It would have worked fine on Vista or 7 just plugging it in as well. The CDs are usually useless these days.

You probably just think you're satisfied with Linux.

I was going to say the same thing. SQL Server has been the easiest to set up in my experience. Oracle, by far, has been the absolute worst to set up, configure, use, etc.

They already know. It typically comes on a hidden partition on the hard-drive so that you can 'restore' the original software.

Problem is that too many companies equate Linux distros to open source and very few even think about releasing source code in any form. One company you can almost bet will never support Linux is Bethesda (look how they are screwing PC and PS3 owners over). Valve realizes the potential for Linux, and honestly I think everyone is wrong about paying for games. I would buy games off steam if I could play them under Linux in a heart beat.

The other thing I think plays into how little Linux is received, is the fact that it is considered a programmer's operating system and not a gamer's OS like Windows. Too many companies get used to a sure thing and staying in their comfort zone rather than pushing what can be done on different platforms. Think about it, in regards to the consoles, if the companies pushed the PS3 to its boundaries instead of bitching about the design curve and actually learn the curve and adapt to it, then the PS3 could very well blow the PC and 360 out of the market. This will never happen because, as many devs have said, they like the ease to develop on the 360 and don't really push the PS3 dev due to complexity. Seems everyone is getting comfortable with how everything is in the world and in the game industry.

It's about time the phrase "Push the boundaries!" actually mean something again everywhere.

Oh, nitpick if you want, but the point I'm making is Windows (mainly Vista and XP, but 7 also) does not recognize hardware that I have plugged in. Tablets, cameras, printers...

Somehow, this OS that didn't cost me any money recognizes these things flawlessly. I find that kinda funny...

In my experience, Win7/Vista have only failed to recognize and get appropriate drivers for hardware once or twice, and that was with obscure hardware that I expected to have to go digging for.

Windows pays the price of popularity: crapware, adware, viruses, botnets. If "normal" (not you and me) people in significant numbers were actually buying computers with Linux preinstalled, the same thing would happen there. The first rule of buying a Windows computer is: format and reinstall before you do anything else.

With Windows 8 there are now two seperate ecosystems in one OS, which means twice the amount of things to complain about. I can't wait to see how this is going to unfold.

It is? Really? Wow, it has gotten to the point that Ubuntu is all I use in regards to Linux. I believe me I've tried a lot.

Heh, and Steam is 'only' coming to Ubuntu. Why the heck didn't they just do general Debian? I wanna play.
Linux has its crud. I sometimes hear people complain that the innards of X are crud. If that's true, I can imagine it to be as much of a monster as Windows' DOS legacy.

The Windows desktop is way slower than GUI environments in GNU/Linux. Everything is slower in Windows. Keep in mind that GNU/Linux users mostly still use Windows (e.g., at work) so we have lots of experience with both systems. You're wasting your "breath".

As for Ubuntu, I'd say it's the least free distro imaginable. They don't care about using non-free software and make it convenient to do so. They also dumb the distro down to make it more accessible to lusers, which has its merits, but ultimately it makes the system vulnerable, compromising many of its usual strengths. Obviously if a luser has full root access then the system is just as vulnerable as any Windows system. At the very least, they should have to work to unlock those capabilities. Ubuntu makes it easy to access the full power of root by default (in fact, they don't even acknowledge the root account by default, instead granting unrestricted sudo access to lusers).

Ubuntu is Debian for dummies, with additional non-free software prompts (i.e., you need some software that is illegal due to software patents and the like, click OK to install it). You have to ask yourself how Canonical, Ltd. gets away with that.

Maybe. But that's the default mode for windows. You generally have to work at it to get a clean system, which is something most people won't do.

Killing Floor coming to the Steam Linux beta

Just plugged a USB printer into my laptop with Windows 7, and it didn't provide any sort of feedback... what's worse is that the printer's website says that Windows 7 auto-detection is the only way to get drivers for this printer, there is no downloadable driver for it! I'll have to try some workabouts sometime later, but meh... when I plugged that printer into the same laptop running Linux, everything worked automatically .

Also, when I installed Win7 onto that laptop I had to spend at least an hour getting random drivers for stuff like USB3, built in audio, wifi, etc etc. My Linux installation on the same laptop probably took 3x time less.