Comment 577 for bug 1

Thanks for your positive feedback Allen. As only a casual user (and not that yet until I can get the problems sorted) I felt a bit diffident about speaking up with so many experts about.

But there are many types of user, and is Linux (whichever flavour) right for all of them? If all you want to do is connect to the Internet with your built-in Ethernet card, surf the web, use email, maybe use bits of the Open Office suite, it's fine, robust (as long as your Ethernet card is supported). But how do you find that out? The shop won't tell you because it doesn't know (unless Linux was included with the system).

There's the elderly piano teacher mentioned in bug 154459 who needs a total lack of hassle. There's the reasonably computer-savvy type (like myself) who knows the sort of thing that can be done, but needs some pointers as to how to do it.There's the professional computer support guy who knows a lot about the subject, but wants to minimise the hassle he gets from the OS - he gets more than enough from the users (in my last job I asked why I couldn't have a Linux box rather than an NT Server and was told that supporting one version of Unix - Solaris - was enough for the support team and that Sun boxes were too expensive). And the super-geek who's willing to spend hours dredging through forums to find the solution and doesn't mind reinstalling twice a week when it all falls over.

And while Linux has the reputation of catering only for the last of these in all but the simplest of cases, there just won't be the sales to make it worth while the shops installing it. I can't speak for other countries, but at the retail level in the UK we have consumer protection laws, and selling kit the doesn't work out of the box will result in expensive refunds, and the shops will be left with a load of "just-used" kit which they can't easily sell. OK, Linux may be cheaper, but nothing's cheap if it doesn't work!

> How many of us "shop" for Linux friendly computer equipment ?
Well, I would if I knew what was Linux-friendly. But (in my case) looking at the list of supported WLAN cards on the Ubuntu forum, there doesn't seem to be one which will work without downloading extra software. So which one should I buy if it may not even work?

Another point which I didn't mention is the sheer number of distros about, all fighting each other for market share. All too reminiscent of the 1980s, with dozens of Unixes squabbling, and Microsoft laughing all the way to the bank. The only reason I chose Ubuntu was that it's easy to get hold of at minimal cost; as I'm just trying to see if I can get my USB sound card to record I don't want to spend money on kit that may not work.