Funny that many "open" source sites don't allow spidering or indexing of their site.

I do not mind if there was a charge for Linux, although being free is nice.

I decided to try Linux because as each iteration of Windows came about, more and more things get locked down so the user cant do things. For testing I still have a Windows install (used rarely), but by going from WinXP to Win7, even silly things like recording "What you hear" from the sound system have been locked down. It's this constant locking down of features that drove me to Linux.

Leaving aside major changes like KDE3 to KDE4, at least I am free to change the desktop the way I like, and not some way Microsoft wants you to "experience" in Windows.

One thing I will say, sometimes you can't get people to Linux no matter how many Live Distros you run showing their really old computer can be used again at a faster speed with up to date Linux compared to an ancient copy of Windows (and is too old to run up to minute Windows).

I'll elaborate: despite your vendetta against the command line, do you use sign language instead of talking to people? The command line is far more natural and powerful than the GUI- it's like speech. Hell, even MS is implementing better command lines, does that mean microsoft is in decline? Or rather, is that the reason that microsoft is in decline? Not even, powershell is one of the most useful- or perhaps, the only useful administration tool they've introduced in years.

Ignoring your disgusting double standards and logical fallacies, your argument, or rather, conviction, is wrong as well. You hardly have to use the command line on linux if you don't want to, anyway, what- do you think this is still '95? One should never have to open the terminal in ubuntu, or mint for instance, to fix anything- it just makes it easier. What's more intuitive, "open up this program, browse to this menu, you sould see this, browse to this sub menu, click this button..." or "type this into bash and you're done"? Even if you maintain a CLI-free usage, you can still fix any problems that crop up in a... roundabout way. Your argument is both poor and totally irrelevent.

And, I know you're not likely to understand this as the biggest Microshill on slashdot, we don't want to castrate our OS for market share. Believe it or not, I, and many others, could not care less about being the most popular OS in the world- in fact, that'd take the fun out. I just want a solid OS kernel that powers distributions that I can run on stuff dating back to the 486, without issue- with good hardware support. What's the point of using linux if we've made it as unstable, crashy, bloated and locked down as windows, in a quest to emulate the biggest triumph of marketing over technology the world has yet known? Market share is irrelevant. What is relevant is making the best damn OS out there.

As for your bashing of OS market shares, even maintaining 1% is growth, as the number of computers in the world is much higher than it has ever been- however, the actual linux market share is 2%, most of that gained even in the past 3 years. Not to mention that little success that was linux on the phone, which you consistently refuse to acknowledge in your postings.