An addendum to my series: The Linux Scare

This is an email I sent to my friend Ben that sums up the problem with Linux adoption perfectly.

Ben, Linux has just passed that threshold where it is useable for all. unfortunately, it is our generation (including people up to their late 20s) who keep linux outside the mainstream.

Our generation has been around computers enough to expect ease in fixing them. Windows? oh, you're missing a driver. OS X? oh, enable this. Linux? oh, run the bash and become root and modify the contents of this file. This is daunting to most, because 99% of us are computer-literate, not skilled in computers. The older generation, our parents and such, don't have these ideas of usability. No matter what the problem, they contact the Geek Squad or the younger kid in the family who has a knack for fixing machines. The elder generation just wants something to work fairly intuitively, which linux has done by now. I'll make a bet that if I met someone who never used a computer before and gave them a linux box with email, word processing, and internet clients, their complaints would be run-of-the-mill.

It is our burden to learn more and adopt linux, even if our generation believes in their ability to compute and doesn't want that compromised.