Does Linux Have an Image Problem?

In an age where Linus Torvalds now regularly makes it into BusinessWeek as Linux's "technical shepherd," can it really be true that Linux still has an image problem? However hard a pill it may be to swallow, that's how it is, according anyway to one recent account of prevailing prejudices at a typical computer science department. "At the CS dept of the school I work at," wrote a contributor to a well-known message board earlier this week, "many students associate Linux with sweaty arrogant zealots and loudmouthed dorks and thus don't use it when they can get by without using it (certain courses require it)."

He continued: "They put Linux in the same category as D&D, Star Trek conventions and X Files/fanfiction. It is a hard pill to swallow but like it or not many people think this way about Linux."

Then came a speculation about the possible negative implications of such an image problem on the adoption of Linux on the desktop:

"I would think that those Linux users who really want to see Linux on the desktop would try to clean up the image somehow and quit making Linux users look like a bunch of obnoxious ESR fanboys.

Plenty of Linux users are smart, successful professionals who are a total inspiration to everyone who meets them but they don't get the spotlight. Instead thousands of idiots come out yelling 'Micro$oft sucks dude!' and people just shrug and walk away. I don't have a solution to this problem. I wish I did though because it is a real problem."