Linux and the average PC user
Following up on the preceding post, I’d like to point out Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ ZDNet post, The state of Linux – Is it ready for the “average” user? He concludes that it is easy enough and probably worthwhile for many PC users to give Linux a try. He also concludes:
That said, I don’t think that Linux will go mainstream any time soon. Why? Because it takes big bucks to swing user opinion and a community-driven project doesn’t have access to the millions of dollars that a campaign like that needs.
Irrespective of the virtues of Linux, it’s hard for it to compete with an entrenched and very wealthy monopoly.
Added later: At PC World, Neil McAllister asks, Has Desktop Linux Missed its Opportunity?. The article gives a detailed analysis of why Linux is not being adopted by business in spite of its virtues. It says:
The issue isn’t whether Linux is “ready for prime time.” Modern desktop-centric Linux distributions — including Mandriva, Novell Suse, Ubuntu, and Xandros — have made impressive strides in aesthetics, usability, management, and hardware support. Major hardware manufacturers ship systems with Linux pre-installed, and Dell reports that customer satisfaction rates are just as high for the Linux models of its Inspiron Mini 9 netbooks as for the Windows models. Today’s Linux really is reliable, polished, and full-featured enough for mainstream desktop use.
But then McAllister goes over the factors that keep businesses from adopting Linux. However, he concludes that Linux may yet have a place in devices other than the traditional desktop.
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