This question is for people who used Windows before Linux. What is your favourite thing about Linux?

Myself it would be package management, i love being able to just type a command and the computer installs and downloads the package i requested.

Also speed, security, stability and less maintanance (E.g Disk Defragmentation etc)

What is yours?

The fact, that with enough effort, I can fix everything eventually.

This hadn't actually happened up until a few days ago infact, but this is what drew me to linux anyway (and the fact it is free, and helps me to learn).

The other week however the init script for boinc stopped working (in gentoo). I actually looked the script over, saw where the error appeared to have come from, fixed it and submitted it as a bug!. (It was a simple case of a missing &!).

This is why I love linux

Well I am sure there are 100's of things, some of which have already been noted, but as someone who has worked in several fields in IT and
been using computers now for 25+ years, one of the main things is not having to restart the god damn computer every time I install drivers
and different applications. ... Does my head in!!

I've been using LINUX for 3 weeks now. My favorite thing about it is: It's not Microsoft!

Don't get me wrong- I'm not one of those people who thinks it's wrong for someone to make a profit- quite the opposite. But it's just the things which MS DO[e]S ( )- like all the bloatware in their systems and their OS's tendency to degrade over time; the planned obsolescence; the fact that when you tinker with Windows, it's always difficult and is a stop-gap solution to a major problem (and the OS fights you all the way, because it was not designed to be repairable by the user)- whereas with LINUX, tinkering is easy, fun and always yields the intended benefits- and the fact that MS will now be spying on one's registry with Windows 7 (I've never used pirated software in my life...but I'll be damned if something I pay for is going to spy on me!)

It's very hard to pick one thing as being my favorite thing about LINUX, because there are so many good things (It's like trying to pick a favorite episode of All In The Family...)- and it's not always like the differences between MS and LINUX are like night and day....as if Windows never worked and LINUX is perfect; but I think it's a case of LINUX being better in many small ways- ways that don't always sound too significant, but yet when they are all added up, make for a vastly superior and much less frustrating experience. For instance:

It would take close to a minute for my Windows to shut down at night. I either had to turn my DSL modem off and wait about 20-30 seconds for Windows to detect that it weas off (or else it would hang during shutdown) or....shut windows down and wait about 50 seconds for it to shut down, and then turn my modem off- so either way, I'd be sitting there for a good minute or more, every time I turned my 'puter off before bed. Ubuntu shuts down in 7 seconds. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal on paper...er...screen- but in practice, it is a big point of frustration eliminated. Times that by a few hundred, for all the other little improvements, and you get the idea.

But if I had to pick just one thing- I'd say it's the stability of LINUX- that my 'puter now works as well and as fast before bed as it did in the morning. With Windows it would always be slow and buggy by the evening. Rickety old Windows kind of negated the fact that we are using sophisticated computer technology in the 21st. century. LINUX seems to let you do what you and your computer are capable of doing without restriction. LINUX is a powerful German sports car...Windows is a Renault Le Car! ( http://matt_birchard.tripod.com/cars/LeCar.jpg )

The command line and having multiple desktops (or workspaces, whatever you want to call them). I saw an attempt at the latter by NVIDIA some years ago, but it wasn't as good. Things may have moved on now, however.

I gave linux a try 5 years ago because I was getting fed up with Microsoft. I still use linux because:
1. The abundant choices (distros, desktop environments, etc) available to the linux user.
2. Security. No worries about malware.
3. It is free (as in freedom, and mostly free as in beer!). I can install my linux distros on as many computers as I want without having to purchase a separate "license" for each computer from the mother ship.
4. The fact that I am free to set up my computer the way I want, instead of being forced to do things a certain way.

Hmmm

As I still use Windows and probably won't ever give it up entirely, my private desktop machine runs linux 95% of the time. And seriously, there ARE a lot of things I like in windows (e.g. the fine-grained ACL settings for everything, from filesystem to uri-namespace...) and STILL when using my private PC I prefer linux -- I think those are the reasons:

- Opensource: This is extremely important. When I have a problem, I can ultimately take a look at the source. Microsoft provides SOME source (e.g. most of the .NET framework) and this is cool but often, the source for the class/module/driver/etc you'd REALLY need to understand what's going on is missing...

- (most important -- hehe) my digital tv card: It works with linux, it does NOT work with windows. Strange, but true -- it's the first revision of the KNC-One DVB-C board that was never officially sold, but was part of a pc-based settob box. Found it on ebay, very cheap. Linux' "budget-av" dvb driver handles this board perfectly, the original KNC-One driver for windows just WON'T work (Code 10: Device couldn't be started).

What is Windows?

For me the best thing is I've never ever lost a single byte of data on a linux system.

I moved to linux 10 years ago when microsoft failed me for the last time and lost all my data.
I still use windows for gaming, thats about all its good for, anything mission critical is done on linux.

The freedom

I would say my favorite thing about using Linux is the power. Windows suits a lot of people because it is restrictive, but that does not suit expert users and developers, thus the general freedom of many Linux distributions (not all) to do what you wish with it is good for someone like myself. However MS's restrictive approach does have some benefits, in the job I am currently working in, I am aware of 2 of our customers having run the command "rm -rf /*" as root, just to find out what the command DID... tho it has been ~3 and a half years now. You would think if people wanted to know, they would do it on a test/development box... not live servers that host services on the Internet...

I agree with much of what has been said so far.

True. Thanks to Free Software we have total access our programs right down to the source code, and we are allowed to customize and fix them to serve us better.

Windows is a family of operating systems consisting entirely of software which is not Free Software.

Because most Gnu/Linux distributions are built from Free Software we do have a great deal of freedom.

If I had to choose only one favorite thing about Linux I think it would all boil down to Free Software. I can list some other things I enjoy too.

• extremely powerful and flexible command line enables me to become as intimate as I wish with the inner workings of the system
• an abundance of choice in software for any purpose imaginable
• all software is easy to find and install thanks to advanced package management systems such as APT on Debian and Ubuntu
• I can easily create my own programs in any of dozens of different languages and integrate them with my system
• documentation, tutorials, and reference material for every part of the system are everywhere on the Internet and I can get support from real people in forums or even live on IRC
• much less need to worry about viruses, spyware and other malware threats
• never have to worry about being locked out of my system by draconian OS license enforced by a gigantic corporation which cares more for profits than the interests of customers
• The fact that is isn't Windows is just icing on my cake

The whole package.

Top reasons why I switched to Linux:
1. UI that in my opinion is much better than M$ or Apple. I use Gnome + Compiz with a 10 button mouse that's customized to glide through any GUI application. (Also the reason preventing me from switching to Slackware from Ubuntu)
2. Ability to work with CLI--that's how I prefer to code.
3. Don't worry much about viruses, malware, etc..
4. Doesn't slowdown with time like Windows.
5. It's free and highly customizable.

I think the best, or possibly second-best, thing about LINUX, is my friend, EricTRA!!!
Props, Brother!

Well, I've spendt my first half of my life with windows, and the last half with linux, and I honestly got to say that windows isn't my cup of tea. Until reacent versions of KDE (which I rarely use) the only thing I liked better with windows was the ability to hide tray icons. Now that this is included I can't think a single reason, no matter how small, to use windows.

Also it matters to me that it works. In the sense that you don't need to reinstall the whole system once or twice a year to remove garbage. I can easily use my system for a year or two without any fuzz. Infact, I can do so without having to reboot. No virus, no license, basically no crap.