Linux: a viable alternative or desert mirage?
Scott McLaren · Library Hi Tech · 2000
You would have to be practicing librarianship on a desert island not to know at least a few colleagues who hate Microsoft. In 1991 a glimmer of hope, which has since become a steady light, began to shine for many who take, if not technical then at least ideological exception to Microsoft. That light, called Linux, is now all the rage in computer and technical‐oriented publications. Unhappily, Linux’s greaest strength is also its greatest weakness. It will fail precisely because it does not have the one characteristic that causes so many to hate Microsoft Windows: a huge corporation backing it up.