A friend sends you an email with a PDF file attached: curse, do not have a program to read it. You need to go online, find a site that will download Adobe Reader (or another PDF viewer) download, install, maybe even restart. Do you think it over?. Attached to the email your friend will find a text file format. DOC. Your Windows can not even read that. Now or go to buy a copy of Microsoft Office (€ 500), or simply download OpenOffice (free), but you'll still need to find it, download it (I hope you have a broadband connection), install, etc.
That's not how it works for me. I just click that "view" link in Gmail and view it in Google Docs. No downloading or installing needed. I don't even have to download the PDF or DOC file.
Linux has many music players (including Amarok, Rythmbox, Banshee, etc..), And some of them are exceptional. AmaroK Take for example (see screenshot): organizes and plays your favorite music, learn what pieces you like best and automatically find their title (and text) on the Internet. If still not enough, is for you, including CD cover art and author information!
Yet, I could not find a player I liked and resorted to
running Trout under WINE to get what I really wanted.
With Linux, everything is easier. Linux already has a list of a huge number of programs. If you need some new program, simply open the Add /Remove Programs "on the left are the categories, click and right you have a list of programs that category.
Click on one and get a description of the program (it is also indicated the popularity with the number of stars). If you like you do not have to do is tick the left of the name, then click "Apply and OK. All done, now Linux will download the program, install it and settle in the category of membership. Linux does everything, you just choose what you want.
Sure, if you already know exactly what you want or like playing guessing games. But if you want to make informed choices, just like when on Windows, you are going to have to Google for info and read plenty.
And no more reboots? I reboot more in Ubuntu than I do in WinXP, and it's not always about updates and upgrades either. YMMV, but my experiences have been that the current Ubuntu is about as unstable as WinME with an ATI graphics card.
(want it to look and work like Win7 or OSX? no problem)
Yes, problem...big problem. You can not have a taskbar under Linux that looks and acts like the Windows taskbar, in all of its glory, with all of its functionality. At least I can't. And that's a feature that's
very important to me.
Support is universal
Universally non-existent unless you are paying someone per incident or have a commercial support contract. Otherwise you are at the mercy of the moods and whims of unpaid volunteers on forums and IRC channels, many of which have big egos and will be quite rude with you, because their self-image, huge egos, and feelings of superiority depend on making you feel like a stupid idiot who shouldn't be using a computer at all.
Lots of luck getting and installing Linux drivers for your wireless card, and getting that to work...you are more or less on your own to figure it out. I hope you really like puzzle games because this one has a reputation of being a real whopper.
Under Windows, if I have a problem installing drivers for some hardware that came with my PC, help is just a phone call away, and I won't have to pull out a credit card to get it.
And no malware? safe and secure? really? are you sure?
http://forums.unreal...viewtopic.php?t=6562http://www.mozilla.o...g/security/announce/I am sure there are tons more ways to exploit tons more applications that run on Linux.
Just because it's open source, does not make it safe and secure.
Free software and games
Windows has that too.
No more piracy, registration, validation, verification, or cost
Not all versions of Linux are free. Not everything open source is free. And proprietary closed source software for Linux does exist. In fact, I happen to be developing some, myself.
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