“With the promises of Longhorn revealed as market-freezing trickery, Linux has its best chance ever to seize control of the desktop. ” This is the opinion of eWEEK’s senior editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. According to his article in eWEEK availability of Linux drivers, a comprehensive yet easy to use help system and porting of certain Windows apps to Linux are some of the obstacles that prevent Linux from truly being a desktop force to contend with.

I am in firm agreement with the concerns raised about the man and HOWTO pages I have always thought they were woefully inadequate for the new user. I am not saying they are not useful, I refer to them regularly but for the novice user who may not be technically inclined they are virtually impossible to navigate. Before you attack that comment take a look at the numerous websites that now exist to provide help for new Linux users. Obviously something is lacking within the existing help system and it needs to be addressed. Do you think I’m being unfair? Are the man and HOWTO pages your main source of help? If not what resources do you use? I would like to hear your thoughts :-)