What is humorous about this is that you are actually wrong about Linux not being “standard.” Linux implements the POSIX standard - Literally!
POSIX or “Portable Operating System Interface [for Unix]” is the name of a family of related standards specified by the IEEE.
I realize what you meant to imply, i.e. it doesn’t work like most people expect. Even that isn’t really true if you use most mainstream distributions. The programs & the GUI environment work the same general way as Windows does. There is a button you push to get a list of Applications - or perhaps a list of Application types, i.e. Internet/Office/etc. You click on one of these and it fires off the application in question.
Now - it may not have the same names for the applications you are used to performing a specific task, though some cross OS boundaries like FireFox & Thunderbird. If you want IE/Outlook/etc. You need to run Windows. There are other options.
—What is humorous about this is that you are actually wrong about Linux not being “standard.”—
Yeah, I’m actually with you. I should have been more specific. I meant “accepted by the average non-computer-junkie as standard”. I used to be in hi fi and computer sales. I figured out a long time ago that when dealing with non-product-junkies, people want to spend as little mental energy as possible when using a product. It’s why most cars have automatic transmissions nowadays.
Come to think about it, the analogy may apply: Linux users are to windows users what stick shift drivers are to drivers of automatics.
I confess I gave up the stick shift when commuting in traffic on seattle freeways. Now that I’m in Kentucky and there is no such thing as traffic, I’m all over the stick shift because I WANT to be more involved in the control of the car.