All well and good. The article is mainstream so ignores the fact that Linux has an OK GUI, which I am typing in this post with. Waht happened to Linux is that it is not fort the average guy just yet. In other words it has too many warts as a single user system. It is not one stop desk top shopping.
If someone walked up to me on the street and said tome me "Hi! should I switch to Linux today? Can I switch all my window programs over?" Sorry, the answer is no. Sorry. It won't work. Linux is not there. And it is not there for one main reason. There is no easy development environment within the GUI to write major programs with. Not a complete RAD tool. TCL, Kylix or GTK notwithstanding, the ease of making a windows type program or migrating a Windows application is NOT. Also the means to get thing A done EASILY, for instance shove in a CD or floppy again is NOT. Linux is a paradox, a confusing maze of 1000's of complex command line oriented Unix tools that are both very much better and very much worse than comparable windows tools. Yes, you have a compiler and assembler or several, no, it is not easy to get things written in them. Yes, you have your choice of editors, but NONE of them are for beginners save TkEdit in X. Yes there are GIS tools, not there is no AutoCAD. In many ways getting from point A to B in Linux, easy in the windows world, is like skinning live Wildcats in Linux.
Linux is better and worse. It is not for beginners, it is easy to install. It has a GUI, its GUI is primitive in many ways. It is better at networking, it is harder to use the tools. It is cheap, except when you want to find anything out. Then it is slow or expensive. But you can buy a book or get an answer on the net. And yes the telephone and email support is there and better than windows anyday.
Linux is a professional system. It is a flexible system. IT needs a better GUI, and it needs a less bloated GUI. It needs CAD and rad tools. It needs still better program development tools. It needs better program install tools.
I believe it will get them. It will take time. Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
Linux is a 2000 horsepower engine on a double bunk frame with a cardboard nacelle and 2000 gauges, some of which conveniently are in Chinese. The steering wheel is in the trunk but can be operated by any convenient co-operative, blind midget with a radio phone who speaks Croation, and the manual says brakes are unnecessary. It does say that if you turn on the radio, however you will have to buy a new vehicle. So don't do that. Once started it is hard to turn off, but it gets 10,000 miles to the gallon. And it will only turn right. The manual says that turning right is preferrable. In order to see stop lights you have to use a periscope. But remember the part about no brakes and act accordingly.
Who knows when it will outsell the Deux Chevaux? But someday it will.
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