the cost comparison shopper

It's well known that around here, to compare Windows to Linux is viewed with amusement and may even get you a shake of the head, as if to say "you still don't get it, do you?"

First of all, most people get way to carried away with the Linux vs Windows debate anyway. Let's take a little break and get back a fresh sense of perspective people. It's a computer OS. It's not the end of the world or even the end of computing.

Point one, use what you want to use. If you like windows, then by golly, use Windows. No one else really cares what you use. Same for Linux. If you prefer to use a variation of Linux, so be it. Leave everyone else alone.

Point two, if you simply must enter a discussion on which OS to choose, throw out the common and mostly useless arguments and pull out your list of "what do I do and need to do on a computer". Using an OS really is more about software than anything else. The OS itself is really just a platform for the hardware to talk to the software to talk to the user.. It's a middleman or a translator really.

If you base your discussion on usability instead of "this OS has windows pop up in pretty blue colors and that one is brown ", then you will go a lot further in making an informed and workable choice.

But hey, for a bit of fun and a little discussion, let's comparison shop. I like to comparison shop, it usually saves me money. Sometimes it doesn't. That's because sometimes, you get what you pay for. That means, There have been times I walk into a store, find a product X that says it does the same job as Product G but when you get home, you realize the reason Product X was 50% or more cheaper is because they don't have the same quality or performance as the 'other' product that costs more. It's just cheap.

Now, if I go to the store to comparison shop for say, laundry detergent. I can buy Brand J which cleans the clothes and has a pretty scent and a nifty formed handle on top to carry around.

OR, I can buy Brand P, which has a pretty scent, cleans the clothes and doesn't have a formed handle, but a cardboard or plastic simple handle to carry it around instead.

What I need to do is get the clothes clean. Both brands do that, both brands add nice scent to the product. The packaging is what is different. Brand J has a formed custom package that is mostly for ultra easy holding and pretty much eye candy. Product P just has a cardboard box with a simple handle.

Product P is 50% the cost of Product J. I will take Product P becasue I know how to manage a simple handle and I don't give a rats patoot about eye candy.

If Product P didn't clean the clothes as well as Product J, then I won't be buying it again.

This is pretty much what Linux vs whatever OS's boils down to, packaging.

Linux pretty much has software available to do the things we want to do on a computer as other OS's have software available for.

Linux software often has different, sometimes more 'plain', packaging and presentation to it.

Also, we need to realizze that in the Linux world, the same as in the other OS worlds, there is more than one choice of application to do a task.

There is more than one web browser, more than one music player, more than one GUI, more than one email app, the list goes on and on. No one is 'stuck' with the defaults a given Linux distro provides. There are other choices, exactly as in other OS frameworks.

Experiment, find one that you like and use it.

That goes for software and OS's alike.

Too many times, people get caught up in the frivolous issues that amount to arguing over eye candy and personal preference or conditioning.

Now, if you say that Linux is too hard to use, well, I know of pre-school children that can work their way around Linux just fine. So if you aren't as capable as a five year old, that's maybe not something you want to admit in public.