Yet More Problems:

6. Unfriendly Gurus: If there is one thing that people hate, it's being condescended to. Unfortunately, this was a common occurrence on many Linux message boards and help resources. People saying things like "READ THE MANUAL, YOU MORON" usually doesn’t send the positive message to the learner. While the idea is correct, the form of expression is not well thought out. If, on the other hand, someone had politely pointed out that the solution could be found in such and such a place, the new users might actually have looked. A response like this will only lead the user right back to Windows. Think of it like this. If you go to a lawyer with a problem, and he smirks at you and tells you to go read the Marbury vs. Madison case files, would you go back to him? Not a chance. The lawyer analogy may not be entirely accurate since he is getting paid, but this does not mean that only paid service is polite service. The times, however, are changing. In the past few months, the tone and tenor of very many message boards have become much softer. This is in no small part due to the barrage of new users who have entered en mass. While the Linux gurus may moan and groan about the commercialization of their ideals, the fact remains that Joe Six-pack couldn't care less about the ideals of the FSF. And he should not be expected to, not at first. Later on, when he has appreciated the virtues of Linux, he may feel like learning about the principles the community is built upon. Don't patronize him and scare him away in the beginning, and he may well turn out to be an ardent Linux evangelist.

7. Marketing: The Beast from Redmond is currently pursuing a marketing campaign called "Get the Facts". Anyone with any experience of Linux will know that these Facts may not be facts in the universal sense of the term, but does the average user know this? Is there a sustained marketing campaign that will let people know about the benefits of F/OSS software? Half-hearted, abortive, localized efforts are not enough. A shining example of good marketing is the Spread Firefox campaign. More of these are required. Some judicious marketing, it would help people who are unaware of the true facts move to Linux. This is something that Redmond excels at, and the Linux community has to learn to beat them at their own game.

8. Documentation: Yes, the main pages are an excellent resource. And yes, Konqueror provides a nifty man:/ interface to these great documents. So why then don't distributions highlight this fact some more? Why doesn't the first run wizard tell you that this is what you should do first, before hitting the net? At the same time, there is some brilliant documentation available. Case in point, the Smoothwall documentation. If all open-source projects had documentation of this caliber, Linux would be better off. Better documentation, and a better awareness of the existing documentation and ways to access it is required.

There are other points, which can be added, but these cover the basic problems. We hope that this article is received in the spirit in which it was written.