My experience of using Linux was and still is a frustrating one. I'm afraid that I can't give it up, as it is going to be a part of my future work. But I think there a few reasons, why Linux is not getting very popular. I saw a lot of opinions on this subject. Defending Windows or Linux alike. I don't want to be doing any of that. There is why I think Linux is loosing out.

1) Linux is far from the simple system to learn to use. I found that often, to do the simplest thing, one has to know a lot of advanced topics. Most of the general users don't want to have to spend hours of studying,just to install any other program they need.

2) There is not much official support from the hardware vendors for Linux. And as nice as the theory of Linux supporting tons of hardware, we all know this is just a prety dream, there is enough of not supported hardware out there. Let's be honest, most of the common users will not go out to buy new hardware just to use an OS.

3) One will say that they can get many drivers online. I am afraid it's not quite like this. Many people won't know where to start looking. Also, not all of users will have an unlimited access to the internet. And again, usual users will not want and often won't have time to go through all this.

4) And I'm afraid that the Linux comunity is far from friendly. An unfortunate fact. As much as there are people willing to help, often they can't. They also automaticaly asume that they are speaking to technicaly aware people. This means that for a usual user their answer is just a whole pile of giberish. And we shall not forget a whole pile of "wiz kids" that hang around and trying to be smart.

5) One will say that there are a lot of tutorials, yet again they were intended fot technicaly proficient people. And again, we are at the same point, any general user will want the OS to do the job in an easiest way possible.

6) One more factor is that there isn't as much software support for Linux. And yes, there are some opensource programs, but they are not always suitable for the job, and they can be accuired only from the net. Again, not everyone has an unlimited access to the web.

I know that there are a lot of Linux users here. I also know exactly what some of them will say. I don't even have to point them out .

So: "Come out, come out" and give us your opinion . We'll be glad to hear it.