First off i remember a great oxymoron i saw on some oxymoron list site... "Microsoft Works"

Anyway, to give an analogy. I play guitar... when i first started learning my teacher wanter me to learn all the theory behind music (Modes, scales, etc.), when all i wanted to learn was how to play Smells Like Teen Spirit. I went about with that attitude for almost 2 years until i realized i wasn't getting any better and wasn't able to learn anything new. So I went back to the teacher wanting to learn what he wanted to teach me, and with that new attitude i knew how to compose songs properly (pls no 'think outside of the box' crap here i'm trying to make a point ) and i knew what made a minor chord a minor chord or a second inversion chord a second inversion chord. and i would say by the 4th year i was playing guitar i enjoyed playing it much more and i knew a fair amount about music theory. knowledge is power, you can sit there and play the into to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' over and over using windows to impress your friends or you can gain something from the experience of playing guitar or using your computer.

Warning ;-)

Octavius is a troll

heh probably

Probably not. Octavius asked some reasonable questions to start the thread. Those are the kinds of questions I had when I first started learning Linux. He seems to have thought about the answers and come to the conclusion that Windows is not for him. I see little to no trolling there. About the only thing Octavius appears to be guilty of is looking at computing from a Windows point of view (i.e. that must be The Way To Do It Because That Is The Way Microsoft Does It (TM)) and a whole lot of people think that way.

Octavius, if you are really interested in seeing how Linux can work with a minimum investment, try burning a Knoppix CD. Knoppix runs entirely off of the CD, so you just boot your computer from it and it takes care of setting itself up. Basically it allows you to try Linux without touching your hard drive.