What's Holding Linux Back?

Lack of Corporate and End User Support

In terms of corporate support, you have Red Hat and a host of other companies offering support plans ranging from simple telephone and email assistance to 24/7 on site coverage. There should be no trouble arranging a support plan to fit the needs of your company, whether they have 10 stations or 1,000 stations. Since you have no software licensing fees to speak of and a competitive support marketplace, it should be fairly easy to find a reasonable cost model.

End user support for Linux has always been solid, and is now one of the very best assets that Linux has. When people refer to the Linux Community, they are not kidding. You can find hundreds of web sites dedicated to helping other Linux users, as well as newsgroups and chat boards that host a wealth of information. Early on, the Linux community had a reputation for being a bit "snooty", and looking down their noses as the less technically inclined. To some degree that was true, but as Linux has expanded in popularity, so has the civility of the community. It is quite easy to find normal, non-fanatical users who would like to give something back to the community by helping others, as they themselves where helped. Users spend dozens of hours crafting "how-to's" that help explain how to get the most out of Linux, and many distributions include help resources as well.

If potential Linux customers could be shown just how supportive and helpful the Linux Community can be, I feel it would go a long way to allaying concerns about a lack of support. Open Source is all about the freedom to share information from the ground up, and it is with that spirit that has helped Linux thrive. Letting people know about this little secret can only help increase the rate of adoption by enthusiasts and individual consumers and may help to provide an even stronger grass-roots base.