Does Linux suck or is it lusers who suck?

Sam Varghese
Wednesday, 08 October 2008 06:37

Opinion and Analysis

It's important to note that ASUS beat everyone to the netbook market - and other competitors would love to pull back the little eeePC in order that their products can gain traction.

It is well known that the eeePC runs a modified version of the Xandros GNU/Linux distribution. And there has been no complaint from ASUS about the sales of this little gadget.

What better way to hit a competitor's sales than to suggest that his/her product comes with an operating system that is not exactly cutting it?

Why are the GNU/Linux netbooks being returned? Simply because the people who buy them are accustomed to using Windows and do not want to learn something better.

It's got nothing to do with the goodness or badness of Linux, the kernel, or the software that comes along with it to make up the distribution.

There is a certain class of user who likes to click his/her way around, say OK to all the pop-ups, periodically reboot, reformat their hard drive annually or biennially and reinstall.

This same category of user keeps the anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware crowd in business. Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky love this class of user.

In the Linux community, they are often referred to as lusers. They want Linux to be like Windows. And they whinge if it isn't.

Asking this category of user to adapt to GNU/Linux is something like asking a fan of Britney Spears' music (?) to appreciate the airs of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Basically, you are casting pearls before swine.