Linux is Increasing In Popularity

I was encouraged today to read a story about the increasing popularity of Linux. I am a Kubuntu user as well as a Microsoft Windows user. I have been dual-booting for a month and a half and am trying to use Linux exclusively now. I still like my Ghost Recon and America's Army, so I will go over for Xfire and my games. Otherwise, I am here, learning Linux.

It has been refreshing, call it an awakening even, for me to get out of the Microsoft mold. It is difficult for me, using Windows for 10 years, to even learn about a new OS. Though it has certainly been rewarding. I have no delusions about the future of Linux. It still has an uphill climb, at least in the US, to become as well-used and well-known as Windows. My mark for success, though subjective, would be if I saw a run-of-the-mill video game carried in Wal-Mart that you could simply install on Linux. (Ahem... no Cedega) I guess if you could pick a Linux distro when ordering your Dell would be a measure of success as well.

One of the main reasons I am encouraged by this story is that I am tired of the Microsoft monopoly. Sure, it may not be legally termed a monopoly (in the US) but the mighty hold of Microsoft on the unassuming lives of Joe and Jane Average computer user is staggering. It seems at times that our entire computer infrastructure would fail if Microsoft folded. Perhaps Brain from that great WB cartoon was modeled after Bill Gates in his attempt to take over the world! ;) In all seriousness, the US was built on commercial competition, and there has been little to ripple the Microsoft sea until the last few years it seems.

Even so Linux, come!

The Story: The State of the 2006 Linux Desktop

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