Goodness. This guest columnist, a self-described “Linux
enthusiast” and “realist” offers that Linux isn’t suited to end
users because its multi-user nature is too confusing for the
“grocery list and e-mail” set, and that it won’t go anywhere with
businesses because it lacks applications and could involve
excessive retraining time.
Some of his assertions are, in our considered opinion, flatly
false. Others bear consideration, even if they aren’t the
show-stoppers they’re characterized to be.
On the home computing side:
“…There are a myriad of complaints I have heard from
average computer users who I have tried to understand Linux. A lot
of the complaints stem from the unwillingness to learn something
new, but a few of them are valid. Complaints such as Linux’s poor
support for installing new software, the lack of centralization of
common components such as fonts, the cryptic nature of the Linux
and Unix directory structure, and the inability to easily run
pre-existing Win32 and Win16 applications, are all valid complaints
as to why Mr. and Mrs. Average would pass on Linux.”
and on the business side:
“…Assume for a minute that this company decides to go
to Red Hat for their servers, Linux-Mandrake 8 for all of their
employees’ computers, and they’ve installed StarOffice to try to
take over their MS Office dependency. The first problem comes in
when they need their mission critical applications. How would they
create the PDF’s they need to create? There’s no more Acrobat. How
would their graphics team be able to make high-quality marketing
graphics? There is no Photoshop. Lastly, what about the fate of the
16-bit legacy applications, which are critical to their
productivity? Those, too, are gone. While I’m sure that you could
possibly find cheap, or even free, applications capable of handling
most of this company’s needs, their second problem hits you. It’s
time to re-train all of the employees. They’re accustomed to
Windows, and they’re resisting the change to Linux. They’re
frustrated because they knew how to do their job well with their
pre-existing Windows 98 machines and Win32/Win16 legacy
applications, and now you have the dubious distinction of trying to
train them on all this new software, on the company’s dime, of
course.: