[sionnsar]

I'm actually with you there. It's been a love-hate relationship with Linux from my first encounter back in the 90s (and I admit I was running it on some pretty underpowered hardware), but a few years ago when I began to see out-of-the-chute installations that just worked, I began to like it more and just a few years ago gave away my Windows machine to someone who could use a computer but didn't have the money.

But Windows isn't exactly for every user either, as I saw yesterday when my wife (who maintains several friends' Windows machines) struggled for hours to get a driver installed for an HP network printer/scanner she bought recently. My Xubuntu box saw the printer right away and connected. I didn't expect the scanner to work, but Xsane saw the scanner immediately as well.

Now I'm sure this is due to HP's Linux support, but that's a smart decision on their part. The quality of support for the Lexmark printer I was using actually went backward in one *buntu upgrade -- so I'm not using that printer, not buying their cartridges... but it's their decision.

And think about that for a minute -- my wife maintains several friends' Window machines. Without her they'd be virtually helpless, or spending a lot on professional support.

[ATLDiver]

Very true, that’s why no one OS will be all things to all people. No doubt the fairly recent advances in Linux distress have made both OSX and Windows better platforms.

I’m a huge fan on the SPLAT platform and use it for it’s obvious network security use it can be a great starting point for asecured server. Most of the recent distress I’ve played with have started to develop a tad bit of bloat. However, there is a resin for that.