Unfortunately, while Szulik (Red Hat CEO) could have explained it a
lot better, his basic point that Windows is still a better choice than
Linux for most home users is, unfortunately, probably correct. This
has
nothing to do technically with Linux vs. Windows, though.
Fact is, I have more than a few computer-clueless friends and family.
Linux is far and away better than Windows, yes I think that's true.
But would I advise those particular friends and family to install
Linux? No. Why not?
Generally, your only real resource for answering your
questions and solving the problems that you really have are your peers
who have similar problems, and maybe know a little more about how to
solve them than you. Look at, say, my aunt and uncle in Florida.
Like it or not, their peers don't run Linux, they run Windows. So
counseling them to run Linux is to either sign myself up as their
personal Linux help desk, or consign them to the hell of never having
anyone to ask questions of at all.
Ironically, none of those home users want to have to deal
with all this computer administration nonsense, they've just been
forced to. It would be very nice if some service bureau
offered a low cost subscription service (say, $15/month) that would
really do a solid job of keeping your Linux desktop running,
automatically answering all your, "How do I open this MS Word
document?" questions, etc. Then I could just point people to that
service. I'd hoped AOL might eventually offer that, but now I guess
not. Maybe Lindows will become that, I dunno, I haven't been keeping
track.
