I'm not convinced by this argument. Microsoft products keep changing their UI radically all the time. When I first sat at Office 10, it took me a while to figure out how to print the document, that's how drastically the UI changed. Vista desktop was very different from XP... and the way Windows 8 is going, a complete disaster! Yet it somehow works for them, people are still buying their products.

For me the major disadvantage of Linux is the same as its major advantage. That is, that it is open source. Large companies selling software go through a rigorous QA process involving testing in all sorts of different environments, on different hardware configurations, coexistence with different other software, before they release it to general public. I know, I come from one such company. In the open source community, the QA has a lot to be desired. It works on my machine, therefore it must be good.

Another problem is the community's own attitude. Commercial OSes are made for dummies. They have a big sign on the door saying, "dummies welcome!" The sign on the Linux door, OTOH, says, "if you don't know how to recompile the kernel, you *****, then don't even bother!" This is completely unnecessary but unfortunately it is true and gives Linux the aura of an OS exclusively for geeks.

There are tendencies to avert this effect. Ubuntu has done a lot of good work in making Linux more attractive for the average Joe. However I think they approached it from a completely wrong angle. I do not need a new flashy desktop that would not even boot on my 5 years old laptop, with dialogs so large they do not fit on my screen. Instead, give me a decent PDF reader and a good video editor and I will be in the nirvana.

I love that, may I have your permission to add it to my quote file?

@pichlo

You obviously havn't seen or heard of RHEL or SLES.

Both are fully supported enterprise grade Linux distros with the full backing and support of many enterprise commercial companies, far more so than most any other distros.

Both of these Linuxes are excellent, however if you want latest greatest then they also have community versions Fedora and OpenSuse that are both well supported, robust and lots of fun.

I have to agree with you though that the Windows 8 experience leaves a very fragmented memory and a bad taste in the mouth.

A combination of Microsoft trying to get its hooks into your identity and a desktop (or phone) clearly aimed at throwing adverts at you, a desktop that is nothing more than a marketing billboard.

Microsoft is no more than an Apple wanna be.

rgds

Windows sucks and that's all
( speaking as a 10 years windows user and discovered the difference after i bought my N900 and installed Linux on my PC because of it )

./sifo

I'm sure if google suddenly started using Linux as the core for an OS, for instance on a smartphone, they would streamline it and make an UX that everybody love. It wouldn't surprice me if that OS would literally rule the world in notime. I'm equally sure Linux fanboys would whine and cry because google had ruined everything "Linux" in the streamlining. Good google didn't do just that.

MOST OF PEOPLES DNT USE LINUX IT DOESN'T MEAN LINUX SUCKS, ACTUALLY NO ONE KNOW THE VALUE OF LINUX. ITS A GOOD LUCK THAT ITS OPEN SOURCE. LINUX IS KING OF OPERATING SYSTEM'S CUZ IT CAN DO ANY CRAZY SHITS THAT NOW ONE CNT EVEN IMAGINE. SMALL EXAMPLE IS NOKIA N900

sorry for bad english

Your English does suck

http://bit.ly/WIj2fh

http://bit.ly/cRu28r