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Linux is still a technical tool. With all the command line apps, config files, research on the web that is necessary, patches and hacks, there is no way Grandma or the average person is going to easily use Linux.

Windows XP, on the other hand, has proven itself as a user-friendly system. Millions of people have it and use it daily. NO command line apps and parameters to remember. No config files to configure exactly right. No internet research on how to do all that is necessary. Patches are a few simple clicks away, and with Automatic Updates, no clicks at all.

DU's are, in the words of Peggy Noonan, overeducated to the point they have lost all common sense. The other RATS are either too dumb to think on their own or living off those people are the only way they know how to make a living (includes DU's)

Operating System discussions are much like that. Either the arguments are so precise as to be irrelavent or they use a dumb operating system because they do not know better.

Use Common Sense and be practical in all we do and say.

Windows XP, on the other hand, has proven itself as a user-friendly system. Millions of people have it and use it daily. NO command line apps and parameters to remember. No config files to configure exactly right. No internet research on how to do all that is necessary. Patches are a few simple clicks away, and with Automatic Updates, no clicks at all.

Unless of course, you happen to be a victim of this (or numerous other similar) bug:

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

This problem has been in existance since Windows 2000 and there is NO fix available.

This happens about every third or fourth boot on my home PC. MS, whose support was very timely!!, sent me a "hot fix", but nogo - SP2 (already installed) already contained the fix, but the problem occurs anyway.....

So, while I will agree that XP is far more user friendly than both it's predecessors/most of the competition, it is only so when everything works. When a problem occurs, the user is generally "SOL".

Linux is still a technical tool. With all the command line apps, config files, research on the web that is necessary, patches and hacks, there is no way Grandma or the average person is going to easily use Linux.

The above statement only reveals that you have not used any of the new distros of linux.

My wife uses Mepis here on the box at home I am typing from. She can barely TURN ON a computer, and had to take a class to use for "instructional technology" that taught her how to do simple word processing, spreadsheet, powerpoint presentations, and how to burn a cd. She learned on the windoze boxes, came home and was able to use open office and KIIIB (which is a heck of a lot easier than any of the windows utilities for burning a cd), while listening to xmms doing her project. Anyone who says that linux is only for geeks is either 1) ignorant or 2) some redmond hack. If you are just learning computers, the mepis/xandros/ubuntu distros are EASIER to install than windows.

Running Xandros and HAVE NOT had to use command line.