[stewart] i agree, marketing also does play an important part, and in the public eye, everyone knows microsoft. and yes, linux has grown by leaps and bounds in 10 yrs, and ms should be better considering that they've been around longer.
[michael] i think that you misinterpreted what i said. i said "windows-software-compatible linux software". of course, there is a lot of software for linux, but most of it cannot read files that were created in windows. linux software needs to be able to allow end-users to easily import their windows files, if windows users are expected to switch. also, the installation procedure must be extremely simple. for us developers who've been working with linux for a while, installation is a snap, but the people whom we're trying to convert are not as experienced. on windows, installation is pretty much just executing a .exe file. on linux, it is not good to ask an inexperienced linux user to figure out how to install .rpm, .bin, .sh, .gz, and .tar files. this is too many for the linux newbie. newbies shouldn't have to use the shell prompt to install something. one other point, man pages are good, but may be difficult for a linux newbie to interpret. documentation needs to be in a easy-to-use help gui inside of the gui application, or formatted as easy-to-understand .html files that the newbie can just click around in. (fortunately, mandrake has made a good effort on this end). again, if linux is to become mainstream on the desktop, it needs to overcome the above hurdles, namingly making everything extremely simple and easy for the new computer/linux user.
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
