A Mile in IT’s Shoes
Linux is far from perfect. Here’s a no-holds-barred assessment.
Sometimes I have to wonder whether the people working on key open source projects really understand the end-user. While Linux has made some great strides interoperating with Windows and Windows applications, the more I use Linux as a desktop operating system in real corporate environments, the more I realize we’ve got a long way to go before anyone — and I mean anyone and everyone — can take a ride on the Magic Linux Bus.
Until recently, I never really realized just how many little things are critical for user acceptance in large organizations, the first place where Linux is likely to make its first big desktop wins. But now, as I work on a Linux desktop pilot project for a large institutional client, I’m finding that the little, minor annoyances typically and often willfully ignored by die-hard Linux users are total deal breakers in large end-user environments, even in departments like IT where “eating your own dog food” is a time-honored tradition.
Let’s start with OpenOffice.org, the core of the Linux productivity desktop.
