Why Does the Average Joe Still Use Red Hat Linux 9 and Not PCLinuxOS 2007?

I have seen many people still use, proclaim and encourage the use of Red Hat Linux 9 (henceforth RH9). The result, newbies find it way behind the windows. I suggested my friend Soham to use PCLinuxOS 2007. But he was adamant on his views on RH9. I tried to persuade him, he should rather use Fedora. Unfortunately, he did away with my suggestion.

Now I realize that the one time popularity of RH has become a major roadblock to Linux penetration. Let’s count why many still prefer RH9 to PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu or Mepis.

• RH was the most popular distro during late 1990s and early 2000.
• Availability of free RH9 CDs and a lot of old "Linux for beginners" books on RH (and the ones that make reference to Red Hat Linux 7 or 8) gives an impression to the newbies that RH9 is the latest Linux.
• Old time Linux users' proclamation of the power of RH gives an impression that it’s the most stable distro.

Now let’s see the repercussions of using RH9.

• People get a wrong impression that Linux is based on outdated technology as they can’t find driver support for their latest hardware from the old RH.
• Old RH is buggy and crash prone. Since RH9, there has been tremendous change in Linux kernel and applications.
• There is not much support from community websites for the old software. Even proper documentation is also not available.

So, if you are an average Joe, please dump the idea of using RH9, at least go for its Fedora line. Better still browse distrowatch and get the latest PCLinuxOS 2007. It is for your own good.