In ascending order of ignorance:

Computer Science Professor/Student:
"That cool computer thing I helped make."

Developer/Programmer:
"Heaven."

High-end user:
"The system I haven't rebooted for three years which automatically manages my entire life. Also my life configuration isn't forwards incompatible with Life Vista."

Low-end user:
"Not only does the (good) software I used to use on Windows come free with it, but when you get used to everything else (or configure it to your tastes) it's actually far better than Windows. I've switched."

No-Brainer:
"I can check my email, watch my DVDs and listen to my music without "Illegal Operations" or worrying about configuring my "firewall""

Beetle:
"What? Can I eat it?"

Windows advocate (who does not know what a file is without a cryptic three letter code at the end. How does MP3 stand for the third (audio) layer of the Motion Picture Expert Group's first codec?!):
"That pile of crap "recompile your kernel" thing where you have to type everything and my favourite 'Yet Another First Person Shooter Which Is Just Quake 3 With Different Guns' doesn't even work on it because a) It is obviously the OS developer's fault if third party software works on it or not and b) I haven't even been on transgaming.com. Now I'm going to go to as many public message posting systems as possible and contradict myself at least three times per sentence as I rave about how it doesn't even have graphics (which microsoft obviously ...

Linux is an operating system that has a near religious following akin to Macintosh users. Devotes who use Linux constantly claim that only people who know what they are doing use it while also saying how stable and useful it is. They of course often forget that when only highly trained computer experts use the tool with limited deviation that the system will appear far more stable because of the lack of permutative chaos it receives as input.

Linux users often go out of their way to find flaws with Microsoft systems. This is because they find the corporate desire to protect intellectual property as a hindrance to their technical tasks. Many of the crashes that these technologists speak of are related to their attempt in dominating the system beyond its design. It’s akin to them beating their head against a brick wall and then telling the rest of us it hurts and wishing the wall would be removed.

Simply put, Linux or Unix is for technical people who want to have near absolute control of the system. In advanced sciences of all types this is often necessary so Linux has it’s place for advanced studies and technical development that really is unable to be beat by Windows because of the corporations desire to protect its intellectual property which acts as a road block for highly technical users.

Many Linux devotees also tend to be control freaks, which is necessary in complicated systems in order to maintain order. If the chaos hamsters were ever let loose into ...

a better os than windows

A multiplatform operating system based on Unix

Linux is a free (as in libre, not always as in gratis) kernel that, together with tools from the GNU project, forms a stable, high-performance, multi-user operating system.

Its advantages over Windows are mainly ideological; it's free, usually in both of the above senses of the word, and the license, the GNU GPL, prevents proprietary implementations from screwing you over (Linux "companies" sell support, not Linux itself, for this reason).

It's also much more stable than Windows, owing to its stricter memory management, access controls, and hardware abstraction policy, and its networking performance is better since it's really meant more for servers than for desktop usage. Linux has finer-grained access control at the user and device level, though to be fair, Windows has had Unix-style file permissions since NT. Reboot times for Linux, however, are measured in months, and the only reason you should ever need to reboot Linux is if you installed a new kernel.

The disadvantages of Linux compared to Windows are mainly issues of ease of use. Linux is hard compared to Windows, mostly because it tends not to detect certain devices. This is a circular problem, because the drivers tend to be written only for Windows to begin with. It also, despite what the makers claim, *does* require some work at the terminal in most cases, and this will scare away most Windows users who never worked with Dos and the 9x series. It shouldn't...

Equals liberty and your own personal privacy. Have any of you Windoze FUDders ever heard about how Windows Media Player sends data back to Microsoft about all those MP3 files you are playing? Or that Windows itself has a backdoor that lets the NSA snoop around your computer and find out about you? Get a friggin life and wake up!

Short term for GNU/Linux. This operating system is created to be stable, fast, and secure. It comes in different flavors "distros" to suit everybody's needs. Help is available everywhere except from the Windows idiot. Linux is a made as open-source to allow people to edit linux itself to suit their own needs. Linux will only crash if you are too attach to windows to let go of it.

Windows in the other hand is EXPENSIVE! Windows comes with little good software, and extra applications will cost you big time. That nice noise they have when you boot is important, cause you'll have to hear that alot in one day.

Has different window managers and different desktops for different people to use. You could even make you're own window manager or desktop.

When I installed Mandrake Linux. It was easy and simple to use. I had it barely configured and used it only to help me on my homework. Then I got Nvidia drivers for my video card, and started gaming and other stuff. Now, Linux is the only thing I ever need.

Windows is a piece of crap and some nice alternatives are BSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris. These are UNIX based and are some of the best operating systems.