Recently I have been thinking about the question of who should use Linux? Some might say that everyone should use Linux, but I disagree. (Wait! Hold off on the hate mail for just a sec. The truth is, I don’t think that any operating system should be used by everyone.) I don’t always feel comfortable recommending Linux to everyone, nor would I feel comfortable recommending Windows to everyone (anyone, usually.) Operating systems, at least those made today, just don’t suit everyone equally. This returns me to my original question: who should use Linux?

For someone who only uses their computer for basic tasks, Linux can do everything that other operating systems can for a lower price, both in terms of hardware and software, just as easily. In other words, for basic computing tasks, I would definitely recommend Linux. Likewise, for a real geek, I would recommend Linux for obvious reasons.

So who wouldn’t I recommend Linux for? People in between these two extremes. It seems to me that the group for whom Linux does the least is power users who aren’t interested in getting into the details of the operating system. This would be the group of people who would be interested in messing around with things, but not with messing with text configuration files and the terminal to fix or change things. There is almost never a need for a basic users to mess with anything outside of the GUI, but for more advanced tasks, it can still be nessessary.

I realize that this topic is likely to draw a fair amount of heated discussion, but, that said, I am curious to see what you think. Specifically, do applications like Ubuntu Tweak fill this apparent gap?