Maybe, they are a big company with lots geeks and freaks working there. Its really hard to tell. Dont know why I never found out.

I switched because I was tired of Win95 being unstable, then when I upgraded to 98, it was still unstable. It took me several years until I was regularly able to install/use Linux, due to winmodems, but once I got broadband internet I've used Linux as my primary OS ever since.

I can't even remember why I switched. All I know is that I'm not going back!

Open-source, dude....open-source! THAT is why I switched. I personally don't find any problems with learning a new os, although I've been fiddling with linux & unix since the mid-90's. It has gotten a lot more fun in the past few years, though.

Because it gives me access to change things so that the machine does what I want, not the other way round. The approach of small programs with well defined tasks, efficient ways of gluing the tools together and the ability to change any part make it an immensely powerful programming environment. My glued together concoctions do pretty much exactly what I want them to do.

I find that many people stop dreaming when they come to computers. Printouts are almost always ordinary boring A4, or if you're lucky A4 folded into half to make an A5 booklet. Enter just a bit of programmability and you can print out in all sorts of funky formats. A microswitch on my door, a serial cable and a short program, and I can play a silly tune every time someone wanders into my room. Give power to the users and making dreams happen becomes relatively easy, even if they are silly ones! :-)

In contrast, with Windows you're pretty much stuck with whatever functionality you're given. It's not tinker friendly. If you work in research, that's a killer.

Apple's so-so. Beautiful interface, but the access to generic programming libraries is too weak.

Well you can extract it on desktop or download folder and then locate and right-click and select open terminal here if you have the Nautilus installed unit and use. Configure, then make then make install. Look up installing programs from source in Ubuntu for detailed instructions. Generally preferable to install from synaptic but especially if new to Linux

I switched because I like the freedom by using open source software and for a computer enthusiast like me it’s important to be able to use and tweak software without restrictions.

My first linux was slackware 1996 on an old intel 486sx machine that i used as fileserver at home.

I think that Windows Vista forced me to switch my desktop to Ubuntu.

I don't think i will ever turn back to Windows again

--
Peter Nilsson
http://www.pvnilsson.com

Windows is boring to me. I like Unix. Windows doesn't have anything that would make me want to keep using it. Especially without dual-booting.

I didn't really switch but I used it because I needed more freedom and control.

just for fun
i mean the book

got sick of buying software.
the last time I went a computer shop to buy a computer they added over a $1000 dollars worth of must have windows software firewall anti-virus malware scanners burning software, office. All the must have stuff you need, the first video .avi I went to watch it didn't have the codec to watch it.
Have never bothered going into a computer shop since that was 6 years ago.

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I like going with the Under Dog...I read about Linus Linux while using Win 3.x at work, didn't have a computer at home at the time, then around 1999, I built my first PC, a P-133mhz system, threw Win98 on it and bought Caldera Linux 1.2 and haven't went back since. I still keep Windows around for work purposes but use Linux mostly.

I would say flexibility is what linux offers u at no cost, u can code every part of including kernel and can port to a great variety of machines including i386,amd64,arm based embedded devices to name a few.
and above all it has a great community support.

What made me switch is the fact that I had a windoze xp pirated copy and it was hell to take care of the computer. Initially I used a knoppix live and then installed it and since then there is nothing expect Linux on my computer.