An average user may be an over-used expression, but it is still important to keep in mind what it means. For the most part, I agree with this article describing the average user, but I disagree about the average user's technical abilities.

Everybody uses in their arguments the yardstick of the average user. This is the user that people measure the suitability of an operating system and form their arguments around. This brought a few questions to my mind. What exactly is an average user? How are they defined? What criteria are needed to put people in an "average user" box?

As a matter of fact, what IS the right market for Linux? The mythical Average User? No way. The average user wants a computer that performs the tasks set for it. Those people are in the market for a computer, a real, physical machine, a tangible object with a keyboard (real or imaged), a mouse (or trackpad/trackball/touchscreen), and a display screen.

I often see the sentiment expressed that desktop Linux is “too hard” for the average PC user. These arguments seem to completely overlook the fact that an average PC user will never install his own operating system.

A week ago I published a boring little post on this blog about the command line and the average user. The essence of it was that non-geeks considering switching to Linux shouldn't even be shown the command line, as it may scare them away.

I spend a fair amount of time on UbuntuForums.org and while poking around there this afternoon I came across this thread. To quickly sum up the thread the original poster is detailing why he believes Ubuntu is not ready for the "average user" because of a recent poor experience he had.

For years, free-software advocates have asserted that Linux is ready for the mainstream desktop. Critics have responded that, sure, Linux has come a long way since 1991, but it’s still not for ‘average users’.

Maybe not for the average corporation yet, or even the average home user, but every time Canonical releases a new version of Ubuntu (and with it comes Edubuntu), Microsoft becomes a little less the default vendor of choice for educational computing.

I've been experimenting with Ubuntu for a few months now, and it is a great operating system. With netbooks on the rise, and increased notoriety, more and more average consumers are trying it out. As far as it has come, there are still problems with hardware and software incompatibility that will keep many users away.