Geeky Linux

I was in the middle of a long debate about typical Windows and Linux topic. This wasn't a real debate, just a discussion among friends. The main argument was, why Linux isn't popular even it distributed as a free product ?
My conclusion is, in earlier days, Linux was mainly a terminal based operating system. The old versions had a basic desktop environment with a powerful terminal. So every Linux user had to use the terminal, which is a pain for normal computer users. Older version of windows had a better GUI interface rather than Linux. Therefore, many users chose their OS as windows and a trend has begun.
Due to the popularity of Windows, many software vendors decided to build their products to Windows platform and later they build a Linux version as well.
The main problem in Linux is, you cannot find Linux as a single OS. It is a kernel and the platform always depends on the distribution. Example, if you download "vlc" for Redhat (.rpm), you cannot use it in "Debian" (.deb).
As a solution, Linux community uses archives which are compatible for all platforms. The drawback behind archive installation is, if the uses are non technical person, they might find it difficult to install dependencies (libraries) or compile the source.
Troubleshooting the system and applications is something we have to do with our own. I use both Linux and Windows, apparently, I can say, troubleshooting Windows is much easier than Linux.
In Windows, most of the installations can be done by double clicking and filling the installation wizard.
I think, Linux is improving and moving from geeks to normal users, especially Ubuntu distribution. Hopefully, they will make an OS which can do 90% of things without using the terminal.
PS: I haven't mentioned Mac OS, because I have less knowledge about it.

Local Repositories

My debian iso dvd is unreadable for some reason. Fortunately, I copied that dvd to my brother's machine, which contains 500GB of hard drive. My PC has a smaller disk, and I'm afraid to waste it for replicating. My problem was, how to add that copied dvd to my repositories ?
After a google search, I found a solution. Let me briefly share it with you.
If you really want to maintain a local repository which is in your network, you can use NFS server.
package: nfs-kernel-server

• create a directory, "mkdir -p /repo/deb"

• edit "etc/exports" file and add the following line,

"/repo 192.168.1.0/24(ro,root_squash,sync,no_subtree_check)"

• restart "nfs-kernel-server"

Optionally, you can use "chkconfig -e" to add nsf-server as a start-up service
and perform "showmount -e localhost" command to get the export list. After all, you can extract the iso image to "deb" directory. (or replicate)
In your client machine, you can add "nfs://<server ip>/repo/deb <alias>" line to "sources.list".
This is useful, if you run a local network with many Linux hosts.