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Or PICNIC “Problem In Chair, Not In Computer”. Heh.

I love Linux. Linux would’ve avoided this as well as a Mac, for no cost but those “IT” guys.

Actually, from the virus info posted on this thread it sounds like Windows machines would be safe if running Firefox.

Linux certainly has its place. I could see it being an excellent option for schools: set up a user-friendly front end, like the one on all those Netbooks. User storage is all online, with students allowed to use flash drives to take work home. Re-image each workstation every weekend.

Of course, that assumes every machine will be connected to a fast network, but that's the case in most schools nowadays. And it would have intentional limitations (no local file storage, no installing of executables) that I wouldn't want in a home computer, but that are appropriate in a school environment.

The way I see it, in marketplace terms, Mac OS and Linux are allies. Anyone who chooses Linux benefits the Mac, and vise versa, by weakening the hegemony of Windows. Microsoft has maintained its market share largely through FUD, and anyone who switches -- no matter what they switch to -- weakens Windows and opens up more opportunities for all the alternatives. Opportunities the alternative OSes in days of yore like Amiga, Be, OS/2, DRDOS and NextStep never got.

I don't expect to see a world in which the Mac occupies the place once held by Windows, but a world in which no one does; where documents and Web pages are built to open standards, and any OS can play. We're a lot closer to that than we were ten years ago.