Why Linux Will Never Be More Popular than Windows

I tried to jump on the Linux bandwagon. It's free and I had an older computer, a Linux CD, and I loaded the latter onto the former. Worked great. No problems. Loaded sans errors. All that did, however, was give me the basic operating system. Which means that I have a box that I can look at (using my video screen), move a mouse around on (using my mouse) and occasionally type away at (using my keyboard).

But I want my computer to do more than that. I actually want it to work. The first thing I did was to load OpenOffice. Think of OpenOffice as the open-source version of Microsoft Office. It has a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database program. In the Windows environment, loading a new program simply involves locating the appropriate .exe file, double-clicking it with the mouse, and (typically) voila! It now works. Things aren't so simple in Linux. Loading things in Linux involve command lines ("sudo apt-get install X"), moving around directories, compiling, creating source code, the list seems is endless. When things don't work as they are supposed to, it can take days to work through the problem. The OpenOffice did load fairly quickly and (somewhat) painlessly. It was also a steep learning curve. At that time, I learned about being a root user ("su") and permissions and authentications and a myriad of other details.

Shortly thereafter, I wanted to be able to print what I was writing or reading. Here we go again. Command lines, CUPS, printer daemons, on and on and on. I managed to get the printer working, even though its on a network server. Again, another day and a half of getting it to work.

But the flatbed scanner remains on my primary system, which remains as Windows. Why? you ask. For the simple reason that I just tried to get a small USB-to-phone box working on my Linux system. I've now spent well over 12 hours trying to get it working. I believe I've now seen every form of computer error code known to mankind. I may have even seen some unique ones. For all that effort, it still does not work. Do you know how long it took to get it to work on the Windows box? About five minutes. The same goes for my many external hard drives, my 12-in-1 external card reader, my gaming joystick, my iPaq cradle, on and on.

Yes, all you Linux geeks out there can mock Windoze or M$ or Micro$oft or Winblows or whatever spurious name you wish to give it. But it works. And it works simply

I already hear the Linux protesters out there. "Everything is designed for Windows. Almost no one designs things for Linux!" True. Why do you think everyone designs their products for Windows? Yes, it's the most popular operating system. But I also see people writing software and designing products for Macs. Frankly, I think there's an issue thats bigger than the OS popularity. It's commonality. One copy of Windows XP Home is the same as another. And a copy of Mac OS X is the same as another. But Linux? Let's see, you have Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, the list seems is endless.

Oh, and don't bother boring me with the "One is the OS and the other is a GUI". I don't care. To me, the GUI is the OS. They're one and the same. I'm a user. I. Just. Need. It. To. Work. And I need it to work simply. I hate the command line. I don't want to have to load development libraries and worry about whether I have the correct authentication.

I. Just. Need. It. To. Work.

In the meantime, we Windows users will continue to make Bill Gates the second wealthiest man person in the world. Not that I'm happy about that, but until we see some commonality and simpler interfaces in the Linux world, the watch-word for Bill Gates will continue to be "ka-CHING".