The extremely vocal desktop Linux tinority

By Stan Beer
Monday, 17 November 2008 10:54

Opinion and Analysis

Neither Ubuntu nor any other brand of Linux is ever going to make it as a mainstream desktop operating system. Listen to a roar of protests from some of the millions of Linux desktop users around the world. Very loud they are but in the scheme of things their numbers are tiny - they are a tinority.

From the outset, let me state that this article has nothing to do with the acknowledged significant market penetration of Linux as a server operating system, which is indisputable.

This tale is about a fantasy continually being perpetuated by a coterie of Linux hobbyists around the world who would have us believe that the "year of the Linux desktop" has arrived. Or is about to arrive. Or has been arriving for the past 10 years.

I admit that I allowed myself to be conned for a time by this tiny but raucous bunch of Linux techno-zealots who at every opportunity pour scorn on Microsoft and those of us stupid enough to use Windows.

Some years ago, my eyes lit up at the prospect of no longer having to pay for my software, including the operating system.

"Linux is free," the mantra went. "Not just free as in free beer but free as in freedom of choice, freedom to tinker, freedom to even build your own distribution if you like."

So I tried it. In 2006 I took the advice of a local Linux systems integrator and installed a version of Ubuntu on my PC. It worked OK, and after a good deal of tinkering I even managed to get wireless working.

"This is great," I thought to myself. "I'll never use Windows again!" How foolish of me.

Problems began to surface from day 1.

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