Linux and Cloud Computing Advantages Disadvantages

Cloud Computing
There are a lot of articles about the benefits of cloud computing, many of them written by/for companies in the space. One article, in Information Age, kicks off with a grammatical error ("less operational errors") and then repeats most of what the articles written by marketing departments will tell you. Cloud is cheaper, increases collaboration, it's always on, has better security. Most of the benefits are accurate, if the article itself is superficial. I got a good laugh at the benefit of "gives employees a better work-life balance" because "they can even work from their tropical vacation" (Ismail, 2017). As with most of these articles, the drawbacks aren't discussed. One needs to find another article about that, though I'm not sure on balance the drawbacks come anywhere close to the benefits. The big disadvantage is that cloud is dependent on having an Internet connection – you're only as good as your connection in the cloud. Some people also question whether SaaS applications are actually cheaper; in the short run they are but in the long run they might not be. Further, there can be a lack of flexibility with cloud applications, in that they might not allow for easy transfer of information – with an API key they might to a complementary product, but it would still be difficult or sometimes even impossible to transfer information to a competing product (Ward, 2017).

Linux
There are several reasons why Linux is only installed on a very small percentage of computer users. First, it is not the default operating system on most machines, if any. The vast majority of computer users are consumers of computers, not experts. They are not going to install a new operating system – they don't know how and they can't imagine why. So the default Microsoft or Apple operating system is what they use. At the enterprise level, there are significant questions about the total cost of ownership, given that users would need to be retrained at significant cost, especially if they are operating in a Windows environment (Margulius, 2003).
The other issue is that Linux is quite limited for many users. First, there are many programs that aren't built to run on Linux, which reduces the usability of Linux in general. This is one of the reasons why netbooks were supposed to increase Linux adoption – netbook users were believed to have fewer specialized needs for computer usage (Ribeiro, 2008).
At the consumer level, there are a number of barriers, many believed to be related to marketing. Linux does not come with a marketing arm, but it also does not come with any sort of support. Most computer users know little about it, and that breeds either unfamiliarity or mistrust. For most users, the learning curve just to install Linux is too high, let alone using it (Ubuntucat, 2007).
There are some users who might see Linux as more appealing, but this is a small segment of people who are quite comfortable in their understanding of how operating systems work, and troubleshooting their own issues. The overwhelming majority of computer users have zero interest in this, and therefore are highly unlikely to want to deal with attempting to use Linux, and are unlikely to even see the value in it. For this reason, I really do not see Linux' market share increasing. The reality is that most people want plug-and-play. The use their computers to do things, and anything that stands between them and doing things is not going to get very far in terms of market share. The barriers to entry are just too high.