Why Training Really Is a Barrier to Linux

[ Thanks to Amy
Bennett for this link. ]

“When I read with disappointed interest the news that
the German Foreign Office had decided to migrate back to Windows
after having deployed Linux on their office desktops in 2005, my
immediate reaction was one of resignation.

“That’s a change from my younger days, when I would see such
reverse migrations as carefully staged Microsoft PR events designed
purposely to embarrass Linux on the desktop. I would hear comments
such as “it was too hard to train users” on Linux and cries of
“FUD!” and “Hokum!” would sail out from my keyboard.

“Training people to use Linux, I would reason, is no harder than
training them to use Windows or OS X. Any statements to the
contrary, I would further argue, were merely playing to the
cameras. Such brashness came from my experience in learning all
sorts of platforms from scratch. And there’s where I went
wrong.”

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