With the marketing and technological disaster that has been Microsoft Vista, combined with Microsoft’s stated intentions not to sell Windows XP after next month, there has been a bit of a scramble to find options. Apple has, needles to say, capitalized on this.

As for me, I am a Linux user. I have been a Linux user for almost ten years now, and have run it as my only operating system for most of those ten years. During that time, any case where I have had Windows on my machines, it has been a dual-boot machine, rarely booted into Windows.

The trouble, though, is that Linux, up until recently, has been an expert’s operating system. In the last few years, however, this has changed. In 2005, I became aware of a Linux distribution called Ubuntu, which is distributed by Canonical, Ltd. out of South Africa. It brings the experience of using Linux up to a point where it is easier than using Windows.

I started by telling a semi-technical friend of mine about it. Scott installed it, and has been running it ever since. He does call me frequently for some technical help, but he is doing non-trivial things with it.

My wife was next. She had Windows XP on her machine. Her sister had come by for a visit, and, while here, had visited a bunch of websites that polluted her poor machine with malware. I didn’t have XP media to reinstall from, so I moved her to Linux. She has been supremely happy with it.

This past weekend, however, was the coup de grace. My wife’s best friend is the latest convert to Linux. Her machine previously had been bogged down terribly — not by malware, but by the software that is supposed to detect and protect from malware! I installed Ubuntu Linux on her machine, and started giving her some training. 30 minutes into the training session, she declares, “You know what? I already don’t miss Windows.” She has been preaching the gospel of Linux to her friends and family, and now they want to try it out!

Okay, I talk about it in religious terms, even though it really is a technical thing, but people do tend to cling to their systems in irrational ways. Microsoft capitalizes on that clinging to bring you one after another after another of crap products that just never really quite get to where they should. they introduced a product that was finally halfway decent (Yes, I give credit to Windows XP for being pretty good) and they abandon it, despite the cries of their customers.

Tell them no more! Show Microsoft that there is an alternative!