one of the eternal whinges about linux is that it’s too hard to use. i think that’s still true in a home environment where you set up your own pc. not everybody wants to be a sysadmin and i do think it’s simpler to set up a pc with windows or a mac at home. however in a corporate environment where you just use the pc and someone else worries about the administration i think linux is getting more usable all the time. the city of largo, florida is saving money by using linux instead of windows in a lot of places.

receptionists, administrative assistants, and division fire chiefs here all use linux instead of windows, and most of them don’t really notice one way or the other. there’re a lot of interesting snippets in this article. from the fact that the sysadmins have trouble persuading people that they don’t need to worry about backups any more to the fact that they don’t even need as many sysadmins because the network doesn’t break down all the time.