Soleron said:
It depends on your needs. What do you mainly use your computer for?
The main advantages of Linux over Windows are:
1) Easier to install any software - over 20,000 completely free programs that are good or better replacements for many Windows applications are availible with one click - no installers and no download websites.
Unless you have to compile or "make" it yourself. If the program is not prepackaged in some format (rpm for example), it can be very time consuming to get things up and running.
Unless you're a computer addict, it's hard to find a program that does what you need but isn't packaged by Ubuntu. Name a program that isn't packaged that somebody new to Linux would need. Even then, there are usually websites with user-compiled DEB or RPM packages, as well as official or unofficial backports repositories and Personal Package Archives.
Linux: Beta/RC version of application released every two weeks with cutting-edge features and usually partly broken. Stable version released just before new distros come out and are included in the next release.
Windows: Just the six-monthly stable version at best. At worst, yearly pay-for upgrade with few new features except supporting a new version of Windows.
If you ignore the unstable versions of Linux applications, you usually get up-to-date everything until the next six-montly distro release with the new stable version.
2) Much faster than Windows.
This is a 100% bold-faced LIE. Linux is absolutely not faster than an XP setup and in fact it's often slower. The reason for this is that Windows uses a lot of prefetching of the sort that Linux decided to avoid for security concerns. What this means is that programs on Windows are often "snappier" than their linux counterparts in loading.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. YES, default Ubuntu is roughly the same speed as XP in my experience. But, Windows suffers from performance slowdown over time (My Vista takes 10s to open FF on a fast computer 2 months after the install while Ubuntu is still instant like day 1.) Also, lighter distros than Ubuntu are availible that still provide a full user experience but are much faster than Windows - Xubuntu. At its fastest, of course, full Linux kernel can run on mobile devices, while Windows can't be stripped down very far.
3) Zero viruses and almost complete protection from spyware
There is no such thing as "complete protection" as most computer-related maladies today are caused not by a hole in the system but rather the actions of a stupid user. That said, a stupid user is much more like to screw up an xorg/x11 setting in a Linux environment than get a malicious program.
I know. I'm trying to put it in simpler terms. Linux is set up so you shouldn't require a day-to-day admin account (Microsoft allows third parties to deamnd admin rights for simple apps, hence UAC annoyance), and also many pieces of malware simply will not run since they aren't binary compatible. Finally, Linux installs Firefox by default which means you never have to use an insecure browser, which is the attack vector for the majority of applications.
4) Free. Completely free. Major new versions of Linux distributions are relaesed every six months or so with more new features than a new version of Windows.
Free is good, but considering many PCs people buy come with Windows pre-installed (at a cost to them of course) and do not follow through the steps and hassle of getting it refunded, free is a hard argument to sell against Window's "free."
Again, I am well aware of the reality, but suppose Microsoft releases Windows 7 with must-have features A, B and C, and the next version of Ubuntu also has these features. The Windows user will have to a) buy retail, costing over $100 for the uncrippled versions or b) more likely buy a whole new computer to support the huge hike in system requirements the new Windows brings, paying for OEM Windows too. The Linux user will click the new distribution release button and have the new features on the same day for free.
5) Looks better than Windows. Search youtube for "Compiz". Wobby windows, transparency, multiple desktops.... much better than Vista, and thousands of free themes and icon sets that don't require hacks like Windows does to use.
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