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@atdiggYou're unfortunately getting dugg down, but I agree with you completely. I switched to Ubuntu this week, having no experience with Linux whatsoever, and only minor experience with Unix via OS X. Changing my Dell from XP to Ubuntu, even with virtually no experience, was really exceptionally easy. It wasn't instantaneous, it took a couple days of tweaking at night to get all my peripherals running, but there's no question that you're right: I will absolutely not be paying money for Vista when with a little effort, I can get a clean, decent looking OS for free.The people digging you down might be right in some aspects; a certain portion of any sales in the technology market is dependent upon sloth, not quality, but there are still lots of people like me who had never really considered a Linux build as a viable alternative, only to discover that it isn't as frightening, difficult, nor ungainly as we were led to believe.

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Linux gets such s**t and FUD from Windows users saying "It's too hard, It's too hard" all the f**king time.It's not. Don't tell me your _experts_in_computers and then suddenly when asked in Linux "What's the subnet?" You whine and bitch because Windows automatically puts a /16 subnet in there for you.All these people that claim Linux is too hard....your not trying hard enough. You can't teach a Windows user new tricks because they go "We already know this and we already know that". You can't learn something you *think* you already know! You have to accept that you can't start rewriting config files in /etc/ until you use the OS like a normal machine and you have experience.I promise you, ship Linux with new PCs to regular users (not people that think they are geeks) and we will see them getting along with Open Office, Firefox and Evolution just fine.

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The idea of Linux getting a fair share of the desktop market is like Duke Nukem Forever.

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I don't think that open source is the solution to everything, but in mature sectors (as in word processing, operative systems and other) there is no reason to pay so much for proprietary solutions. I agree that especially governments could save a HUGE amout of money adopting OSS in general, and Linux in particular, for their commodity-level software necessities. They have the scale to make it work.

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Buying Linux preinstalled is key to mass acception. But there is still a step between where we are today and the end goal. And that is a version of Linux that can be downloaded, put on a CD, installed in any computer with any hardware, updated, and used.....Now maybe that isn't "getting" the open crowd, but most people don't care about the open crowd. They care about easy, usable, and cheap. They MIGHT "get" the open crowd once they are more experienced with the OS. Really linux supporters need to stop trying to package their way of life with thier OS. The very fact that linux caught on in some circles when someone finally caved and made GUI shows that I'm right. Having said that I use Linux on my PS3 (I'm on it now)

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0.42% of the market ? Are you talking about the Linux used by MS employees ?

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LOL, sorry. I'm working on it.

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Already happened:<a class="user" href="http://media.linspire.com/ltoast/&quot;&gt;http://media.linspire.com/ltoast/&lt;/a&gt;GNOME ToasterFREE*<a class="user" href="http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_details.php?product_id=2335&amp;pg=review&quot;&gt;http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_details.php?product_id=2335&amp;pg=review&lt;/a&gt;

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