What will it take for Linux to ever become a truly mainstream OS?
There are questions here and on other forums about Linux on a fairly regular basis, and sometimes I find myself automatically thinking that Linux use is widespread. The reality is, when I talk to people outside of IT, it is very rare to find Linux users. I think Linux is great (mmmm, Mint), but in the current real world, very few "casual" users are going to ditch Windows X and install a new, unknown OS. What would change the current situation and increase Linux penetration?
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Linux IS mainstream. Mainstream isn't defined by how many "casual users" choose to install it. Those casual users don't INSTALL any OS, they use what comes on their PC, and that's Windows or OSX. They will start using Linux when it's preinstalled. I've met people who didn't even know they weren't using Windows when using a borrowed computer running Ubuntu; Ubuntu is that intuitive. You don't see Linuxes preinstalled because few distros worry about selling the OS to OEMs for preinstall. With some notable exceptions (Red Hat and Canonical come to mind), no one profits financially from pushing Linux so it's got better penetration in areas where it's flexibility and rock solid stability are most important, like the server market.
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The one thing that must happen is for it to be preinstalled by desktop manufacturers, and until then it will remain something of a niche "product". To be honest, I suspect that many existing Linux users don't want to see it go truly mainstream, as it is something of a techie badge of honor to run a Linux OS. Let's face the facts, it just isn't as simple as an off the shelf OS from Apple or Microsoft for the average consumer, and if you don't know the right questions to ask on forums, good luck finding a solution to problems you might have. If it ever gets to the point where a consumer can just walk in to Best Buy and pick up a machine with the choice of either Windows or Linux pre-installed, and with significant cost savings for the Linux machine accompanied by OEM tech support, I think that will be the day Linux has truly reached the mainstream.
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Hmm. Well, at this point Linux really isn't "unknown" per se. The folks who really want to use it can find it and install whatever distro they want.
It is, however, hard for some users to completely leave Windows. Some of them are gamers, for example, and simply must have Windows to play the latest & greatest games. There's no good way around that. Sure, you can use wine and that sort of thing, but it's not a good substitute for Windows gaming.
Other users need to run Windows for various applications, though they do have the option of using VirtualBox in Linux. So that's a big help.
The bottom line is that Linux may never challenge Windows or even Mac OS X in terms of market share. That's fine. It's there for the people who want or need it. Just having an alternative helps put pressure on Microsoft to make Windows better than it would be otherwise.
So I wouldn't worry too much about Linux. It's already a mainstream OS in the sense of people being aware of it and more people than we probably know are running it on older machines, via dual boot, in virtual machines, etc.
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Linux desktop,specially Ubuntu , is ready for the enterprise right now.
It is intuitive and bug free(A as many as windows at least),comes with several easy to install aplications,
like LibreOffice,Inkscape,GImp and many others.
LInux Servers are fast and easy to maintain ,we have replace our WIndows Servers for Suse ones,theyŕe fast and more reliable even when working this windows 7 desktop stations.
Thre real pain starts when you have to install no trivial applications,nothing is NNF(NEXT NEXT FINISH) in the Linux world,I dont mean really typying nnf withou reading the screen,but youǘe to follow a tutorial for every single instalation in Linux,it take five minutes to install POstgreSql in WIndows and a week in LInux,at least for me.