Shoutbox

I bash it because they are so far behind lots of opensource projects. And don't even tell me, "well you run Windows". Not for much longer I won't. Windows is going to be phased out VERY soon on my computer. The only reason I still use Windows is for mixing music, since the program I use (Fruity Loops 5, quite good) doesn't run under Linux or Linux + Wine (Windows Emulator). Linux is perfectly capable of doing everything that Windows does, and with the same level of effort. The ONLY thing that Windows does better than Linux is a larger home user base. It makes it difficult to do some things with Linux, such as wireless NIC (Network Interface Card) drivers. Some manufacturers only provide drivers for Windows for some unclear reason, probably to do with development or money issues. But even there Linux is one step ahead. You can find a program called ndiswrapper, which allows you to use Windows wireless NIC drivers on Linux. Linux, in my opinion, is a much more forgiving operating system in that if something goes wrong, either from user error or software/hardware malfunction, it's fixable via the terminal. Or by LiveCD, yet another excellent feature of Linux. Linux comes in two major categories, either Live (meaning that you can run Linux off the CD, without installing anything) or install (meaning you have to install Linux before you can use it, similar to Windows). And some distros (flavours, similar to the difference between XP Pro and XP Home) come in both. Ubuntu Linux is a good example of that. On their site you can download (either via BitTorrent or HTTP) a CD ISO containing either the install or Live versions, or a DVD ISO containing both on the same CD. To me, Linux represents total control over my computer. No more diving into the cryptic (at least compared to a Control Panel) registry to change little known settings in order for Windows to stop doing some annoying things. It also represents freedom. Instead of being stuck with a short list of programs to do a specific task, I have hundreds of options. And it's so easy to interchange between them, especially with apt-get (applet that downloads and installs software automagically). Also, most programs come as source code, meaning you can edit and change them to your liking before you compile (turn the source code into executable files) them. So, to break it down simply, Linux is completely customizable and more forgiving about system changes than Windows. Which is why I like it better, and it's also why I say:

LONG LIVE OPEN SOURCE!

PS: Linux is also for non-newbs. You have to at least know a few basic things about a computer before using Linux.