> The main thing about Linux that is 'hard' is the fact that you have to > use your brain and make choices: Which web browser? Which office suite? > Which email client? Which desktop? Which Linux distro? For lots of > people this is way too much work. I guess if these people looked at, I think that you raise an important point here, but I would rather relate it to a question of "education". People simply don't know that there are alternatives, or that this alternatives are manageable. They are not "educated" to consider the OS and their software ecosystem as something that can be configured and tweaked (I don't say that everybody should hack the kernel). I am always puzzled when I talk to non technical people that, while everybody knows what is an Excel spreadsheet, almost nobody knows precisely what is a database. Or what are the roles and relationships between CPU + memory + disk. Or how does a website work, etc. People now spend their lives dealing with a DB, a computer or a website, and it takes less than one hour to explain how they work! (I did it many times and people are always very eager to know it) We spend years learning how to read and write, but we could not spend a few hours as kids learning what *is* a computer and what it can do? (I don't talk about learning how to open a browser, download from iTunes or fill a spreadsheet). I really don't think that MS Windows or Mac or Ubuntu or CentOS are better or less good for desktop in general (CentOS better suits my personal needs). Same for iPhone vs. Blackberry vs. Android for mobile devices. When I discuss this with other people, I therefore don't try to convince them, but I just want to make sure that they are aware of which tradeoffs they are doing: versatility vs. security, nice design vs. freeedom, works-out-of-the-box vs. works-not-out-of-the-box-but-after-this-has-been-properly-configured-will-always-work-perfectly (eh, eh, that's what I like with my CentOS desktop). People are of course free to give up (some) freedom, I just wish they would do it consciously.