I wouldn't use Linux even if it was free! muhahahahah Linux is just too complicated for normal people. Why would I want to use a shell interface to do everything? I have to learn all the codes to operate linux and do anything useful with it. It just stinks. Vista might not be the greatest MS OS but It still is better than Linux by far IMO.
Umm, have you tried using a modern Linux distro like Ubuntu? You have to open up the terminal just about as often as you have to open up the command prompt in Windows. For the average user, just about never. - Walkere
I've never really touched a Linux-based operating system, so I can't really say. On the other hand, I do run my server with Debian though
Linux definately. You don't need to be a "techadmin" to understand it. Its free, open and customisable.
I love Linux (Ubuntu), and use it on both of my home PCs. For the most part, it is easy to set up (5 years ago, I would not have said this). However there are still some glaring issues with Linux Distributions. One of them is getting the GUI up and running. When there is a problem with the display settings, it just dumps you out to the command line, and expects you to know what to do. I still have trouble setting up my dual monitors with it. The gui interface for setting up the monitors does not work for me, so I have to manually edit the xorg config file. I had it working for over a year, but then when I upgraded to Gutsy, it broke the configuration for my dual monitors and I am still trying to get them working.
I choose vista mainly because i like to be productive, and don't want to hold myself back just because ms is money hungry
I prefer Linux, but use MS for the reasons stated. Is there a Web page where you can type in the name of a commercial program (say Word) and it spits our the equivalent open source packages?
Linux can be good as server OS. Apache still does some things better than IIS but the list is getting shorter with every version. As for Desktop OS - Windows Vista all the way. I have a friend who fanatically tried twice to use various linux clones as main OS and twice he failed. While he's a clever fellow he doesn't know much about CS which puts him at a big disadvantage in linux. Both times in under a month he would run into a scenario which was just completely impossible under the particular brand of linux that he used. If he would change the brand he would run into another impossible scenario later. Usually it was either missing driver issue or some feature never implemented in open source program because college student who was coding it got bored, had to drop it in favor of studies, started coding something new or decided to become a monk. If you multiply the number of hours he wasted to get the thing working even by the minimal wage you would get at car wash or McDonalds it's still way more than the price of box version of Windows Vista Ultimate and hardware upgrades needed for it. Myself I've been doing software development for over a decade now. And when I come home I just want my movies to play without having to recompile and patch kernel and I want to enjoy my games without having to figure out 300 INI settings by visiting 1000 abandoned forum threads. So I run Vista and I'm quite happy with it. As for security - the only reason Desktop Linux users are not swarmed with viruses is because the install base is so insignificant that it's not worth writing one not to mention that because of plethora of brands and versions you virus is not guaranteed to run on every linux box. Linux is fun as a hobby or as academic project and the like but to actually use it as desktop OS for something useful is way too inefficient.
Well, I think i will keep two PCs, one with Windows 7 (do you expect me to to use Vista? :S ) and the other with Ubuntu ( I love open source )