I'm not sure I understand the negativity around using Linux or thinking that using Linux is hard. I find it better than Windows for newbies as long as they are only really need progs for the most common uses and don't want to get under the bonnet. It's easy for them to add progs that are for less common uses - but there's not such a wide range of less common options as Windows and if they are fussy about those it may not suit.
To an extent that's true and even as a newbie Linux user, I tend to say that alot but the reality is that the necessary programs and expectations for such programs has lifted.
It hurts alot also that most users who just want their OS to work also prefer to play games. (and not just "any" games)
Setting that issue aside, OpenOffice is not MS Office and even ribbon-based MS Office is not MS Office.
For the more developed and bigger companies, the gap is probably smaller but many little companies around the world don't even focus on training their people properly to switch to another Office Suite and there are many who don't really understand MS Office either. They just eventually were shown some advanced commands to make them get done with their work.
That's already a huge gap let alone giving these users the view of terminal screens, forcing them to set a password even for their Desktop usage (when many have just one easy to brute force password) and even every support that comes to Windows.
I think the real problem is with light duty long-term Windows users who have a need to twiddle and tweak and then get stuck with not understanding what to do next to cure a problem (that has a fair chance of being self-created). They don't really want to understand what the problem is (just how to cure it) and have an aversion to learn about the underlying differences between Windows and Linux.
No. The real problem is support.
Support from companies but even support from most techies.
It's not just aversion. The number of people who know how to do advanced stuff on Windows for example far outweighs Linux support.
You'd have to be lucky to personally know a Linux user who would want to help you or you're forced to reading.
At a certain point, it's just a losing battle even when you ignore most of the OS centric tweaks.
You would even get fewer support on how to use OpenOffice, GIMP even just getting to understand how to make a media player in Linux work like Windows Media Player considering many people don't even know what a Media Player is and think Windows Media Player is some catch-all program.
The time gap is just too large and the "salt doll" -ness of the topic is just too wide.
For example when I was still using Linux, I tried to manage the issue and even exhausted all the different apps I could find on package manager repositories.
Unfortunately it's not that cut and dry.
I had to wonder what Scribus was for example but I can't just ask that without getting the package manager definition back as an answer.
Having not known how to use Photoshop, GIMP was just a pain to understand.
Then having gotten used to the speed of MS Office, OpenOffice is just another beast to tackle.
Then there's the whole deal with EMACs and VIM being so awesome that you have to learn them.
Then there's the fact that you're either left with Leafpad for ultra fast notepadding or you're stuck with OpenOffice if you don't know how to work LATEX.
Then there's the OS issue.
It literally stacks up beyond the OS-centric issue for any newbies.
It's not even aversion anymore, it's like trying to learn how to start a bon-fire when you're smack dab in the middle of the city and is surrounded with a stove, a fast food restaurant, maybe even a personal chef depending on how rich you are...
When you have that environment, Windows is not perfect but newbies eventually have to ask themselves whether they are trying to switch because it's better or because they have somehow been lured into valuing their OS more so than they originally would have.
There's a reason Linux is near impossible to switch to if you don't have a dual boot of a previous Windows installation. The environment is so different that one has to have the previous environment but if they have the previous one and that one's sole weakness is lack of pre-installed apps from a fresh install and lack of security and the other alternative doesn't completely provide them with an overall better desktop environment... Linux is not there yet. They still have to evolve beyond the paradigm shift that is "Ubuntu = Linux has arrived for the desktop/Linux can be designed with newbies in mind."
