> Mainstream users use what comes with the computer.
That was a really good point right there. Also I think you're right about the
product tying.
But I think the another problem is that because of Windows have being the OS
which "comes with the computer" for so long time, mainstream users are
comparing all the new software to Windows alternatives. Windows might have a
"practical, cool looking and stable" software in most cases, and the user is
not going to be satisfied with less. I have been come across users who have
seen GNU/Linux desktop environments so ugly on most of the distros that they
can't even consider changing just because of that. Another things have been
lack of quality software in some areas, and more complex installation of
software, if you have to install it straight from the website.
Now when it came to mind, have you ever thought why it's sometimes made so
hard to install a piece of software from the manufacturer's website? Why can
it be as simple as on Windows? Just download let's say .deb file, double
click it and it starts to install. Instead, many times you have to compile
from source or there might be PPA option. Why those developers don't provide
.deb file for example? Some software providers have that, a good example is
Steam. You can download steam.deb file from the website. But in most cases
there might be PPA OR just a source code! What the heck? If you want to get
more users to download your software, why to provide only the source code and
make it more hard for the user? GNU/Linux seems always to suffer from a bad
support. For example, when you go to Spotify's website to download the app,
you first have the Windows version, spotify.exe. As a Windows user you could
just download it and you're good to go. But when you go to "Spotify for
linux", you have the list of terminal instructions how to add the keys in
your system, then the PPA and finally how to update your apt-get. Why can't
there just be spotify.deb? PPAs or similar are good in my opinion, but not
all users are feeling the same. Those mainstream user's that we have so much
talked about, would be happy if they can just download a file and click it to
install it! That's one of the problems new users face. They are then strictly
limited on their distros repositories, that can't have every piece of
software that the user might want to use. Also that would be the most simple
way for all the GNU/Linux users. Double-clicking an icon is faster than
copy-pasting commands.
