Blasting the "Linux is difficult" myth to smithereens

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,2000061733,39187298,00.htm

Novice PC users more likely to embrace Linux

Munir Kotadia, ZDNet Australia
April 06, 2005

Linux advocates hoping to convert Windows users to the open source operating system are more likely to succeed with technophobes and very inexperienced computer users than with Windows power users.

In a report published by research and analysis firm Quocirca, entitled "Migrating to Linux on the Desktop", the company found not only was it a myth that you had to be a power user to cope with Linux, the complete opposite is true.

According to the report, as users become comfortable with an operating system and start customising it, they are far less likely to want to change.

(...)

The researchers' view is supported by Jon Oxer, president of Linux Australia, an organisation dedicated to the Australian Linux and open source community.

Oxer told ZDNet Australia that, for a novice computer user, there is virtually no difference in usability between Linux and Windows. However, he said there were difficulties associated with changing a user's applications.

[purr]

1. Linux is good...

Had a dual boot on my computer upstairs.. Step-Son crashed the computer really good and I lost everything :(

edit: spelling

[emulatorloo]

2. Windows lacks basic usability, so anything is pretty much better

Sadly Microsoft is good at marketing, strong arming competition, etc etc etc.

[aePrime]

3. It is hard to switch over

I had to dual boot for a year before I could fully go over to Linux. In the end, it took me just deciding to ditch Windows completely and force myself to use Linux.

The problem wasn't that I thought Windows was better, it was the frustration factor associated with any change in routine. You try to do something, and you think to yourself, "If I were using my old system I could do this in a matter of seconds!"

Thankfully, I made the switch 4 or 5 years ago. I will never go back. I do, however, also own a Mac, which kicks ass as well.

[SKKY]

4. Most people don't have the sack to do what aePrime did and just...

...ditch Windows, but I did about 4, almost 5 years ago (Redhat 5.2) and haven't looked back since. I doubt Linux will dent the desktop market here in the States much past, say, 20-25% or so, but in developing nations, it's going to be HUGE, HUGE I say.

[AntiCoup2K4]

5. The only reason I still keep Windows on my PC

Is for multimedia apps, specifically DVD burning. Linux will burn a data DVD just great with your standard K3B burning software, or a DVD image, but it doesn't do the formatting as of yet. Reportedly there are ways to do it all from the command line, but that's deep into geek territory there, even for me. (Took a Unix class a few years back but the knowledge was "use it or lose it" stuff and I didn't use it much at the time)

But then even CD burning was a joke under Linux less than 2 years ago, so I don't expect it to be too long before DVD's are completely do-able under Linux. Pretty much 95% of what most end users do with their desktops can be done on a Linux machine though, especially if they get a distribution like Xandros, which is so Windows compatible it repels the true Linux geeks.