Linux is not good for people with attention deficits, and also is perfect!

 I think Linux is not good for people with attention deficits. At the same time it is perfect for them as well.  The draw of so many choices can be overwhelming while at the same time there are so many choices that it can take years to go through even just a portion of choices!

I label it as "with attention deficits" because if I am ADHD, it is undiagnosed and I don't want to muddy the water with calling myself that if I really aren't. I feel it is better to only label when it can benefit or explain a person's actions but is thrown around way too casually these days.

Back in the 2000s, after 2003 when I installed my first Linux, all of the choices for distros, applications, languages and desktops made me feel like a kid in a candy store.  It was exciting to have everything available at my fingertips without having to pay hefty charges or limit myself to 90-day trials.  I was able to try things like setting up web servers and thin clients and routers with content filters.  

Without the financial expenditure or time limits I was able to try it, take my time to work through and break it to find out how it works and to walk away from it as long as I need for other priorities or until I can find inspiration or stumble across missing information that may work to help my situation.

"Linux provides freedom.  Problem is most people don't know what it is, or how to use it."

Linux has since moved, evolved and changed over the years, and for the better. I used to switch between distributions to see who would be the first to recognize my Wi-Fi card, or graphics card, or DVD burner, out of the box first (always a fun race between Fedora and Ubuntu at the time), now most distributions are able to handle my hardware (with the exception of one laptop's Broadcom wifi adapter ... ).

Now that it has achieved my initial goal for "being able to do everything I can do in Windows, in Linux" I am starting to expand that goal and to expand my programming and enterprise systems knowledge by setting up my home environment with relevant tools.

This is where Linux, and open source, comes in strong.  Having access to enterprise-level open source technologies I am able to explore settings at my speed (no trial periods), without expending (a lot of) money, if any, and usually with a large collection of online documentation when I need help.

I'm not the fastest learner, which is why trials don't work well with me, and I don't want to plunk down money on things that I don't know if they will work or not.  This leaves my biggest challenge is not Linux or Open Source, it is my own head and my own attention span.