</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />
Originally Posted by (Waychel,) The reason I can't use Linux is because many of the programs I use are Windows exclusive. I use programs for generating trusts, deeds, wills and all kinds of other stuff which can only run on Windows. =\ So its not a matter of just needing Word or something like that.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
A lot of Windows applications can be run under WINE (
http://www.winehq.com), which is completely free, such as many other Linux applications.
</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />
Originally Posted by (Anarchist Patriot,) I would ask, can you find many applications that run on Linux?
I personally would love to learn to use Linux for no other reason except that it will be my way of raising my middle finger at Microsoft and Bill Gates.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
Oh yes, just check out
http://freshmeat.net and
http://sourceforge.net . You can practically find anything in substitute to costly windows progs and even more. ;)
And to the topic question -
I personally think Linux is much better, I have had my computer running (with Apache web server) over a month now (just restarting to load new kernels). When I used to run Windows, I was lucky to have the computer on for a day without restarting (famous Blue Screen of Death).
But, for inexperienced users who hardly know how to use computers I recommend Windows, which is buggy and full of holes, because that's just point and click. But there are also pre-installed programs with Linux, so if such a user gets a computer with a distribution of Linux pre-installed, I bet he/she would just think it's Windows Longhorn ;) (and in reply to a previous post I think Linux is more pretty :P) Or, they can use Lindows or any Linux distribution with Ximian Desktop Enviroment.
For gamers it's still better to use Windows, but only because the games are made for Windows and not because they can't make any for Linux. There are quite a few games out for Linux also (Quake, Sims). I have tried out Starcraft Broodwar out with WINE and it worked fine ;). By the way, there's also a WineX which is especially for gamers, but it costs money.