[beloch]

The biggest problems preventing Linux from gaining mainstream market share have nothing do with the actual software.

1. MS and Apple are both fantastic marketers (although Apple has been doing better than MS as of late) and throw massive amounts of cash at promoting their OS's. Nobody is doing this for Linux.

2. The average customer is more inclined to trust something they saw plastic people hawking on TV than something that's free. People generally don't trust free stuff. If you're walking down the street and some random stranger offers you a sandwich, do you eat it? Most people wouldn't.

3. Inertia. Almost all computers come pre-loaded with an OS other than Linux. Most users will never install an OS on their computers themselves.

Most of the stereotypes about Linux are totally false these days. The above problems need solutions that probably aren't coming anytime soon. I find it interesting that a loose amalgamation of volunteer open-source programmers can build such a professional-grade OS and then completely fail to market it. What Linux needs is for open-source marketing to catch up to open-source software.

[pistacchio]

no, the biggest problem is that i never got the extra keys (eject, volume mute...) of my dell to work under linux, nor the second earplug output, and it pissed me off because i actually paid for them. also, the day i was like "you know what? i want to compose some music again, maybe i'll regain the interest" i was not able to find a semi-decent audio program for linux. this stands true for the day i was like "the new wacom bamboo tablet is so cool! i want it, who knows what i can do with that and photoshop".

i installed windows back and in a day i had all my extra keys, the second plug, photoshop, cubase and my wacom working.

i'm on a mac now, and they make the software for the hardware and the hardware for the software and i'm on the rich side of the market so adobe and wacom make software for my os of choice.