Here's how the system works: J Random Journalist gets a steady stream of emails saying how wonderful the latest XYZ Linux distro is, possibly adding that the only reason he doesn't recommend it is that he's a brain-challenged capitalist running dog who is rolling in payola from Apple or Microsoft. The browbeaten journalist dutifully installs XYZ Linux and finds it unusably user hostile. Report is duly published saying Linux is still "a little rough around the edges," along with numerous pleas not to beat him up too badly.
The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg (or here) is the latest to go through the routine. He's been trying a Dell laptop pre-installed with Ubuntu. He says, as defensively as possible:
My verdict: Even in the relatively slick Ubuntu variation, Linux is still too rough around the edges for the vast majority of computer users. While Ubuntu looks a lot like Windows or Mac OS X, it is full of little complications and hassles that will quickly frustrate most people who just want to use their computers, not maintain or tweak them.
Before every passionate Linux fan attacks that conclusion, let me note that even the folks who make and sell Ubuntu agree with it. Mark Shuttleworth, the South African-born founder of the Ubuntu project, told me this week that "it would be reasonable to say that this is not ready for the mass market." And Dell's Web site for its Ubuntu computers warns that these machines are for "for advanced users and tech enthusiasts."
Still, things have improved dramatically in the past decade. Mossberg's quibbles are relatively minor, and you get the impression Dell could have provided a better out-of-box experience. When a now-defunct UK magazine tried Linux in (I think) 1999, it sent copies to four journalists, none of whom could actually install it.....
