It’s unfortunate, but an operating system’s reputation can, and usually does, have as much effect on its success as its technical merits. For example, this video shows a number of people praising KDE 4, because they think that it is the next version of Windows. Or think about the difference in perception between Windows Vista and Windows 7 versus the real differences. The reputation of an operating system does matter a lot.

What does this mean for Linux? Don’t call it Linux. Linux is just a kernel with either a bad reputation or no reputation at all. Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse, and other distributions are the real operating systems. These provide a blank slate to start from as far as reputation goes and won’t confuse new users  (“what do you mean there are thousands of versions?”).

Just changing the name, though, won’t help on its own. You also need to treat it differently. When discussing Linux with a new or perspective user, be as user-friendly as possible. Make it easy for them to accomplish what they are trying to do and convince them Linux is best with arguments that make sense to them as a normal user.

Without this, Linux will always have a slighlty negative reputation and will have a great deal of difficulty taking off.

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