I find that people who compare Linux to Windows and prefer Windows tend not to compare apples to apples. They'll compare the worst case of Linux with the best case of Windows. However, when you run into problems on a Windows box, I don't see it as a lot simpler than Linux. In Windows, you still end up searching online for a solution and then often go digging through the registry, installing this or uninstalling that, and yes running stuff on the command-line. The real issue is re-learning the same skills that people had to learn when they began using Windows, and there is some denial that they never had to do that.

I think Windows is a lot more troublesome than Linux. Take installing a printer for example. In Windows, you install a printer driver that you have on disk or that you've found by scouring the Internet and then once you've installed that, you do the plug-and-play thing. In Linux, you just do the plug-and-play. That's looking at each system at their best. It's not always that simple on Linux, but then it's not always that simple on Windows either.

There are a lot of problems with Windows that people are conveniently blind to. Like the fact that you have to have a good virus checker running at all times AND a spyware checker, and these cost you about $50 a year. After using Linux for a couple of years, my eyes are opened to the highway robbery that is. Then there is the very onerous validation and activation system put in place by Microsoft that can make it difficult if you need to reinstall your legally purchased Windows operating system or Microsoft Office. People never seem to have the original Office disks around. Then there is the gradual Windows slowdown that happens over six months to a year. Defragging helps (which incidentally you don't have to do in Linux), CCleaner helps a little more, but there doesn't seem to be anything that can restore Windows to the speed it was at when you first installed it or bought the computer. And again, there is the problem of re-activating programs should you decide to reinstall the OS. With Linux, reinstalling the OS and applications from scratch is a 30 minute process. I haven't even gotten into the issue of updates. Windows is very high maintenance. I'm often unsure which of us is the user.

I'm done with that ****. I switched to Ubuntu a couple of years ago, and I haven't run into any problems that I feel are worse than dealing with Windows every day. My Dad is in his 70's, and after he lost his hard drive to a virus - while he was running a fully updated virus program - he got so fed up that he had me install Ubuntu on his computer. My father is a very conservative Mormon who doesn't like new things, and he loves Ubuntu, though admittedly there was a learning curve.

Sorry for the rant, but I feel better now.