I used to be a certified RedHat admin. It expired over a decade ago.
I use Linux on a few servers, but our main software is Windows only, running on Windows servers. We have Windows desktops and all our employees are familiar with them.
I’ve played around with Linux over the years on desktops. Sometimes I could get it to load and sometimes not. Generally, I just couldn’t set aside the time to figure it out. When I got it to work, even as an admin, I had to hunt and peck around quite a bit just to do anything. Not insurmountable, but most users don’t want that kind of change at the same time they have to change the look and feel of every piece of software.
What I think would really be helpful, at least from a desktop perspective, is for the whole Linux desktop community to agree on a single standard desktop, and the closer to Windows look and feel the better. Offer every distro with this same desktop so that new users can always have the same look and feel no matter what distro they try.
The biggest complaint about Win 8 (at least from my perspective) is the changing interface. It’s a huge training and support challenge. At least if Linux had some sort of agreed-upon standard desktop, there would be a real impetus to use the Win 8 migration as a chance to migrate to Linux since you have to retrain everyone anyway.
In business, time is money. I’ve not come across a version of Linux yet that was worth the time to adopt for my users.
Also, and maybe this has changed, but it seems like mice in Linux never worked like Windows as far as moving around the screen. Every user I had test Linux complained about it. This seems like a small issue, but it’s actually a major obstacle to adoption. Perhaps that’s something that can be configured - I haven’t puttered around with Linux in a couple of years.
With that post, you nailed the spirit of my position on this.
I also notice something we have somewhat in common: we dealt with making computers work in a corporate environment. We perceive computers primarily as tools and something we don’t have to overcomplicate or deal with when we “punch out”.
I remember when I had to become a memory expert (remember dos “himem”?) just to get Aces Over the Pacific to run in dos mode on my Windows 3.1 machine. I’m burned out on messing with my computer. I had to replace a cooling fan on my cpu last year and that was hassle enough. I used to build all my computers from scratch. Now, when a computer acts up I just go to costco and drop another $299 and bring one home. Heck, I even use the motherboard video and audio.
I also stuck with beta for way too long. I sold video and knew it was much better than VHS. Big frickin’ deal. When I made the switch to VHS my life actually got a lot simpler. :-)
I live the subtitle to Dr. Strangelove: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. Or, in modern vernacular, I took the blue pill or drank the coolaid - and it was goooooood.