With GNU/Linux, however, the story is different. For over a decade, columnists and bloggers have been explaining how GNU/Linux isn’t ready for the desktop — and, despite all the progress in the operating system over the last ten years, the arguments haven’t changed much. Moreover, increasingly, they’re outdated when they’re not based on complete ignorance. In fact, I often get the impression that those who pontificate on GNU/Linux’s inadequacies have never tried it.

The article is nice reading, but Bruce however makes some pretty strange suggestions while busting these myths, like suggesting GIMP as a replacement for PhotoShop, while the former doesn’t even support CMYK color pallette which is a real blocker for most imaging professionals. Bruce also writes that no Windows “migration tools exists”, while the popular Ubuntu distribution actually has one integrated to the installation process.

Anyway read and judge for yourself – this is always a fertile topic to debate about:

The GNU/Linux Desktop: Nine Myths

Using JkDefrag

JKDefrag is an open source Windows disk defragmentation tool. It uses the Microsoft Windows native defragmentation API, so it should be as safe as the Windows defragmenter. It is very easy to use, fast and efficient tool for recovering your hard drive performance.

JKDefrag comes as a ZIP archive, containing a number of non-installable files, which are various editions of the software:

• JkDefrag.exe – this is the normal Windows version. Execute it and it will start defragmenting your drives right away.
• JkDefragCmd.exe – this is a command line version, which you can use in scripts and such (usually applies only to system administrators and other advanced users).
• JkDefragScreenSaver.scr + JkDefragScreenSaver.exe – These are a screensaver version of the JKDefrag. Copy them to your Windows folder and set as screensaver, if you wish JKDefrag to work on your disk every time the screensaver is activated. In most cases I would not recommend this method though, as hard drives do not typically fragment so fast that you would need to process them daily. Once a month or so should be quite enough.

Installation and usage could not be more simple. Just extract the .ZIP file and launch JkDefrag.exe. It is however wise to review your hard drive content before processing – empty your trashcan, delete unused files and folders before defragmenting the drive.  This will free up space and make the defragmenting more efficient and the process faster.

Using PageDefrag

PageDefrag is a freeware tool originally developed by SysInternals, but now seems to be owned by Microsoft. It supports Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003, but no Vista support is mentioned on the Microsoft website. PageDefrag perform additional optimization by defragmenting Windows system files, the paging file and registry files. Such defragmentation cannot be performed online, so it must be done during system boot.

PageDefrag comes as a ZIP file that contains a non-installable .exe file. Extract it to any folder and launch pagedfrg.exe. Using PageDefrag is very simple – it has a single dialog where you can set PageDefrag to perform optimization on next system boot, or optinally on every system boot. After making your choice, click OK and reboot your PC.

Final words

After performing these two steps you have performed a thorough Windows drive defragmentation for your PC, using only free software. Run JKDefrag and PageDefrag every now and then (once a month, or every two months – depening on your PC usage) to keep you hard drive performing at it’s best.

To be honest for some time I have been bugged by Ubuntu and Canonical. They managed to get significant user base and the most recent wave of desktop Linux hype is greatly due to Ubuntu’s success. They put a lot of effort in productization of Debian into a end-user friendly desktop environment, but in my opinion they do a half-ass job. While Ubuntu is very good and a solid platform, they have chosen not to polish the user interface and desktop environment at all. Their plain vanilla Gnome configuration combined with the brown/orange theme is anything but appealing.

So if Ubuntu is not willing to finalize their desktop properly, then others have to do it for them. LinuxMint is a fine example of Ubuntu based distribution that brings the initial user experience to a whole new level. And now gOS is doing the same, while aiming for commercial success via the deal with Everex that is producing the budged PCs that come with gOS pre-installed. I briefly tested gOS 1.0 when it first appeared and now it was time to check out their gOS v2.0 Rocket beta version.

As said, under the hood the gOS is Ubuntu v7.10 Gutsy, but with a new green Enlightenment desktop. It is quite a flashy theme, with a lot of similarities to Apple’s OSX. Unlike in any other operating system, the gOS promotes the web services by Google, even though they say they are not affiliated with them. The task bar includes Gmail, Blogger, Google Documents, just to name a few. Unfortunately the icons on the task bar are just links to websites and the integration does not go any further. There is also a large Google search gadget on the desktop.

The gOS v2.0 Rocket is in beta stage, and it certainly shows. Some icons in the notification area are broken (example: Pidgin instant messenger). I tried it on two computers, and on the other one the desktop froze every time after 5-10 seconds of usage (IBM ThinkPad X23, which runs Ubuntu just fine). Clicking the WLAN icon for network configuration in LiveCD mode caused Enlightenment to crash. It does work after installing, but once clicked it shows a rather awful user interface not skinned for gOS theme – certainly not newbie friendly. We also experienced more or less random Enlightenment crashes a few times, so there are some stability issues to solve.

I would see that gOS is a good fit for a net cafe or a public similar web client. A lot of stuff is inconveniently hidden and popular web services are brought up to the task bar. At first sight the Enlightenment look good and provides good visuals even without 3D acceleration, but honestly I don’t find it a very usable desktop environment. I have also tried the eLive distribution and came to the same conclusion. I actually wonder why they chose Enlightenment, as it is still in development stage, since they could have done the Mac OSX imitation with just about any desktop environment. In my opinion the Brasilian DreamLinux has done a similar desktop experience with much better results in their Debian based distribution using the resource friendly XFCE desktop environment.

So overall I don’t quite see gOS living up to the hype. Majority of the development credit goes to Ubuntu, while these guys are just giving it the finishing touches. On the other hand we must give gOS a lot of praise for bringing Linux for the average people, and raising the recent hype around Linux even futher. Budget PCs may finally be the break that Linux needs in order to become main stream. Go go gOS, and best of luck and success for the 2008!