I enjoy reading other folks’ experiences in switching to Linux. It’s not so much the account itself, or the small relief in seeing I’m not the only one with a given problem. Mainly I like to see that there’s good feedback coming in from the community.

Take Roger Mier’s Linux.com editorial for example. Mier’s experiences in many ways mirror my own: I used Linux in an administrative capacity for some time, had similar frustrations with RPM packages, and ran into similar quibbles with some of the software. If someone with our experience is having these troubles, there’s a very good chance that a number of other users will have the same beef.

The other nice thing about reports like this is they feature solid, useable feedback. With just a little more detail and constructive criticism, most developers will probably be more than willing to work on these issues. If the majority of the feedback is “app X sucks” or “package Y is a buggy piece of garbage” (browse some newsgroups and you’ll see ‘em), developers are just going to get annoyed. This is also where the majority of the users=idiots perceptions come from.

So, while we wait for developers to put some polish on some products and get Linux truly ready for the desktop, this is the kind of feedback we need to be sending them.

And a “thank you” wouldn’t hurt from time to time, either. :)