I'm a Windows user and a new linux user. I'm the family guru for just about everything and, have at least a basic understanding of most computerish subjects.
Windows does have some advantages over Linux. But I think, in my opinion, those advantages are really symtoms of some of the probelms I complain about most. The reason I'm currently trying to "switch" to Linux is Microsoft charges me around $200 for the OS I use with them, and I cannot even share it with my wife. I'm a lowranking under paid geek at the moment, and buying their software so I can continue my own education and even relaxation is hard to do. Expecially as often as it is necessary (I wanted to want Halo 2, but I don't want to buy Vista...)
But the money they get from me just for buying their stuff, and then for supporting it, allows them to form a business standing that allows them to have a business standing where they can make sure that there are drivers for all the popular hardware, and that if a game is going to be made, it will likely be made with Windows compatibility in mind first. For the Windows user, this means if they actually have any money left from upgrading the OS on all their computers, they can then have the newest and flashiest software and hardware to go along with it, like Halo.
Also I think Software compatibility gets too much play in terms of the ups and downs of making this choice. In my several attempts at getting started at knowing Linux, what has always stopped me has been hardware problems, the first of which being that I had a Winmodem and it was designed to only work with Windows. Lately, as recently as last night, I was struggling to get my wifi access to work with linux. And now it does, but not the way I want it to, so I can't be "hardc0re" and boot into text mode, as that stops certain scripts from running.
The average computer user, in my experience of doing many degrees of tech jobs over the years, really wouldn't be able to handle Linux. It has hardware compatibility issues, there is too much diversity to find correct documentation easily, and many other points of confusion; not to mention that the game all your friends are playing isn't available. However, that doesn't mean it should. I would really like to see Microsoft take a hit to their growing manopoly soon. Not because I hate Bill Gates, but because if Linux could grow to something more able to hold a market share, the corperate community would have to justify why it is going to charge you money for their product, and the only way I see that ending is to have the product become better.
While WindowsXP has run fine for me on my high-end-mediocre machine, I still have to run at least six applications to make sure everything is secure and updated. My linux installation runs a lot more efficiently, just because must of that security interest is built into the core of the operating system, and if it isn't, it will be the next time I run my update. People laughed at Lindows, but I like the idea of getting some corperate funding behind a user-friendly version of Linux. Competition is what made America great, and Microsoft just doesn't have any competition as far as Operating Systems are concerned.
And, for the record, in my playing around
Suse Linux seems to be a fairly simple and easy to install version of Linux. It installs as easily as Windows, and comes with lots of software. If you don't have any funky hardware issues, you could get setup rather quickly, if you were willing to spend some time reading and clicking.
