Linux For The Masses - Case Study

This article documents my experiences converting a non-technical family from being Microsoft windows users to Linux users. It summarizes the environment which was set up and the issues encountered along the way. Some of these issues may be worth addressing in future versions of Linux distributions. The distribution used was Fedora Core. The project was started in December 2003 and is continuing at the time of this writing, August 2005.

The goal of the study was to see how well Linux Technology could meet the needs of the average non-techie. If we are ever going to make serious inroads into the Microsoft Windows user base we need to handle the average user with minimal customization. As Microsoft tightens their usage controls, people are going to start to look for something else. Linux needs to be ready to fill that need.

Background

The family in this exercise is a professional skating coach and her three very athletic daughters. The husband is away on business much of the time and the girls are left to fend for themselves. My son and I skated for this coach and my son skated competitively with one of the coaches daughters. I provide technical support for the skating club and do the sound editing for the freestyle music. I also do the digital video editing to turn the tapes made at major contests into DVD's. I am a software engineer for Lucent Technologies with over 28 years experience on mainframes, various flavors of UNIX, and windows machines.

The family members are pure end users. They have no interest in any sort of system administration and really could care less how the machine works. The girls primarily use instant messaging to talk to their friends, they do some homework using word and occasionally powerpoint, they occasionally play games, and they surf the web. They do almost no email. I taught them to burn music CD's and one of the girls does this on occasion.

The coach/mom does internet shopping, lots of email, and likes to play games. She also used Microsoft money to manage her checkbooks (sporadically) and wrote up some invoice forms for her husbands work with Microsoft Publisher. She has loaded assorted calendar making and address book applications.

First Fedora Machine

In December, 2003 I built a PC out of spare parts and loaded it with Fedora Core 1, which was current at that time and presented the machine as a Christmas present. There was a CDROM and speakers, but no printer and no burner. It was on a LAN connected to a Netgear router connected to a cable modem. There were two other computers in their computer room at that time. One was a Dell running windows ME and the other a home built machine running Windows 98se. They were suspicious of having to learn a new machine, but since there were 4 of them and 2 computers, It was worth while to learn the new machine. I was around now and then to answer questions. Accounts for each person were set up. I kept the root password to myself.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• "Why do I have to Log On?" was the first question. Your login is like having your own machine. Your sisters cannot mess with your stuff.
   
• Each girl could set the background to whatever they wanted and it would stay that way for them.
   
• Gaim looked enough like AIM that they transition back and forth was easy.
   
• Popup blocking and resistance to trojans and viruses was a big plus. I would get called over to run Adaware and Spybot and Hijack this on a regular basis for the Windows boxes.
   
• Printing setup to the machine with windows using the config printers dialog worked well. FC1 was told it was an SMB printer and it this worked well. I did have to instruct them that in order to print from the Fedora machine, the machine that was actually attached to the printer had to be turned on. I had to tell them that was just the way it was.
   
• The address book from Netscape on the windows machine exported and imported to Mozilla just fine.
   
• I was able to add a cron job to email me the external IP address for the machine if it ever changed and set up port forwarding and the /etc/hosts.allow file to allow my home and work boxes to ssh in. This allowed me to do maintenance on the box and use VNC to bring up any of the tree machines screens. This aided in doing phone support greatly.
   

Overall, the basic functionality in the new FC1 was easy for the users to learn.

The Bad

• From a fresh install, the browser needs to have Acrobat reader, Flash Player, and Java installed. I also had to search the mailing list archives to find what rpm's were needed to play the various Windows formats, wmv, etc.
   
• Because of the licensing restrictions, xmms-mp3 had to be installed separately.
   
• Mplayer had to be associated with the various video formats in Mozilla by hand on per user basis. Also Open Office functionality had to be associated with various file types by hand, for example: Microsoft Powerpoint Slide shows had to be associated with open office.
   

There are a fair number of customizations that have to be set up by an experienced person to make the machine comfortable for a windows user. Some of these interactions should be placed in the post install scripts in the RPM's for some of the products. If Mozilla/Firefox sees you have open office, it could default these associations or if Open Office sees the browser, it could make those associations during install.

The Ugly

• After installing java, you have to make a series of soft links from the plugins directory in Mozilla to the shared objects in the plugins directory in Java, acrobat and flash player. Similar to:
  libflashplayer.so
  libjavaplugin_oji.so -> /opt/j2sdk_nb/j2sdk1.4.2/jre/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
  nppdf.so -> /usr/local/Acrobat5/Browsers/intellinux/nppdf.so
  The libflashplayer.so file was copied in by the flashplayerinstall.
   
  When yum, which was set to autoupdate, updated either java or Mozilla, these links would all break and I would get a call that the domino's program on Yahoo no longer worked. This autobreak feature is a bother.
   

Normal automatic updates should not break functionality. Either the plugins between programs should be placed in a location whose name does not change with every release, or the install scripts in the rpm should try to repair the links. This second approach would need to be done in Mozilla/Firefox.

Windows 98 to Fedora Core 3 dual boot

Windows machines accrue trojan horses over time. Being careful will slow down the polution by trojans. Letting teenagers use the machine will speed up the polution. Eventually the machine becomes unusable. You turn the machine on and it begins popping up several advertisements per minute even if you don't have the browser up. The first few times it was challenging to run AdAware and Spybot and then ferret out the remaining trojans with HiJack This (Love that icon). This gets old fast.

The stability of Linux made it popular among the three machines. Didn't crash, didn't hang, just kept working. Most homework was still done using MS Word on the Windows machines. When the Windows 98 machine got to be unusable, I was asked if I could make it run Fedora and windows. This machine has an HP PSC 1350 attached to it and has a CD burner.

I reloaded windows and loaded Fedora Core 3, which was current. This was in March 2005. The default boot was Fedora with Grub allowing windows to boot as needed.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• K3B took over running the CD burner. The daughter who actually made CD's found it easy to use as it's interface was similar to Easy CD Creator.
   
• Grub detected the Windows install, which I laid down in partition 1, and did all the correct setup. All I had to do was change the title in grub.conf from "other" to "Windows".
   
• The HP printer drivers ran the printer just fine. I was able to export the printer as a CUPS printer for the first Fedora Machine and export the printer using Samba for the remaining windows machine.
   
• X.org has the VNC display:0 support, so I could VNC to any node when they had trouble.
   
• Microsoft money had been run on this machine. I was able to export the money data to QIF format and import it into GNU Cash. GNU Cash was a suitable replacement for MS Money.
   

The Bad

• The printer drivers would allow me to configure the PSC 1350 as either a printer or a scanner, but not both. I chose printer and you have to boot Windows to use the scanner function.
   

The Ugly

• The same issues with the first machine plague the second machine.
   

Windows ME to Fedora Core 4 dual boot

By August 2005, the last windows machine was unusable and largely unfixable. Ads started popping up about 1 every 8 seconds from the time it was switched on. If you pulled the NIC cable or turned on the ZoneAlarm lock down, the machine got real sluggish as TCP requests timed out. One of the trojans must have had stored ads to use since it kept putting up ads now and then even with no connection.

I was asked to make this one dual boot also. I use the same technique and laid down a fresh windows install followed by a Fedora Core 4. Fedora was now the default OS on all three systems.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• Open Office was now getting used for homework and other things judging by the questions I was being asked. For normal homework, it did a fine job.
   
• The power of Linux seems to be sinking in. I was requested to 'fix' it so the coach could receive email on any machine and have it go to the same set of folders.
   

The Bad

• The coach/mom had done invoices using Microsoft Publisher. Unfortunately, there appears to be nothing that can read .pub files and convert them to something normal. The basic invoices had to be rebuilt using Open Office.
   
• Open Office has an "Extras" site with an assortment of nice templates. There is no obvious way of automatically integrating them with the existing structure so that they show up in the File->New->Templates.
   
• Another coach sent music files to use for one club members routines. He sent them as WMA format. Coach calls, "How come I cannot play these files." A quick web search shows mplayer can play them if you have load the Windows codecs, which I had. I adjusted the /usr/share/applications/defaults.list to make mplayer the choice for .wma files and they played. Since there was no video, there was no screen and no way to stop the music if you wanted to stop it.
   

The Ugly

• The same issues with the first machine plague the third machine. If my machine, which is updated my running Yum from a command window picks up a new Firefox release, I have to go check the links on the three nodes.
   

Upgrade FC1 to FC4

Before switching to one home directory, it was desirable to be using the same email client on all three machines. This meant upgrading the FC1 machine to FC4. That was the cleanest fix. Brought the machine home and tried to do an upgrade. OK, the CDROM had died, so I got a new one which also happened to play dvd's. The upgrade from FC1 to FC4 worked correctly. Kudos to the architechs of the upgrade procedure. I used my notes to setup Java plugins, Acrobat Reader, flashplayer, and mplayer quickly. In some cases, I just grabbed the config files from my FC4 machine. I added Xine for the DVD's and updated the notes to cover the issues with RPM's conflicting from the fr repos and the livna repos. This was done 9/18/2005.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• The upgrade mode install ran smoothly. That saves a lot of reconfiguration.
   
• The notes from previous experience made short work of getting access to basic file types up and running.
   
• Thunderbird and Firefox picked up the mozilla settings.
   
• Changed the coach's home directory on the two of the machines to point to the machine which stays on and it seems to be working as desired.
   

The Bad

• This is a nit pick. I have to remember to go back and clear out the .mozilla directory as there are serveral hundered meg of mail files which are now duplicated in Thunderbird. I should actually get rid of the Thunderbird copies on all but the machine having the real home directory. I don't know if Thunderbird uses full paths. If so, I will need to make the directory in /home be a soft link to /net/machine/home/user on the machine which will actually host the home.
   

The Ugly

• This conversion had no ugly unless you want to count dinking around with the conflicting mplayer RPM's and having to grab /usr/lib/win32 from another machine since I could not remember where I got these.
   

Revert FC3 to Windows

The need arose to run 2 Windows programs which do not run properly under Wine. One is PrintMaster, the other a music editing program. The programs were purchased by a coach who visits from California and wants to be able to access the same programs at home and while visiting.

In addition, the coach bought a new LCD monitor for the machine, which when used with the Prophet 4500 card in the machine does not want to work under Linux. Kudzu did not help, the monitor complains about frequency out of range. The machine can be accessed via VNC or ssh. Further experimentation with manual manipulation of the frequencies could fix the problem. That would require spending time on site to see the results of the changes. The result was that the default boot on one FC3 machine was changed to Windows.

Upgrade to FC6

With the retirement of FC4, I upgraded via DVD upgrade from FC4 to FC6. The upgrade went pretty smooth.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

• The upgrade mode install ran smoothly. That saves a lot of reconfiguration. It took overnight. This was consistent with my other FC4->FC6 upgrades. A fresh install came up in less than an hour.
   
• The coach was able to pick up an use her email right off the bat.
   

The Bad

• I had to go through and manually clean up a bunch of FC4 specific RPM's and a few duplicate packages.
   

The Ugly

• The VNC module in the X.org server does not seem to work correctly. On a fresh install the "Modules" section is ommitted. If you build it by hand, VNC to the local screen will work but corrupts the display. This makes remote assistance cumbersome.
   

Ongoing Maintenance

1. All the machines are set up with nightly yum update turned on. This minimizes how often the machines have to be inspected. It does not eliminate the need for a sysadmin to look things over. I have found that it helps to periodically log in and run "yum update" and make sure it works. Recently I did this and got errors:

   error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm
   error: cannot open Packages index using db3 -  (-30978)
   error: db4 error(-30978) from dbenv->open: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
   no packages
   rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery
   

   The commands "rpm --rebuilddb" and "rpm --initdb" both errored out with the same errors. After a google search I ended up going into /var/lib/rpm and running the commands:
   rm __db*
   rpm -vv --rebuilddb
   The yum update then worked fine. Exactly what went wrong, hard to say. There was nothing interesting in the /var/log files.

   The point here is that even a Linux system cannnot just sit and take care of itself forever. It can tie its shorts into a knot and ends up needing help. In this case the machine would have kept running but not picked any security updates. Windows machines are of course no better off.
    
   

2. For some unknown reason, the coach's Gnome desktop would deteriorate. The quickstart buttons would go away leaving an empty panel, nautilus would abort, and the machine would become unusable. I reset the account back to the defaults, hopefully that and ongoing updates will resolve the problem.

What's Next

Since this is an experiment on live users, there is no conclusion to the experiment.

I am experimenting with my own FC4 machine to get Broderbund "The Print Shop" running under wine. It runs ok, but I have not worked out how to print yet to a remote printer. I may try the same thing with "Print Master."

The coach keeps getting files sent which were created using Microsoft Works (.wps files). I found refernce to a converter which could be run under wine, but have not found it yet.

I recently read an article which says that firefox will find plugins in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. I am copying the plugins and links to from the firefox plugins to this location and will see what happens next time firefox changes.

Conclusions

• Linux/Fedora can supply the functionality that the end user needs once it is set up. It can do this more reliably than Windows.
   
• The application interface for the Linux end user tools (office, k3b, games, etc.) is similar enough to the windows interface to make the transition relatively painless.
   
• In it's current state, Fedora needs a technically savvy person to get it set up to a state that the end user can do things. Many of the issues revolve around licensing issues, such as the installs of xmms-mp3 and k3b-mp3. Some of the Firefox plugin issues fall into this category.
   
• A tool, similar in concept to the wine-tools, would be useful in the distribution. It would have options like "use MP3 format files", and if selected would add the livna repo's and check if k3b, xmms, and others with -mp3 versions were installed. If so, it would yum down the mp3 versions of these RPM's. The same would be true for enabling Java in the browser. Nothing I did could not be done by an automated tool.
   
• Non-technical users need a support structure to use their Linux machines effectively. I suspect this is mostly true if one is migrating the users away from Windows. If they know how to do something in windows, it is easier to switch back than to go through the learning curve on Linux. The question remains, what do the non-technical Windows users do when they get stuck? I suspect they either thrash around till they get something to work or just give up. I do not have good data on this and don't see how to get it. As Dr. Heisenberg discovered, measuring things affects the object being measured.
   
• It is possible that some of the procedures used could have been done better. "How do I" requests I got were often things I don't do often so I researched the issue to supply an answer.
   

Questions and comments are welcome.

Last Maintained, 01/05/2007 by R. E. Styma