Why more people don't use GNU/Linux: it's the apps, stupid

Sam Varghese
Saturday, 17 October 2009 12:14

Opinion and Analysis

If one were to pose the question why don't more people use GNU/Linux, one would probably get as many answers as people who are asked the question.
Some would say this, some would say that. Often, however, people tend to forget that right from the start of the personal computer industry, just one thing has driven adoption - killer applications.

Yes, there are illegal and unfair methods used to gain market share for operating systems but, to a large extent, killer applications are what count.

In its early days, the Mac was a massive hit because of VisiCalc, the original spreadsheet developed by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. And when Windows got something of an equivalent in Lotus 1-2-3, use of the PC increased by leaps and bounds. It made Lotus boss Mitch Kapor very rich too.

Nowadays, the chances of one's first exposure to computing being on a Windows computer are close to 100 percent. Your parents may be GNU/Linux or Mac users, but at school the first computer one is exposed is always running Windows.

Thus, it is but natural that one's first exposure to applications are on this platform too. And once one uses Windows applications, if one were to use an alternative platform, one would tend to make comparisons.

And finally, at the stage when a computer user can exercise choice with regard to applications - whether it be buying or copying from a friend or off the internet - then he or she would tend to pick applications with which they are comfortable, applications that make them productive no matter what the task.

iTunes has gained its massive following because it is an easy-to-use, well-designed sleek application. It runs on the two main operating systems.

Forget the instability of an operating system, the viruses, malware, scumware and adware; a race that can put up with smoke from a little white tube that reaches temperatures of as much as 950 degrees centigrade at the tip during inhalation can put up with all those inconveniences and much more.

My son recently upgraded his MacBook to Snow Leopard; there is an annoying bug in the upgrade that forces him to refresh his wireless connection every hour or so. But I've never seen him use any other computer in the house - and we have one Windows PC, two MacBooks and three Linux PCs. He's familiar with all three platforms but he is willing to put up with the annoyance of reconnecting every now and then as long as it's on the Mac.

People are willing to pay to get Windows re-installed, use Windows which has so much malware that it runs like thick treacle or molten tar, and even lose the occasional dollar from their online bank accounts. Once they're used to applications on a platform, as Robert X. Cringely once said, it would take an act of God or the Internal Revenue Service (or its equivalent, depending on your country of residence) to make the average human switch.

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