The latter person requires a stable system. When I buy software, I want it to last for years. I want it to be transferable to any new computer I buy. I do NOT want to be constantly learning new software/hardware just so I can do exactly the same functions I did with my old software.

Even Microsoft goes through too many versions. Spreadsheets are a perfect example. I’d wager that 90% of spreadsheet users would be just fine with an Excel spreadsheet from the mid-1990’s, yet MSFT is constantly obsoleting their old Excel versions. I won’t even talk about Vista.

Linux is far worse. First, you can’t even find many applications for Linux. Second, the “standard” Linux operating system is constantly changing. This obsoletes your software on a regular basis.

As for security, Linux is only safer because hardly anyone uses it, so the hackers do not target it. I guarantee that if Linux were to become the predominate operating system, it would have just as much trouble with security as Windows does now. There is simply no such thing as an unhackable operating system/browser.

I suppose one day we will all be interfaced to the “cloud” and that will be even worse. We will have zero control over our applications, and security will be at the whim of government. We’ve all seen how well the SEC secures our money. Wait until they have all our information too.

Linux, like Windows and Mac, does allow you to be productive and work into new versions without old documents and programs to become obsolete. OpenOffice.org’s office suite for Windows, Mac, and Linux offers a superb tool that meets most computer user’s needs and reads and writes documents that can be shared with MS Office users.

On the security front, Linux is based on Unix which has been THE main stay in security for more than 20 years. Large corporate and government systems use Linux/Unix systems because of their simplicity, stability, and mostly security. And when Apple based their system on Unix in 2001, the security and stability of the Mac OS skyrocketed. And although the percentage of desktop users for Linux and Mac combine to be less than 10%, the Unix/Linux server market is the market leader.

And lastly, to the cloud computing evolution, I believe that cloud computing is the future. Cloud computing can be secure, fast, and offer the computer user the same computing experience regardless of operating system and computer choice.