Leo Laporte of the Twit podcast says linux is NOT for the average user. In this short excerpt of the video, Leo gives kudos to linux popularity and it usages from internet servers to android phones and etc.

In the time of 4:15, Leo then downplays linux saying it is for computer enthusiasts and NOT for average users. In FACT, he says if you want to send email, do web surfing, shop at amazon, use windows, Mac and chromebooks but not linux unless you're a computer enthusiasts.

What Leo doesn't mentioned is he followed commands from an IRC channel to purge the unity desktop, then install the zubuntu desktop and then do a dist-upgrade.

And by his own mistake of not knowing any better, he took this experience with ubuntu and generalized linux as a whole as NOT suited for beginners.

The folks at Linux Unplug explains Leo's dilemma in this video podcast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujiQtDOaJfc

The discussion of Leo's dilemma starts at 27:45 into the video.

Dunno ... did he consider, "Android?"

It kinda depends on what you mean by "the average user". Typically, it's a nicer way to say "the lowest common denominator", and if that's the case, I'd argue that Mint, Ubuntu and similar distributions are fine for that.

I should point out that in Windows land, people who play triple-A PC games don't count as "average" anymore. So anyone who says "Linux isn't for average users because it doesn't have as many triple-A games!" needs to define the word "average."

If average user = facebook + twitter + selfie, then he's right.

You also have to define the "Linux" in the "Linux isn't..."

If you mean that they will be unable to install and configure it, then Windows isn't for "the average user" either.

If you are simply talking about USING the system (for facebook, twitter and selfies), then I would argue that most distro's would beat windows easily ("why is my pc so slow and says I have threats and I need to pay to see my files ever again?").

And, isn't that really what people want to do with their computers?

In the early days of automobiles, you brought a mechanic and a picnic-lunch with you. Today, people drive cars for 100,000 miles having not changed the oil even once.

What Leo is saying is, I think, basically right ... but mainly because Linux isn't packaged for "consumer" use except in the case of the Android OS. But there are two more cases where its close-relative, Unix, is packaged in just that way: iOS and OS/X. And, thus packaged, used by millions of people who don't know a thing about Unix/Linux ... and emphatically don't want to [have to]. (And they don't "have to.")

Thus packaged, Linux and Unix are wildly successful. Basically: "W3 PWN U D00D!" Yes, that successful . . .

Microsoft made two terrible, terrible mistakes in the consumer electronics market. (1) They paid no attention to the hardware that ran their system ... licensing it, as Steve Jobs (RIP) put it, "promiscuously." And, (2) they disabled the intended-to-be powerful security of their system in order to enrich Peter Norton, MacAfee & Co. By doing this, however, they ruined the long-term viability of their flagship brand, "Windows," and trapped it on the desktop even as the consumer-electronics market (and much of the office-electronics market, as well), went portable. Yes, they briefly owned the game that they knew how to play, but they completely missed-it that the game had changed forever. In a supreme twist of irony, Linux (Android) and Unix (OS/X, iOS), both open-source at their core, walked away with the victory unmolested.

I don't think Leo is bias on linux because he had linux and even BSD discussions on his early screensaver tv episodes. Leo is more of a Mac/iphone user mostly and he probably dabbles with linux very little.

Thanks for the replies from everyone

I ordered a netbook for my sweetheart which came with Ubuntu installed (oh well...). When it arrived I was abroad.

She unpacked it, activated the WiFi and was browsing, emailing, skypeing and facebooking in a matter of minutes.

My wife is a complete computer illiterate, so I would say she matches the average user. To her Unity is exactly as confusing as Windows 7.

So where is the problem?

jlinkels

Hmmm... considering his experience, I would say the 'Smartphone' is not for the average user.

So what??? Fred Flintstone said Yabba Dabba Doooo!

I am an average user and use Linux..

Down South we say "Fsck you and the horse you rode in on"

If Leo had trouble using ubuntu, he would probably keel over trying too use arch, slackware and gentoo.

These days, a desktop or laptop running Windows isn't for the average user either.

Your post has a certain merit to that fact. I remember the cries of frustrated windows users "Where is the Start button???!!!"