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Open source software is for everyone...

One of the biggest misconceptions about open source software, is that one needs to be a skilled programmer, or even a hacker, in order to use it at all. Yet, even though having such skill do help trouble shoot some of the problems one can encounter while using any software, it's not mandatory since there are ways to get help from people who know how to fix the problems you might encounter.

What's true, is that depending on the GNU/Linux distribution the needed technical skill change. Distros like Linux Mint and Ubuntu are really friendly to people who don't have that many computers skills to use it.

Then you have distros like Arch Linux and Debian, where having a strong technical skill set is very important to have to use it to their full potential. It's not like your average user wouldn't be able to use it, but they will not have a good experience with them when they run into problems.

Open source software can be used by everyone, independently of how skilled they are on computers. If you know how to use and configure things on Windows, you can do the same on Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Most of it is just as easy, since this distros have made it really user friendly to do some customization.

Nowadays, open source software has made a lot of inroads to be a lot more user friendly. I find it hard not to see a lot of people who wouldn't feel at home in many of the more user friendly GNU/Linux distros in a short time. While there would be some getting used to the differences that exist coming from Windows or OS X, there aren't big enough for them to stick to the distro they like.

The best example of this that comes to mind, is how popular Android has become. With this in mind, it's not far fetched to think that people could make the jump to GNU/Linux if given the right distro for them.

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