Didn't I say that grandmas and childen can use Mint? How hard is it to teach someone to click on "Menu", mouse over to "Office", and click "Abiword" or "Writer" or "Gnumeric" or "Calc"?
Harder than you think. Try dealing with some normal people and see how open they are to using new software where things have different names and are in different places. To them, it's like everything has been translated into Chinese whenever you change an icon.
So you can get decent support for Windows when you have a problem? That's news to me. AFAIK, Microsoft sells software, not support. They have no reason to provide free support for their software.
No, they have no reason to provide
free support.
And remember that IT folks who know how to fix Windows issues are far more common and far cheaper than IT folks who know how to fix Linux issues.
There's a forum for Mint here, and I have no doubt that if Mint had even 1% of the PC market, they could make money just by providing support via telephone, and maybe have ads play for a minute on the phone before someone answers, and while you're on hold.
I can't see many corporate and government people wanting to rely on a forum. They'll pay big money to have "official" support from "qualified" technicians, even if that support is of a lower standard. The general public hasn't quite come around to the fact that enthusiastic hobbyists often know more about computers than tech monkeys, which is why the Geek Squad makes so much money.
And why do so many Linux aficionados act on the urge to declare every year the "Year of the Linux Desktop"? Maybe if they spent as much time improving Linux as they do pontificating about it, we'd see some more market share.
I think most of those people are joking, but it is true that Linux would be far more usable and far more attractive to the general public if its supporters spent as much time improving it as they do proselytising and asserting the superiority of the command line.
Governments need a secure OS, where finding and installing encrypted email support, biometric or ID card log-ins, and hardware disabling (specifically USB ports), is a trivial matter, and a complete office suite.
British government workers tend to leave unencrypted USB sticks on trains. I don't think they'll be able to "do" security, whatever OS they have.
