Dell Recommended" 11272

All of that depends on how much your time is worth, chris. If it is not worth so much, then you can do a lot of things yourself on the cheap, installing and using linux being one of them. If you have a requirement to fit into a long existing infrastructure that uses a lot of Windows compatible software and has gobs of data accumulated over the years in MS Office formats and you have a lot of time invested in using the Windows platforms and office automation products, you will gladly spend a few bucks to keep the ship on an even keel. The linux fans call this an evil "lock in" by the Redmond devils. Most business schools call it offering your customers protection for their prior investments. Linux fans look at it as something to be avoided, but people who have made substantial investments in time and money look on it as a way of preserving their values. Many of the computer buyers in the world do know that they can begin again, if they are willing to start from scratch, but they see nothing wrong with how they are getting by now.

You COLA folk run around and sneer and talk of BSODs and instant theft of information by hackers and worms and viruses and spies and spammers and all manner of ills, but it just isn't all that prevalent and it has been getting better and better of late. When-if the real people see you doing your fretful dance, they think you are some kind of nut job, a sort of Chicken Little of the internet, screaming that the sky is falling when it obviously is not.

You just come off as an extremist, chris. Do you find that people tend to leave the room when you enter?