Linux Complaints that Still Linger
24 April 2010, 12:00 am

Even the computer writers get Linux wrong.   Time after time competent Windows or Mac writers will make a reference to Linux and be completely wrong on their assumptions.   Their ignorance about Linux today is somewhat disturbing since they are employed in the tech market and should be somewhat aware of what's going on.   Many claim to have tried Linux at one point, but they are referencing something that is 5 or 10 years old.   These are the most common complaints.   After examining them, they aren't really valid.

Complaint:   The average user won't want to use the terminal.

It is true that the average user won't use a terminal.   The complaint is grounded on the idea that the user will be putting in code into the terminal to get the system to do anything.   Ten years ago this was true.   Today it's all just point and click with icons and shortcuts.   Your average new Linux user probably doesn't know what the terminal is.

Complaint:   Linux is too hard to use.

If clicking on menus and icons is difficult, then every operating system is hard to use.   Most distributions of Linux make things easy.   If you want a word processor, you click on the word processing icon.   If you need to change your mouse settings, click on an icon that says Mouse.   It's all so user friendly that it's not more difficult to figure out a distribution of Linux than it is to figure out your new cell phone.   Buttons, graphics, and icons aren't hard.   If you don't know what something does, open it.   Five seconds later you know what it does and are no longer confused.

If there are complaints about the system, they are pretty easy to figure out if they still exist.   Simply download a new distribution and test it out on your machine to see if age old complaints still exist in modern day Linux.

Source: Find Articles, Free Articles Directory | Operating Systems Articles