interesting.
Why won't the hardcore Windows users switch? The majority of answers are very interesting.
Their number one reason was that Linux had few usable applications. Wow. What cave have these people been hiding in for the last few years?
I can't think of any office or engineering work, where there's not a Linux-compatible program out there that can do the job.
Next up was that Linux, actually the Linux office software, wasn't compatible with Microsoft Office formats. Ah. Actually OpenOffice.org and StarOffice do just fine with anything but complicated Microsoft Office documents.
In his account of the survey, the writer wrote, "there are a number of (needlessly, IMO) complex macro-based documents that we use, which, I hear, causes major problems for the free software alternatives."
Note, that word, "needlessly." He hit the nail on the head. While there are certainly some Excel spreadsheets that are both necessary and are based on complex macro schemes, the vast majority of macro-enabled documents aren't really that complicated and many of them don't need the macros in the first place.
One thing I find especially odd here is that this is an audience of engineers. How many macros can they need for their Word documents anyway? This isn't legal contract work!
Next on the list, and the last I'll bother with, is that they think Linux is too complicated to set up.
Wow.
I'll take installing OpenSUSE, Fedora, or Ubuntu over installing XP any day of the week. Once the basic install is done, there's really nothing very complicated about setting up any of these operating systems.
You know what I, see through all this? I see an audience that's actually ready to give the Linux desktop a try. I also see that even the people who don't want to try Linux are really responding from ignorance. They just really don't know what a modern Linux desktop and its applications are like.
I think it would be a good idea, not to send people like that copies of this column or other pro-Linux stories, but to take a Live CD or USB stick of one of the better, easy-to-use Linuxes and show them what Linux is like.
The only way we're really going to get people on board the Linux desktop is by putting one in their hands. You can tell them how great it is until you're blue in the face. They need to see it, to use it. Then, they'll understand that Linux is none of the things they feared it would be. Then, they'll see that that Linux really is a great, usable desktop for anyone and everyone -- including Japanese engineers.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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