Well, after a couple of years of learning linux by googling everything and half the time landing on linuxquestions.org, I decided to join
I've learned a lot in the last 2 years, some hard lessons, some easy, and I'm now very much Micro$oft-free! Here's what I think about comparing OSes (mostly from a consumer viewpoint):
* The only thing that Windows has better than any other OS is compatability. It took me years to learn this. But it is true. As far as easy-of-use, Macintosh beats it by a long shot. Any Mac user will tell you that when they get on a WinBox, it just feel clunky to use. As far as performance...well, IMHO NT-based OSes were the first "real OSes" that M$ ever made. Everything else ran on DOS...which sometimes ran on the BIOS.
* Every OS asks things from it's users. Windows asks for your money and your commitment to their way of things. Macintosh, by default, asks for a lot more money initially but pays itself off eventually. Linux doesn't ask for money, but it does ask for your time and it asks you (read: requires you) to learn. This is why I am now a Linux user
* People should be informed of this fact with Windows: it's compatability is the best thing it has to offer, but compatability has a bright side and a dark side: if Wind0s is compatible with "all the good software" (as I hear being the biggest reason people stay with m$) then it is also compatible with "all the bad software" (which is something that cannot be denied).
I'm not bashing windows. I very much respect winXP: it shows that M$ can actually improve. I was very impressed. And I think that there are real reasons to use Windows...which, again, usually boil down to compatability. Compatability sometimes needs to take precidence over any other thing an OS may offer.
I hope that I can be of help to newbies and "old hats" alike on this forum. And thanks everybody for having me.
- the dudeman
PS I can't believe that nobody else got the UN "linuxLuser"!
