Why Can’t Linux Crack The Desktop?

Image by KobraSoft

Many computer geeks have always held Linux in high regard. They endlessly talk about its stability and security features. For many years people talked about how Linux may eventually take over in the future, but the OS is yet to take off as the leading operating systems. There has been a lot of debate as to why this OS has never really taken off. There are many things that programmers, computer experts, users and geeks in general have failed to agree on. However, there are a number of things that have affected its success.

Standards:

There are many versions of Linux from Ubuntu, Fedora and many others. All these versions have a different system as well as configuration. This doesn’t seem to be a problem to many computer geeks, but it is clearly a problem with many users. Users prefer using a system that is predictable. They don’t want to spend a lot of time reconfiguring the computer just because there were changes with the OS they were using. Even though Linux is free, this problem may be an extra expense to the organization due to investments in expertise.

Software:

Linux has always been poor when it comes to usability. Even though the Graphic User Interface has improved over the years, it still has a long way to go for the ordinary user to feel totally at ease when using this system. Currently, one of its biggest is the software it offers as an alternative to popular windows and other commercial software. OpenOffice does not have as many features as MS Office. GIMP which is open source and free, is still not good enough to replace Photoshop, which is quite expensive in the market. You can still use these tools on a Linux machine but you need to install an emulator which doesn’t always work as you would expect.

Training and additional costs:

Because Linux is not easy to use, it is not the best Operating System to introduce a beginner with to computers. The Windows OS is more user friendly and easier to manage. If you are to migrate to Linux, then you need to train your employees because they probably have never used a Linux system before. Depending on the size of the organization the additional costs of training, may exceed the amount saved by using Linux. If an organization is trying to adopt the Linux OS to be used by its employees, then they need to try and weigh the options to see if it really is a cost cutting measure.

---

This post is written by John Lewis and he works at PriceCollate as a writer.

Author's position may differ from site owner's one.