“Which is why Linux has taken off as a major OS even after Dell, IBM, and others have offered Linux?? Of course not. Linux is OK, but it is terribly unsupported and too complex to use for the average computer user.”
The market dominance of Microsoft and Apple OS’s is due more to decades of massive advertising than anything else. They have captured the public’s attention. Most non-technical people have never even heard of Linux. True, Linux is not nearly as well supported as the other OS’s, but that does not make it technically inferior as an OS. Hard to use Linux? I have invited users at work to borrow my computer and it takes them a while to even figure out they weren’t using Windows. Even installation has gotten simpler. I installed Red Hat over ten years ago, and that did require technical knowledge to partition the hard drive and install. That’s not the case anymore. Linux will remain a niche product, but don’t tell me it takes days and hours to install, configure and maintain it. ‘Taint so!
“The market dominance of Microsoft and Apple OSs is due more to decades of massive advertising than anything else.”
Not even close. Many businesses have tried to use Linux on the desktop and it never worked well. Lack of drivers, application support, technical complexity, crashes, and many negative aspects of Linux not experienced on Apple and Windows platforms caused Linux not to be adopted.
On the server side Linux has had decent adoption, but that is because while it works once configured, it takes a technical employee to configure it. However, the entire development ecosystem is lacking for Linux.
Microsoft made it big in the 1990’s by ensuring the entire ecosystem, including books and training, were present. Linux has not done that. Apple finally has caught on and is following in Microsoft’s foot steps. Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t kept up with their own formula and their ecosystem is languishing terribly.