The future of Ubuntu Linux.... Will it make Micro$oft go bankrupt?

[Lisi Reisz]

On Sunday 10 May 2009 16:30:12 Amit Kumar wrote:
> 2. Linux suffers from license issues, which seems to be the whole reason
> behind the Ubuntu sound woes. I can't easily use skype, because skype does
> not care to run on linux.

I have installed skype on Linux with no problems at all.  There may be a 
special problem with Ubuntu that I have not come across.  But it was a doddle 
in Lenny.

You repeat the old chestnut about Linux only being suitable for geeks.  There 
are in fact 2 classes of people for whom Linux is not a probelm and one for 
whom it potentially is.

Geeks are obviously fine with Linux.  But so are newbies and those who cannot 
install their own OS, whatever that OS may be.

Only for some of those in the middle are there sometimes problems with Linux.  
But I contend that the majority of computer users fall into one or the other 
of my first two categories.  

My own husband, who is a complete technophobe, has been using Linux for while 
now - configured expressly for him and to be easy for him.  (He had spent 14 
years going into a flat spin if required to sit down in front of a computer.)  
After he had been using it for 3 weeks I commented that he had not asked me 
any questions.  He said "I don't need to.  It just works."  The other day he 
asked me why people thought Linux was difficult when it is so easy.  He could 
not install either Windows or Linux. 

A colleague set up a Linux computer for his 70+ year old father who lives 200 
miles away from him.  Again, he configured it specifically with his father in 
mind.  His father is now an avid computer user and has a more complicated 
set-up.

Most people just use a computer.  They do not understand it.  At that level I 
contend that a well-set-up Linux system is better than a Windows system.

My 2p worth.
Lisi