Why it's difficult to hate Linux
1. Where's the villain?
It's easy to hate Microsoft because you have Bill Gates to vilify, someone who sits atop an Everest of money with a metaphorical hoover positioned above your head to empty your pockets. Who is the king atop the Linux community? Is it Linus Torvalds? No, the community has so many important figures you couldn't place hatred on one of them even if you tried. If you can't label it you can't hate it. You can't hate Mark Shuttleworth specifically any more than you could hate a Microsoft developer.
2. Where's the evil?
It's all too easy to dislike stereotypically capitalist organizations that are there primarily to make money. The people who sell you buggy software and keep the source code secret are the "nasty black hats" whereas the "white hats" keep the source code open and devote their spare time to the cause. Well, this may be more true ~2001 but the notion remains the same, hating Linux would be like hating a charity who are trying to make your life better.
3. A marketing campaign to dislike?
Well there aren't any. There aren't adverts plastered over TV trying to discredit competitors for one reason or another which is good, because you can't dislike something that isn't there. Linux is what you want it to be, it doesn't attempt to market itself as being "cool" or "office gold" because it could be whatever you want. Ubuntu doesn't need to tell you these things.
4. The Community
The stereotypical image of a hardcore geek calling you a n00b for being unable to configure your resolution is as far from the truth as ever. The communities are always there for support, allowing real support from real people - rather than hours of FAQs and tutorials. People love getting help from other people, don't they?
Final Thoughts
You can't hate Linux in the same way you can Macs or Windows because not only is there no one person to vilify but what would you be hating? You would be hating a massive community of people who are trying to develop a free alternative for those who should want it. No one is trying to discredit the alternatives, no one is trying to force you to use it; they're just trying to make it better should you choose to. Isn't that something you want to embrace?
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Showing most recent 4 of 4 comments
Fedora’s release is on one DVD. The others must have been added by the magazine and Fedora doesn’t know about them. They are probably RPMs meant for manual installation, using the rpm command. Not a single Linux installation has failed on my computer, but it definitely happens sometimes.
I like Fedora, but I couldn’t say it’s the easiest distro to handle. But that’s not always the most important thing either.. It’s cutting-edge and has a great community with great developers.
Don’t get me wrong, I really love Linux and the software and the philosophies and ideals associated with it. Its now getting more and more user friendly as well. And I do hate Windows (more because of the fact that functionality comes second place to making profits which leads to badly designed and bloated software...rather than hating Bill Gates).
I recently decided to make the switch to using it as my main operating system. I bought a copy of a magazine which claimed to have everything I need to help set up Fedora Core 6, including 5 DVDs of software, with the issue of the magazine devoted to it. I’ve have been working in the IT industry for 12 years now, and began programming when I was 8 (now 34).
However after the initial setup program ran, I found that certain aspects of open office were missing, Apache and MySQL weren’t functioning and all manner of other bits and pieces. The Add/Remove Software indicated a lot of software which could be added, but rather than looking for it on the 5D DVDs (which I also copied to the hard drive to make it easier), it looked to download the software from the internet every time.
The 5 DVDs contained many files to install with cryptic names, but there was no documentation on what file contained what software or notes on other related installation instructions.
If an experienced IT person with a moderate Linux and strong Unix background had trouble, how is the average lay person supposed to cope.
Many of the websites about Linux offer lots of advanced troubleshooting but the basic solutions are hard to find amongst the forums and websites, and most of those that covered my problems didnt work because the configuration they indicated wasnt really helpful.
Many others i know who have tried have had similar complications.
Linux needs to be made more user friendly to configure before it can really grab a significant share of the market from Microsoft, as well as people to change the general perceptions for the broader community. I’d love to see it happen since Linux OS and software are so much better than the MS equivalents in most cases.
http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/4_reasons_why_you_can_t_hate_Linux