Recently a blog post entitled “Why Desktop Linux is its own worst enemy has come across my feed-radar a few times. It’s yet another in the long line of “Linux ain’t ready yet” jeremiads and it doesn’t really say anything new yet it got on my nerves. Why?

Unsupported statements
Like many such pieces, this one starts by making a statement as if it were fact while presenting no actual evidence. The “fact” used here goes along the lines of “Microsoft has shot itself in the foot with Vista and the only ones benefiting are Apple”. Even if there were statistical evidence, the premise is mistaken. As I have said before the “success” of GNU/Linux cannot be measured in the same way as a proprietary OS. Apples and air people, you’re comparing apples and air. I mean how can you tell how many Ubuntu installs came of a single CD?

Speaking about unsupported, the post then reels out that hardy perennial “not working out of the box”. Apparently “even getting MP3s to play can be while using Linux can be problematic”. Which distribution was that then? If playing MP3s out of the box is your thing try one of the distros that comes with that feature out of the box: Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS etc.

Another old chestnut
So what’s next? Ah the old “why there are so many GNU/Linux distributions?” question is given a new coat of paint:

“What is it with the collective egos of Linux coders that if one distribution doesn’t suit them that they have to go and make a new one”

More Here