I have to disagree. There are so many flavors of Linux, someone could spend months trying all of the most popular Distros before deciding on which to use. Based upon my personal experience, whenever I’ve used the GUI, there are so desktop many environments to choose from, it’s almost annoying.
Complexity and number of choices is whats killing linux in the consumer market. The average user doesnt care, they just want their software to work.
It really depends on what the goal is. If the goal is to have lots of exciting and innovative things going on, yes more distros. If the goal is to be a major player in the consumer market then it needs a lot fewer, like 1 or 2. Consumers don’t actually do well with lots of choices, over and over market research shows that giving people more than 3 choices confuses people. As it sits Linux is a 3rd option which is a rough place to be anyway (as RC cola), then if people start thinking about that path they’re faced with the “what distro” question, and it’s back to Windows or Mac for many of them.
I agree with the article and like having many choices as I re-purpose discarded computers that are hopelessly insecure and outdated. I can match a version of Linux to the capabilities of that machine and put it back on the Internet with confidence that it is far more secure than the windows version ever was. Just last night I installed the latest Xubuntu version (14.04 LTS) on a 12-year-old computer.
Beginners can bypass a lot of confusion by starting out with Mint or Ubuntu. With experience however, some of us come to appreciate the freedom and flexibility that those myriad choices offer. One does not have to be a Unix propeller-head to use Linux. For instance, I have never compiled a Linux program or bothered learning Unix commands. If I couldn’t use Linux from a point-and-click screen, I’d have to buy a Mac.
One thing that’s missing from this reasoning is the notion of critical mass. In computing, whether it be choice of programming language, whether it be something like a distro, imho you need a critical mass of users/developers to get the thing off the ground or it will fall over of its own weight. There are too many things that need to be gotten right, that if you have a boutique PL or distro it won’t have the breadth or depth to compete with those that do.
For PL’s think Python or Java. Or C for that matter. Like ‘em, dislike em, be neutral but the large installed base and active community ensures that bugs will be fixed, new features i.e. libraries developed, or as a prof once said “real people will use them to do real work”.
It’s the same with linux distros. Too much stuff to get right to think that “Fred’s Distro” will enjoy any measure of success.