If Linux would get its act together and come out with one ‘distro’ [whatever the heck that is], it might make some serious inroads. For example, if Linux came out with one desktop home version, they might effectively challenge MS’s Windows Home.
Every time I browse, Linux, I find a dozen different flavors of the OS and that many more desktop versions. That leads to confusion for non-technos (who don’t want to spend massive numbers of hours learning about all the different flavors) and those more interested in productivity than in programming.
Linux is working against itself by continuing the multitude of flavors. That may be fine for ice cream, but not for general computer use. All the variations makes the Linux world appear to be a disorganized playground rather than a serious operating system and desktop application software.
It was bad enough 20 years ago, when we had PC DOS or MS DOS or OS/2, GEM Desktop or Windows Desktop, WordPerfect or Word or Wordstar.
MS learned that lesson early on. They tried to make their productivity software (Office) so proprietary that it was incompatible with other productivity software. Corporate users told MS they would not buy their products without the capability to convert between MS products and other off-the-shelf products. MS balked, and their products wouldn’t sell. They finally capitulated and allowed ‘conversion’ programs to convert the productivity files.
I just don’t want to spend the time to learn Linux and determine the differences to find one version that best suits may usage.