Why not Windows?

Prelude: Why not Windows™?

Over the past two decades, personal-computer users have grown quite accustomed to the idea that their computers must run a Microsoft operating system -- originally "DOS", and now various forms of Windows™ (™ will be dropped hereafter, but you need to be aware that Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Over the past decade or so, a growing number of people have become aware of, and switched to, the Linux family of operating-systems.

The first question is, why would you not want to run Windows? After all, it comes "for free" with your computer!

1. It is not free! Whenever you buy a computer with Windows installed, you have paid approximately $150 of the purchase price in an indirect "Windows tax", which the computer manufacturer pays Microsoft as a licensing fee. That is of course, passed on to you.
2. Windows is notoriously unstable. The (formerly very common, but thankfully less so now) phenomenon of the blue screen, whereby Windows would sieze up and become unusable, is only one manifestation of the problem. Less well known is that every version of Windows incorporates a huge amount of the previous versions of Windows, for "backward compatibility". This code is poorly integrated and prone to crashing, primarily because very little effort is expended to stabilize it. The reason, of course, is that Microsoft is marketing-driven, and you can't market a feature like "works better with old programs". The bloat also makes Windows slow, but that's a separate issue.
3. Windows is notoriously insecure. Almost all viruses and 'bot attacks are vectored through Windows computers. This is because Windows has a plethora of security holes, even when the latest security patches are applied. Any Windows user can attest to the extremely frequent "security updates" applied (that is, if the user didn't turn off auto-updating).
4. Windows is a closed system. Only Microsoft knows how it works internally, everything about it is a trade-secret. Microsoft reserves the right to change anything and everything about Windows, whether or not that affects your business or your systems' security. You have no say in what goes on "under the covers".

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