Why Linux is Not For You

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Fri, 18 Apr 2003, at 10:12am, sconce at in-spec-inc.com wrote:
> Er, it isn't an article on what Linux is and is not ...

  Perhaps a better phrase would be "What you should and should not expect of
Linux".

  I feel it does a good job of addressing two major groups of people:

  First is the group of Linux advocates whose policy is "Linux at all
costs".  These are the people who push Linux as all things to all people,
good as or better than anything else for everything.  They push Linux even
if Linux will be a very poor solution.  That, IMNSHO, does everyone an
injustice.  It makes Linux seem unreliable and inferior when it does not
perform to expectations; it makes the Linux advocate seem untrustworthy and
fanatic; and it breeds hostility toward Linux.  I firmly believe that this
class of advocate is a serious obstacle toward the further mainstream
acceptance of Linux.

  The second group of people I believe it addresses are those who have read
or heard about Linux, go into BestBuy, grab a copy of Red Hat off the shelf,
and expect to be up and running, doing everything they could wish to do, in
an hour or so.  That isn't a realistic expectation for Linux.  As the author
points out, that isn't a realistic expectation for MS-Windows, either.  Yet
this class of people now have a lasting impression of Linux as inferior.  
Linux advocates need to be well aware of this phenomenon, so they can work
to overcome it.

> There's far too much left out. What Linux is and is not, and what Free
> Software is and is not, is a far deeper subject than this article tackles.

  I don't think I would consider any single article comprehensive on such
subjects.  Nor did I intend to imply that this article was.  My apologies if
anyone got that impression.  :)

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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