Until persons can easily buy computers with Linux already installed, Windows and iJunk will rule. Most persons are not computer geeks and have never and will never install a computer operating system. For them, a computer is a magickal mystickal box of mystery.

As to why Windows programs don't run on Linux, well, they are Windows programs, not *nix programs. Expecting them to run on Linux betrays a misunderstanding of how computers work.

And that is the worst aspect of this silly rant.

Furrfu.

Ah, OK, you're a "consumer" and a "customer".
Try looking into Linux and open source some more and my post will make a lot more sense to you. Linux isn't a "product" pushed on to "consumers" and (for the most part) isn't "sold" to "customers" (when it is it is support that is sold and the customers aren't kids wanting to play games, for example).
If you feel happy as a customer and a consumer then carry on with Windows or, indeed, buy a Mac and you'll have a much more understandable experience.
It took me a while to loose the "customer" attitude when I moved to Linux and I still suffer from it occasionally when things go wrong but it really doesn't help much.

Why are you all feeding this troll? You should know better!

As with many of these obnoxiously worded, misinformed opinion pieces/rants, much of the gripes, criticisms and concerns are based on that particular poster's lack of understanding of *nix like OS, free and open source software in general and a complete vacuum of understanding of the 'free software ecosystem', it's varied goals and how the various projects interconnect/interrelate. The few important facts that it's probably not designed for them, they need to adapt to it, rather than vice versa and that many thousands of developers work on this for free - and that they get to use the end result, as they see fit, for free - just does not compute.

For some users thinking of "migrating" from another OS, Linux distributions, in particular, are seen as some sort of commercial offering, positioned against e.g. Windows or macOS and aiming to attract new users and entirely fulfill their personal needs. And in order to do this of course it must do what Windows/macOS/other does, in the same ways, run the same software, be as "user friendly", etc.

This thread isn't the first such diatribe and won't be the last.

I refer you to the post above this one.
This may or may not be a deliberate attempt to provoke a response but the opinions expressed are not new and since threads are not simply removed here I would rather attempt to explain things to anyone reading the thread.
Hopefully the OP may think more about this also?

OP started with "explain to me why this is the case", then immediately switched to "you're defending the status quo" when we did.

I suspect that you aren't reading responses any longer since the moderators reminded you of what your behavior will earn you. Still, just in case...

The quote above contains what The US Navy called GCE. A Gross Conceptual Error.

There is no obligation on anyone's part to "appease/attract people." There are consequences to not doing so.

Look, I give credit to Microsoft for a lot of things. Like tricking what was then the largest technology company on the planet into creating a "clone" market for the PC hardware platform.

But that was a BUSINESS decision. Appealing to the masses, that's also a BUSINESS decision.

"Linux" isn't a business. It's an operating system. Red Hat, that's a business. Fedora, too. Organizations using the Linux Operating System to attempt to operate as profitable businesses.

You think you have a magical formula to turn Linux into a product like Windows, but with all the advantages of Linux? Hey, go out and do it. I wish you the best.

But if you believe that I have an obligation to market Linux, or that anyone else should do so, then there's the GCE.

The only thing we "should" do (and even this is open to challenge) is maximize the value we get from our decision to use a *Nix O/S.

Fedora isn't a business, is it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_(operating_system)

Well for at least the US Navy what I can say, they don't exactly seek to "Appease" but they certainly do what they can to "Attract and recruit" if you will. The GCE you defined works in the sense, that as a military, the government covers for their sake of "advertising," and the US Navy is just one of the many government programs that, (as a US citizen myself) can voucher that there is plenty of incentive ads for the Army and the Navy, even in times of peace. Now As much as the GCE would like to be quoted here, I actually would beg to differ as the female requirements for qualification, (if the GCE was truly implemented fully) as been bar standard lowered to appease to the female physical limitations, in contrast to the Male certification; but sure, say to it you're exactly right about everything that has to do with the US Military, but they sure as hell are not a Business.
And the consequence for not attempting to self-advert to people? Well put it this way, Imagine if the Christian, Roman Catholic, or really any Church decided to Not bother to send some sort of grand structure, and preachers out to collect people, and simply confined themselves to a small building, only accessible from down a long dirty barely muddy alley way; what becomes of that religion? Now I will admit, (excusing my previous Harshness,) Linux is a lot more than a simple operating system, and more an "open source," like a development kit, you can't honestly believe that coming in a few years time this site will have as many members as it does now. Developers are developers, but where avenues and information is refused to be passed on, others will simply cover their tracks and be forgotten. Nobody's Obligated as you said, so in an economic market, why would companies mass produce computers with Linux pre-installed if no one is buying? See what I mean; "Supply and Demand," the concept that brings us the difference between McDonalds and a family Restaurant, Wal-Mart and a general Goods store, GameStop to a Genuine Retro Games store basically. After all a "Business" is nothing without its customers, and what then of an Open Source Program without any living individuals in few years time to know about it?

"But Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and GameStop are crap." Yeah I know, but here's the thing about the free market; It's all in the People you bring in, (and let's be frank,) Idiot's are easy to get, but at times hard to keep. The reason why these companies are absolute trash is simply not their businesses themselves, but the sort of trickery in their advertising, usually to keep the individual uninformed, in the dark, that their only resource exists, and that practically any else out there is bad/"not as good as this one." I do find it funny when people say that the internet is a world of practically infinite information at the finger tips, but rarely does anyone seek as such. After all, how does one expect another to simply "Google Search" a topic, that they know so little of, they cannot possibly describe it in the ways one essentially should know it by, and companies like Microsoft, prey on this fact. Dugan had already noted, as if to remark, that Microsoft has already made it possible for Linux like programs to work just fine on their own proprietary software, and just how long would it take for Microsoft, A business, to create a "Developer Friendly" program dressed up like Linux and advertised through Microsoft to fully take over, pretty much the whole picture? I mean after all the smart, or rather, information seeking few, are far and few in-between here; the one's we do know of, or rather, of that area, are seated at the top, seeking to bring in more idiots, and smite out the one's who dare provide a better alternative. As is, is Linux not a C/C+++ based hardware?

But no, I'm just a "troll" here. This is the internet of course, and anyone who dares challenge my perspective is simply seeking to get a rouse here. True at times here I can resort to writing out of emotions, but My thoughts to the point, (for how ill orientated they are)still permeate thoroughly as they should. I mean for someone so "misinformed," such ideas can be easily disproven with a rebuttal and citations, than to simply say, "This Losers' not thinking right, he's misinformed, he's spreading the wrong information," the wrong info, the wrong thought, Wrong Speak, like an Orwellian Society, seeking to damn the ones who don't believe as they do and only promote their own ideals.

As anyone knows what happens in George Orwell's 1984, People who don't seek to remind themselves of the past, if not spread and contain the information, are doomed to forget it ever existed, and only allow the one's at top to rewrite, reprogram, and tell them at face value, "this happened, this exists, and anything else is just nonsense," and they believe it. So again why advertise like a business for a tool, a provision, a free service, a grandeur to the filthy commoner that even they themselves can enjoy, when the people behind it themselves not bother too? I don't know, you tell me. Do you wish to have more people in this site, also bringing forth progress, programs, and *gasp* computer models on large scale sale with Linux pre-stalled? I don't know, I suppose then. Just carry one speaking with your own posse and watch it shrink as a new corporation monopolies this side of the market too. Of course Companies are not obligated to buy necessarily, nor are they obligated to give all the promises in their fullest potential, but they will in mass work with what they know, and what is economically profitable, regardless of the sacrifices to efficiency that the original provided.

Hell who knows, Microsoft is so financially big right now, they can risk the legal repercussions and release Linux under their own properties, advertising it to companies as an even more efficient software program under C/C+++ and the developers behind Linux, would never have enough legal power to do anything about it. And when that happens, mark my words, especially with individuals failing to pass on their Linux love past these forums, one by one, a generation over, Linux in whatever godlike engine it would now exist in would be laughed off as a joke by a big window of the Microsoft's logo like a big impending wall looking over the empty horizon that once was the Linux community.

I understand I speak Parseltongue to many closed ears here, but hear me out, I'm not condemning the individual to promote the corporate; you, the reader are the Heretic, laugh me off if you will, tell me how naïve I am, in respects to what I can understand the physical langue, you'd be right, but in every other regard, your sloth and self indulgence in staying where you feel comfortable, never letting the plant grow any farther than it needs to be will be your undoing. Once the smart remain silent, only the idiots remain, repopulate, and overthrow the few who remain. Really think about it, Is this not a haven? Is this OS not and Endless well of possibilities? Is it not Free? Then why keep a shut mouth about it? What is the consequence here that not promoting the Linux out there like a company would have done? What do you have to lose? You are not government funded, you have no solid foundation, you are an aging building, to which others seek to destroy and flip it, claiming it as their own, and here you all are lying here as if there is nothing wrong.

I have mentioned before, what works for Corporate, does not necessarily translate well to the people, as with just the whole Linux in general to people of the public, however this is an exception that works, and has been proven to work, with schools, businesses, religions, ideologies, Nations, Cities, Social and economic Programs, and nearly all that much more. Do not be mistaken, taking the action to promote what you love, doesn't not devolve into having to kiss the rear of your neighbor, there are plenty of ways to give people the clue in and necessarily pressure others and companies, to stick with the classic, it simple just takes you to open your mouth about it.

In the end, see it as a pool, or a sinking ship, either move forward and float, or stay where you are and drown with the rest of the depths of the ocean, forgotten, and being eaten away by nature itself, it's your choice, and I'd say plenty worth of an obligation alone of a difference when determining Leaders and Followers.

But sure, if it makes you all happy, I could be wrong, and I may be speaking out of my ass, but the results over time will speak for itself, I'm not going to push anymore if no one is going to bother, look at posts like these be forgotten and regard them no more as "Trolls being trolls." I no longer care to continue this, and I no longer care if this is to go anywhere, let it be a wasted internet Cache, I'm not worried.

Wow, first time ever for my posting TLR in earnest.
GNU and Linux are not products. The Debian works just greqat from where I am standing.

Again, try to educate yourself.

I'll, again, post my thoughts on "mainstream Linux":
It's here already and it's called Android. Some of us on't want those restrictions and we don't have to have them. All is good.