Linux is just BETTER. This post is not to tell everyone how bad Windows is. For a few, using windows is a choice, for the many, it isnt. So I'm going to list the pros and cons of Windows and Linux and then give my reasoning for using Linux. Windows 98: Pro- Good Hardware Support Pro- Good Game Support Con- Poor Stability Con- Poor use of Hardware Con- Expensive Con- Not very cutting edge. Linux: Pro-More Software (Linux runs most windows software) Pro-Better use of hardware (Linux takes full advantage of a state of the art machine while windows treats all machines the same) Pro-Free (Everything on linux is FREE!) Pro-Always on the cutting edge. Pro-Totally configurable in every way. Con-Tough to configure and get working Con-Poor Hardware Support Con-Poor Game Support If you have a Pentium 4, with over 256 megs of ram, a SCSI harddrive or raid setup, and you are using Windows98 then you are a fool, you are wasting your money because Windows wasnt designed to take advantage of the power of the Pentium 4 however Linux IS optimized for special Pentium 4 specific instructions. Windows98 cannot do raid, Windows2000 can do it, however Windows handles the swapfile very poorly, no matter how much ram you have, you can have a gig of ram, your computer still runs at the same speed because Windows is using your swapfile, turning the swapfile off is the only way to handle this problem. Windows is very unstable, one program easily can crash your entire system, this is rare in linux as linux is designed to stay up for years at a time. Windows also lacks power, you cannot _script_ it, I wont go into detail but with full _script_ing you can do things like delete all mp3 files in 5 folders on your HD in one command while in windows you have to open each folder up and point and click. The only way your hardware is used in Windows is for gaming, so unless you play a game 24/7 your harddware isnt really being used is it? Linux actually uses the power of your machine, if you have a Gforce3 card, you'll actually be able to use the special effects of the Gforce3 in your interface http://images.themes.org/shots/982758182.jpg http://images.themes.org/shots/977698312.jpg http://images.themes.org/themes/e/shots/935259274.jpg http://images.themes.org/shots/987981619.jpg The only thing compareable is OSX on the Mac, Linux is out of Window's League in terms of Interface. Even WindowsXP looks weak when compared to a Linux interface and the interface is Xps only new feature. The best Windows can do to its interace is throw a little skin on top of it, big deal. Linux can do scaling, which means you can shrink stuff and zoom in, XP cannot do it and no plugin will allow windows to do it. Heres WindowsXP, see for yourself. http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/winxp_2462_002.gif Even Linux can do XP better than XP can! http://images.themes.org/shots/990437226.jpg http://images.themes.org/shots/990437226.jpg Its a shame when your competition does your OS better than you do! Not only does Linux let you take advantage of having a super powerful machine with its interface, but via _script_s, you can let the machine think for itself, using AI and automation, taking further advantage of your 2ghz beast of a CPU. While windows kills Linux when it comes to playing games, Linux is better for just able everything else, So anyone whos a power user should definately be using Linux. Windows? Thats for the casual user who just uses their computer to play games and occassionally check their email. It wouldnt surprise me if most people here fit into that catagory, but for someone who wants complete control of their machine that they spent thousands of dollars to buy, Linux is the answer. Newbies however should stick with Windows.