I am certain that most everyone saw ZDNet’s article/editorial describing “five crucial things the Linux community doesn’t understand about the average computer user. When I read the title of the article, I immediately became defensive. After all, what in the world could the ZDNet folks know about Linux? Who are they to say why Linux isn’t being adopted as quickly as some would hope? Who were they to even suggest that Linux isn’t being adopted? I was positive that the article was going to be a load of horse manure.

Good thing I actually read the article. Because there are actually some very good points listed, including:

1 – On the whole, users aren’t all that dissatisfied with Windows
Despite what you read on websites and blogs, newspapers and magazines, people on the whole aren’t all that dissatisfied with Windows. There are millions of users out there who just get on and use their PCs without any real difficulty.

It’s an interesting read, and raises some interesting points. While a few have been debunked (Linux is too geeky, you have to use the command line), the other points are definitely valid. The point above is very true. Most people don’t think about their OS, they want their computer to Just Work. The other regards hardware: as long as hardware manufacturers won’t release Linux drivers, hardware compatibility is going to be a problem.