well said. Just recently tried to get used to linux. But I'm impatient and also have other thing so do so i rather dropped it quickly.
My general observation was, that for a specific problem you either find 0 solutions or 15 different ones of which most don't work in your special case and the one that might work miss some very important description on how to actually do the explained thing.
eg. do "this" but "this" requires a 10 step work-around which you have to search separately only to find out that this method is one of those that don't work. and 1 hour more wasted.
Actually, very poorly said. It easily takes me 10x as long to get Windows setup with all of the apps I need installed and configured as it does Linux. Primarily because Linux comes with 99% of those apps out of the box, which Windows can't do but can't be discounted either. So if I used Windows at home I would end up spending infinitely more money on the licensing, 10x the initial setup cost and then at least double the effort of patching and keeping it running from month to month.
There are still a few areas in Linux with rough edges, but I'd say all of the low hanging fruit have been taken care of over the past decade or so and the barrier to entry is now significantly lower. Unless you need something that's designed to be Windows-only, the long-term ROI on Linux is so much higher that it's not funny.
Lonbjerg said:
Half my hardware would either not work...or be seriously degraded in functionality if I ran Linux...I guess that is Windows fault?
No, it's the manufacturer's fault for not releasing firmware documents so FOSS drivers can be written or taking it further and supporting Linux with GPL'd drivers themselves. Everything I have has worked out of the box in Linux with zero effort from storage to sound to networking. That definitely can't be said for Windows because you always have to run around and hunt down at least 1 driver and it's most aggravating when it's the NIC because then you need a second machine just to get the first up and running.
Go ahead and try and install OS X on there and see how much of your hardware works. Would you blame Windows for that?