A resounding "YES!" here. I love Linux and the BSDs, and I never switched to them because they were less expensive. Besides, everything you could possibly want in the Windows world, from the OS to any high-end graphics application, can be gotten for free with a little searching online. I chose Linux because I wanted as much control over my machine and my destiny as I could get....as opposed to having my control spoon-fed to me through Resource Kits, tweakui, the registry and expensive 3rd party applications.

I would have to agree money was never a object for me, I like the stability and being able to configure it exactly to my needs.

Bullsh*t. You stole it, this does not make it free. There is a difference.

I have a pirated copy, but I do not say it was free, it is stolen. There is a difference. Linux is FREE, Windows is not. You have some audacity to be saying that you get Windows for free when you steal it.

Lets not let this get personal. I take it from his smiley at the end he was joking as if he was not actually saying he obtained a pirated copy of Windows.. etc.

Actually, I took the smiley as in he was happily bragging about getting a pirtated copy. But intrepret as you will.

Well, nevertheless, if your going to get personal, just skip it and move on. If he wants to share that he pirated a copy of windows on a live forum for the whole world to see, that's his problem. Just as long as he isn't using the site or forums to trade pirated copies, etc.

And besides, a "free" copy of Windows isn't necessarily a pirated copy. Many people don't actually know that when Windows is installed on their machines by default at the shop, they're still paying for it. Since they are unaware of this, it must therefore be "free" to them.

As to the question in hand: Regardless of whether we're taking "free" to mean at-no-cost or open, I would still use Linux. That isn't to say that Linux would be the exclusive OS. I would reconsider my opinions of Windows should it become open sourced. This is not an idealogical stance - I am not saying that I won't use Windows because it is closed source. I am saying that should Windows become open sourced, it is likely that it would develop into a stable, configurable and useable system. As it is now, it is none of those, so I chose to not use it.

i use linux because it is free, actually i moved to linux because i needed a OS for older hardware, and the only other OS i heard of for a pc was unix (altho i was convinced it was goona be bloats, as i never heard it being used in anything less then super computers, but nothing can be more bloated then windows, right?), and i heard that linux was a free version, lucky linux is a very good OS, and even if M$ gave me money to use its products, i wouldn't, they are just to horrible, and linux has way more potential to be better then anything windows can use (well, it already is better if you don't included nice interfaces for every single of the 1000+ utils), in fact linux runs just as good on my laptop (Pentium pro) as winXP on a regular Pc (pentium3, 800mhz), actually, linux boots faster, runs more stably, and doesn't piss me off (altho you have to do everything serially since a Pentium pro just isn't fast enough to be used for too many things, but at least it doesn't crash like windows would

Of course I would still use linux.
Why would I want to use something that is defective even though its free?

ofcourse i will still use linux , i like it better than win. and if i werent a gamer i would had uninstalled win. a long time ago

linux is my hobby now

i wouldn't use windows if they paid me much less if it were free - however many games are still based on that platform (but that's changing), so i tolerate it

- perry

Thats changing? I beg to differ. Windowsis 95% of the market share, they may be porting games for linux and macs more often, but they are not making games specifically designed for Linux. (maybe some, but no good ones) and Massively multiplayer ones don't count. Things like Vice City, Max Payne 2, Morrowind and all the new games.

Free windoz will still crash
Free windoz will still be plaqued with viruses
Free windoz will still be controlled by Ballmer & Butthead(Gates)

Happy 2 B M$ Free

linux is a better web server environmen than windows. by a lot. so yea.

I don't use windows anymore... that's not because the cost of it, I use Linux because it's more stable and flexible I just installed Linux From Scratch and this is really cool, a system of wich I know all processes behind the scenes! I know much about windows too (I am MS certified) and it's not so hard to configure as Linux (most of the times), although Linux is more flexible in it's configuration possibilities

greetz,
.-=~ iluvatar ~=-.