i also can name plenty of obscurish bands that oughta be more well liked for all kinds of reasons. but I think we can agree that mostly people like things that are likeable – it’s almost (but not quite) a solipsism. And Linux itself is only very recently likeable as a desktop. People need time to see their friends doing things with it that they can’t already easily do with their default OS.

On the one hand, there is a certain degree of truth to what you say, but I can name five or six talented bands that are virtually unknown. They are awesome (both performance-wise and recording-wise). I also don’t know if the music analogy translates over fully. People are used to discovering new bands and, in fact, get sick of listening to the same music (even if they love it). They are not, however, used to switching operating systems on a regular basis.

On the other hand, the Linux community does tend to like to make excuses for itself. A lot of obstacles to adoption have to do with lack of familiarity of distrust of the new. There are, nevertheless, many simple things Windows and Mac OS X provide for the end user that Linux does not (not taking forever to load a folder with 10,000 music files in it, for example).

I think the idea that anybody needs to debate anybody into liking an OS is one of the problems the community has always had, and it contributes to this sort of Alpha Geek stereotype of GNU/Linux users. I think if we just use our computers to do awesome things, people will eventually want to be part of that. I use an eee pc. I’m constantly getting questions about it. That is a Linux product that people are interested in because they get what is awesome about it.

The desktop is just now reaching the point where you can fairly say that it offers the “awesome” experience. We don’t use any other OS at home (I’m stuck with XP at work). When geek friends come over to my house, they are amazed at the ridiculous things I can do with my home network without being tied to any commercial software. That’s a very tiny example of ambassadorship – but I think those little interactions impress future users the most.

You have to do more than argue around it. It’s kind of like sexism or racism in the workplace. There is a certain blatant type of sexism or racism that law can, and should, eradicate. Beyond that, there is the lingering cultural effect of male dominance/ white privilege. The old saying is that a woman or black person in a senior or executive position deserves more praise than their white male counterpart because they had to work twice as hard to get there.

so it is with linux. there is a certain type of anti-competitive activity that the law can, and should, eradicate. beyond that, the lingering effects of market dominance can only be undone with a mixture of good fortune and hard work.