What Are The Biggest Problems With Linux?

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 10 June 2012 at 10:40 AM EDT. 230 Comments
LINUX KERNEL
If you were asked what are the biggest problems with Linux, what would that be?

Sparked from a Phoronix Forums discussion with a thread entitled Help me help Linux, tell me about Linux problems, it's an interesting topic to think about. What are the biggest problems with Linux? Features missing from Linux but found on Windows and Mac OS X? Is it the lack of documentation? Some missing killer software? (Of course, to many enthusiasts, it would be not enough native Linux games, but let's ignore that for this discussion.) The lack of standardization between distributions? Poor device drivers? Etc.

The aforementioned thread was started because an under-graduate student needs to work on a project to help Linux that can be solved programmatically.

Along the same lines, if you were asked by a company what are the biggest problems facing Linux or where can a given company invest to fundamentally improve Linux and make it more attractive to the masses, what would your answer(s) be? When I was asked that question recently by a major company near Redmond that's looking to heavily invest in Linux, my response mainly came down to improving developer documentation (in hopes of attracting new developers for different areas that are currently not advancing fast enough) and devoting legal resources to clearing-up/circumventing some legal matters (e.g. S3TC texture compression by default within open-source GPU drivers).

So how do you think Linux can be made better? On a similar note, recently there was shared Reasons Why You Should Not Use FreeBSD and Why Should You Use FreeBSD?
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Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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