At one point in time, I thought Linux was for absolutely everybody. In many cases, this can be true as long as the individual is willing to let go of what they have already learned in a different operating system. Some people have had enough experience with Windows or Mac OS that their minds won't let go of what they learned in their native operating system. That's fine. If you find that Windows is right for you, that's your choice. Nobody is forcing you to make the switch to Linux or Mac. Should you at least try it? Absolutely. This doesn't mean that you have to wipe out your current operating system and install Linux. With live CD versions of Linux, included with an installer in the case of Ubuntu and some other distributions, that let you try it out on your computer before installing it, there's no reason to not try it. You can get one of these CDs with Ubuntu or Kubuntu for free from ShipIt courtesy of Canonical if you don't want to dedicate the internet time or bandwidth to downloading the ISO image and burning it yourself.

Ubuntu live CDs even include the Wubi installer, which installs the Ubuntu operating system inside of your Windows installation. There can be a little bit of performance loss due to the file system, but it's hardly noticeable, especially if you have never used a fully installed version before. Some people will like the fact that Ubuntu takes less than half the time to boot up than it does for Windows Vista to do this, provided that there aren't any problems with the hardware. Some people like the idea of open source software. Then there are the people that are just tired of what they get in their current operating system. There are also people that just want to learn something new. If any of these sound familiar to you, try it! You never know, it might open your computer life to great things. If you are a computer professional, you could even think about how it looks on your resume when it says that you have experience with Linux. Linux server experience is highly desired in some industries.

I'm not going back on my word about Linux not being for everybody though. Statistics have shown that certain types of people have better luck with switching to Linux. For starters, there are the people that have no computer experience at all. If you take two people that have no experience with computers, give one a Windows based computer and the other a Linux based computer, they will learn at about the same rate. Of course this also depends on the individual's willingness to learn.

Another group of people that are apt to learning Linux are young children with little experience on the computer. In some cases, this can also include some young children that do have plenty of experience with computers. This is because a young mind is able to learn more at a faster rate and retain what is learned. Unfortunately, this is a less common possibility because they can only learn what they are taught and if the people teaching them know nothing about Linux, it's up to them to have the initiative themselves. This is even less common because if nobody tells them about Linux, they won't know that it exists.

Probably the most common case is a computer professional that wants to expand on what they already know. This was my case along with other variables. Computer professionals will already know that Linux exists and try it out so they can learn. This can lead to other areas of interest such as getting certified in Linux in order to obtain employment or a pay raise. Some might just use Linux as a hobby, which can also grow into more as I mentioned before. There are both positives and negatives to this scenario.

Then there's the hardest case. When someone is just tired of Windows, the need to constantly do virus scans, check for spyware and malware, or the expensive costs of getting software and support for Windows, they might decide to try Linux as an alternative to all of this. If the person isn't also in one of the above mentioned categories, it takes a lot of persistence and patience to get through learning the new operating system. It can and more than likely will be a rough road to becoming an experienced user, but this time of learning can let you know if Linux really is for you. If you are certain that you don't want to go back to Windows no matter what, this would be a good time to try out different distributions of Linux, or possibly even Mac. If you don't want to pay out the money to buy a Mac without knowing what you're getting into, see if your friend or neighbor will let you use theirs. If this isn't possible, try a VMWare image, which is a virtual machine running inside your current operating system. Yes, it will be rather slow, but it can give you enough of an idea to know if you're interested in buying a full performance Mac machine with full support and probably more software. Granted, it is a little more difficult to try Mac than it is Linux, but it's possible. If nothing else, see if there is someone with the installation disk so you can try it before you buy it.

Now I have some tips that might help a person in making the switch. First, don't be afraid to read. It will probably take a lot of time just looking through wikis, FAQs, forums, and chat rooms before you are really comfortable with the new operating system. Second, if you are trying Linux for the first time, don't just try one distribution. There are many out there and they all have different characteristics that make them unique. Some distributions are aimed more for server applications, so if you are just a desktop user, these probably aren't for you. For instance, my first Linux experience was with Red Hat, which is more for an enterprise environment. I was to build a server with this. While building the server, I got an interest of using it at home on my own computer, but it just wasn't the right distribution for me. I went through several different distributions before I settle on Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Another tip for learning Linux is to understand that there are several choices of desktop environments available. The major ones would be Gnome, KDE, and XFCE. All of which are different and user friendly. Gnome and KDE are full featured desktop environments with a lot of applications available built specifically for them, but these applications will also work in a different desktop environment as long as you have the libraries installed that are needed for them to work properly. XFCE is built on the GTK resources, which is also what Gnome is based on. XFCE is a lightweight environment, so it's not quite as fully featured as Gnome or KDE. However, if you have an old computer that you want to bring back to life, an XFCE based installation might be just what you need to get it going again. The most important tip I can give is to be patient. Some things can get frustrating, trust me, I know.

One last tip, which is for people who tried Linux years ago and decided it wasn't for them... Try it again. Linux distributions have made a lot of advancements even in the past couple years. The usability, stability, and security are better now than ever before, and it only gets better every time a new version is released. For that matter, the desktop environments even look a lot nicer now than ever before.

In short, everybody should at least give it an honest try. Not necessarily use it full time right from the start, but give it a chance and see if it grows on you. If you start liking it beyond the ideals behind it, Linux is for you. Only you can decide whether you should use Linux. If you haven't already, try it as soon as you can and find out.