I believe you are misunderstanding. The point is people tend to think something is easy and works IF they are familiar with it, and think something is complicated and not 'just works' because they're not/less familiar with it. MacOS came into the picture as 'just works' is their motto and they do put a lot of effort into simplifying things (sometimes to the point of loosing functionality - but hey).

Good point Attila77. Familiarity does a lot to dictate the sense of "works" and "doesn't work". There's also a huge element involved in this too where people say "I already know this, so why should I learn anything else?" I suspect that some of that comes from repeatedly having your head drilled into the wall by your teachers in college and high school such that you're sick of learning by the time you hit the real world. So that may partially contribute to that attitude. (I know I was for a number of years)

I've had 2 N800's and 1 N810 and they have been really great for websurfing/short documents/navigation/multimedia in weird places on the planet. I bought a MSI Wind six months ago. Didn't like XP on it. Tried every Linux distro until I found one that's works pretty much out of the box (Kubuntu). Now it has been delegated my on the go doc writing/multimedia machine and the N800/N810 websurfing/navigation. I think that one needs a larger machine for the writing/multimedia and the tablets work really good for the websurfing/navigation roles (though as i grow older, then screen is getting harder to read.... )

Sorry to disagree. Hundreds of people work in my institutions. Windows is everywhere, so is technical support. I was told that I could request a Mac, but if anything went wrong, there would be no support. If you think I would be eager to get one of those "just work" machines, you must be out of your mind. Hey LordRaiden: by your logic, since you know English so well, why don't you study a new language, such as Chinese, or Russian? Speak for yourself with this life learning thing, I am 62 years old, and don't need lecture from anybody.

I've worked in several very large companies where they had that attitude toward learning anything new. Thankfully, in order to remain efficient and competitive, they opened up and then realized it wasn't nearly as difficult or as expensive as they'd expected--in fact, we've been proving it to be a particularly impression advantage to be open to things we're not used to and giving them a chance sometimes.

If you're going to use seniority and age as a reason not to be lectured to, certainly you must have the wisdom and experience to also open yourself up to possibly being proven wrong and shown something new and better without the barriers put up by such excuses as 'this is what I know'. I doubt you'll have such a limitation once you've had your 'Ahha!' moment in something new.

Do you even have the capacity to read? I hate to sound like a broken record, but let me repeat for the last time: people should not be expected to have the same set of skills. I know 6-7 languages, and do keep up with technologies (does the fact that I visit this forum mean anything to you?). Tell you what: you promise to perfect one foreign language, then I promise to become a Linux expert. Deal?

What do sets of skills have to do with anything in this matter ? You said you have on-site Windows tech support/policy/recommendation, and that's ok, from that point on you don't have to justify anything further. It works the other way round, too - my grandmother uses Linux because she has me for tech support as the family policy is that I don't mess with Windows installs

Note that languages might be a good skill base for comparison, as it is heavily influenced by the environment (say, I'm also at 4-5 extra languages as a result of childhood/schooling circumstances even though my core competence is in engineering, but this might also be a 'European thing').

It's good that you have some understanding, attila77. I know this is a linux-related forum, but some enthusiasts forget that Windows is a legitimate OS (the default OS in most corporations), and that learning to use Windows does take some efforts too. As to language, you are lucky being a European; I had to go out and study for many years.