lol Maybe Ubuntu has better driver support than Windows Vista. Definitely, crap support compared to Windows XP.

“A lot can be played on Wine, though you should check before purchase.”

Again lol. If you want to play older games like Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction or Linux only games like TuxRacer. Sure. Try playing LOTRO or WoW. Even if you manage to get anything running, godawfully slow of course, the next monthly or weekly update will have you scrambling to fix things.

Not something an average computer user will be capable of setting up or fixing.

And I do tech support, have debian/redhat/xubuntu/slack linux experience, windows and Mac OS and Mac OS X expertise. I deal with most windows users who barely know what a browser is, where to find Tools –> Internet Options, doesn’t know when to use a right mouse click or a left mouse click, etc. And you are trying to tell me Linux is easy and newer Windows games will just automagically run? Btw, I am the maintainer for Wine AppDB’s Goldmine 5 CRM applist.

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=8332&iTestingId=13126

Ubuntu “just works” far better than Vista on my brand new, top-of-the-line Vaio laptop. Sony have even started to offer XP downgrade CDs.

“Oh, and did I mention compatibility?”

Linux supports more hardware than windows these days.

“And games?”

A lot can be played on Wine, though you should check before purchase.

“And Photoshop?”

Known to work well under wine. GIMP is a free alternative but not your only choice on Linux.

“And the latest drivers?”

For what? nVidia release Linux drivers and ATI have released their card specs so the community can do it. most other things don’t seem to require driver updates on such a regular basis.

“And the latest everything?”

Such as? I thought we’d covered most things. Linux is way ahead of Windows in a lot of ways because there’s no multi-year wait for the release cycle. Media players and encoders, for instance, tend to be much better in the open source world.

“(except wobbly windows - but I can live without that.”

I can’t live without multiple desktops, and the rotating cube really helps that metaphor.

“Debian, Powerful and safe running compiz-fusion
who needs windows and its aero. aero does not even come close to the linux 3d effects”

Because regular people want an OS that just works, and not have to search forums for answers. Oh, and did I mention compatibility? And games? And Photoshop? And the latest drivers? And the latest everything? (except wobbly windows - but I can live without that.

I run Beryl on Ubuntu Linux 7.04 with either KDE or Gnome window managers (I have a choice) and it works great with my GEForce 6600 video card on a AMD64 HP computer.

I get as many desktops as I want on a rotating cube. If I have Gnome set for 4 virtual desktops I actually get 16 workspaces (4 times 4 because the cube multiplies the number of desktops). If I want I can have the cube turn into an octagon. I get wobbly windows and blur effects. I can have the screen rain or snow with a keypress.

Not bad for a free OS. Why pay big $$ for Vista when you can have it for free?

Incidentally, I run Windows XP inside of Linux on a VMWare virtual machine, but I rarely need it. Linux meets all of my needs.

My computer came with XP MCE pre-installed. At boot up I choose to boot into XP or Linux. I hate going into XP after using Linux. I often go for months without re-booting my computer.