Whats preventing me from using this OS in Corp IT

General Discussion
1

Hi,
I like this OS direction, the installation gave me trouble not installing correctly, restarting ect to a Dell Latitude 7x80 model, but was able to get it done. Was NOT as easy as Ubuntu, at all… Im sure this will get better with version 2.x or greater.

However from a corporate side, it has its downsides that prevent my company from moving forward with it. I will explain some below, to help this community, as I to even would like to move to this personally, but not in its current state, not yet, with version 2.

Problems from Corp side use

  1. I cant add any packages via a GUI, or add easily via command prompts, without massive work or hacks.
    I tried with Google chrome, downloaded from the web, in both RPM and DEB format.
    Failed to install.

It really should be, If I have an RPM or DEB file or other types like an exe and I install at my own risk to the operating system. One thing MS has done since 95, that other OS’s have not, is backwards compatibility to files from the 1990’s with Win32 or emulated use.

If I install a program it should be up to me as the administrator of the system. This is more so critical of antivirus or any protection programs that are available for Linux, that our company wants/ requires to include to the system. Since this “Clear OS” is platform based, this makes it difficult to cut to.

My company is not small, being up there with Boeing for size.

  1. critical - One item Linux in general lacks, with all distributions is - NO enterprise support for easily integrating with Microsoft Active directory, or other platforms.
    I dont know why this has never been done, aside from a few side packages, in Linux in general.

Windows AD integration seems like a no-brainer with all the AD servers and use out there.
Keep it an add-on, but please for the love of Linux, add support via GUI.
This is not a hard request, and is a reason Linux is a 5% share.

I know the purest cring, but this is the business world - Microsoft rules the business world to a large degree for alot of business location, not home use.

It should be able in a GUI, choose my platform of use, and add to ANY network group, folder, work-group etc, be it AD, or other types, without needs of other packages, or hacks to make it work OR the CLI. Make it work like Windows for dumb users.

  1. lack of office support, or document use.
    Thankfully there is Libra office, but this has it lacking of real support to export to MS formats, and PDF, that the business world requires.

  2. lack of hardware drivers, for hardware like nvidia, or Intel, or AMD, with a basic accelerated graphics or other types of hardware ie like sound cards, joysticks, etc.
    Linux, in general should take a clue from MS. Include drivers, for a wide range of hardware, so that its plug and play. this limited hardware library has crippled Linux since I first wanted to take a stab at transferring OS in 2000.

  3. Lack of a Enterprise software based management system, built in, or buy-able from Linux or “Intel” with this Clear OS flavor, to manage 50,000 machines. when I need to manage individual machine packages, installations, reporting, updates, etc.

Currently I would have to look at landscape or other 3rd party, rather than all in house.
This is again where MS shines.

  • If I want AD, I buy, from MS a software title to do so.
  • If I want to create ISO with a customized business OS with my business customization I can easily use SCCM, or MDT
  • If I want to, manage 100K machine as an Enterprise, I can use SCCM for everything…
    Which give me a per machine client to get individual details.

There are other things, that could be changed to be better business suited, but these are the main.
Linux wants to be a bigger share, but is a shoe string of an operating system solution, vs the other guys, like Microsoft, or Mac. If you want more, then you have to develop more than just a CLI operating system.

Humans are dumb, and they use the easiest platform. IF its all CLI, or needs root for everything, then its too hard. This and other manufacturer development for that Operating System is important, ie Adobe, or similar products.

Thanks
My 2c from a IT Lead, supporting 100K machines of all type OS.

1 Like
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You can’t use yum, apt or dnf because they would destroy clearlinux.

However, you can do this with the chrome rpm:

rpm2cpio $chrome.rpm | ( cd /; sudo cpio -idv)

This essentially treats the chrome RPM as a tarball and just extracts it. This will work and give you a working Chrome browser including icon in the menus.

3 Likes
3

In general, I understand and recognize the things you ask for. For a very large shop, we would likely not be able to build something that covers all your needs anyway, so we’d be making something that would always disappoint.

For this very reason we created mixer. And, for a very large deployment in an enterprise environment, this would allow you to do all the things you would want to do with clearlinux, such as adding authentication protocols and custom software, and make your own OS images. You would be able to tap into the stream of updates we provide, and overlay your own version of clearlinux with custom additions, modifications or even remove features you don’t want or need.

5 Likes
4

I see a great potential to CL, though I totally agree that installing needed software is a must if your aim
is to make CL popular and a contributor to Intel’s new “diversity” philosophy.
Can you please give a detailed example on how to install an external package using CL tools.
Let’s say Google-Chrome or Remmina RDP.

Thanks.
Avi

1 Like
5

Hi there,
We are in the process of re-evaluating how to best add in 3rd party content. If you have specific applications that would benefit others, please request on Gituhub or through the mailing list, that a bundle be created. For example, for Remmina that’s already been done, and you can install it with swupd:

$ sudo swupd search remmina
Bundle with the best search result:
         Remmina                            - Remote desktop that supports VNC, NX, XDMCP, SPICE, and SSH protocols.  (59MB) (installed)

This bundle can be installed with:

      swupd bundle-add  Remmina

Rgds,
Chris

3 Likes
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Hi @pixelgeek. Has there been any further progress on providing more streamlined ways of adding 3rd party content? I’m really loving clear but I think this is holding back adoption and I don’t really love having to work around things like Chrome and ADB.

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Isn’t Gnome Software there for this reason? It installs all packages I need with a GUI, perhaps I am misunderstanding.

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Hi @pceiley, I don’t know if you saw William’s post on this topic in the thread - I cant figure out if I'm welcome or not - #30 by william.douglas. The code is there, so please experiment with it and let us know if you find problems or have suggestions. We are working on some documentation to go along with this to publish on the website, and we hope to have that available by the end of June.

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@lf_araujo Yes, ideally all the software needed would be available natively as a bundle or installable by flatpak. There are some software packages that for reasons (legal, licensing or maybe just because it’s no longer supported) that we don’t distribute, and users that have custom requirements which they want to control in their own infrastructure.

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Thanks, I missed this thread!