Over the past year, they’ve all converted to macs, and I only hear from them asking “Hey, can I do _____”, or “How do I”, and I pop on a screenshare with iChat (which yes, just works), show them, they’re happy and that’s it.

I know no OS is perfect, but for me, after 25 years of windows, OS X is nirvana.

HDMI? Graphics Drivers? Non standard resolutions?

How about being able to legally play all multimedia formats and DVDs without breaking any laws in the country I live in?

Or interfacing with my gadgets without too much bullshine, if at all…

Granted these are really not technical limitations of Linux, but rather policol or business limitations. They are still barriers to my using it as a desktop.

Finally…

http://revver.com/video/3946/every-os-sucks-song/

Please don’t presume to speak for us. We are part of those “masses”, just average PC desktop users. We have been using Ubuntu exclusively since June 2008 and it works great – no problems and nothing we want to do that we can’t do. We take photos, listen to music, write books, speadsheets, websites, articles, upload to You Tube, edit Wikipedia, run discussion groups and thousands more things. No spyware, no viruses and all free of charge. Ubuntu works flawlessly on our desktops.

In our house 2008 was “Year of the Linux Desktop”.

My point isn’t that Linux is ready for the masses. My point is that Windows and Mac aren’t either. “Readiness” is a red herring. There are many factors involved in what operating system people choose to use—”readiness” is not one of them.

There won’t be a “Year of the Linux Desktop” for some time, unless we really buckle down, and quit treating it like hacker’s wet dream.

Did I say there would be a year of the Linux desktop? I actually distinctly said there wouldn’t be: The Linux Desktop Myth

C’mon, in what way is this woman’s problems with her iPhone/iTunes a Windows problem? Is this apples or oranges?

This is again a double standard that Linux faces. So if someone had problems with her iPhone on Linux, people would say Linux has a problem, but since she has a problem with her iPhone on Windows… it’s Apple’s problem, I guess? Windows isn’t to blame? To most end users, blame and fault are irrelevant. They are either facing problems or they’re not. If they are facing problems, then they get frustrated. So the Amazon MP3 Installer (which I’ve had no problems with in Ubuntu and Mac OS X) is also not a Windows problem even though it occurred on Windows? Make up your mind. If this situation is to be blamed on Apple and Amazon, then every Linux problem is to be blamed on ATI, Nvidia, Lexmark, and Broadcom.

I read http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com, not because I hate Linux (I don’t, I’m actually quite fond of it), but because the author understands what’s wrong with our beloved operating systems. That site is kind of like the kid coming to wedding party, uninvited, and spilling all the beans and dirt on the new couple, and any and all family members related to the newly weds. It sucks, but no one is doing anything about it, and until we quit turning a blind eye to it, we’ll never be ready for the masses, and that’s just the truth of it.

There are several reasons we have less than 2% desktop market share. I just mentioned one of them.

What windows does and does amazingly well is some things and its like the 80:20 rule. for e.g my lan works. Thats one imp point if u claim this u got the online users on ur side. Which unless i purge nm from my pc is currently not possible.

Am not a windows fan boy or a linux hater. Would like both to be great as they are in their own league.

But when I see these rants on the Ubuntu Forums or in blog posts, it’s always the assertion that it’s because there are problems that Linux isn’t successful and not because Windows has a bigger in-person support infrastructure.

The other day, I had someone (in person, not online) ask me about Linux. He said he was intrigued by Linux but a bit scared of it. I said if he’s scared he should find me or someone else he knows who can install Linux and set it up for him. He said he doesn’t know anyone who uses Linux except me.

That pretty much sums it up.

Much of Windows’ dominance comes from inertia and infrastructure. Want a Windows computer? The store will be selling it. Want Windows support? Someone you know may be able to help you, or any pay-for service will probably do Windows. Need a program or application? It probably has a Windows port.

All of those are legitimate reasons people keep using Windows. I’m not denying any of that. But the total lie that Windows works well and has no problems and that that is why people use Windows instead of Linux just has to die.