Originally Posted By: mlord
Originally Posted By: canuckInOR
Originally Posted By: mlord
Why would *anybody* shell out their hard-earned, after-tax money, for operating systems software???

Because sometimes the necessary apps aren't available on the free operating systems, don't run well on a virtual machine, or aren't supported by projects like Wine.

But presumably most computers already have a "free" copy of something on them. So why pay money for all of that extra pain ???

Because the "free" copy of something isn't necessarily the thing they want, or need?

I'm a bit confused, and wondering if we're talking past each other. Are you just talking about paying for OS upgrades, or paying for an OS in general?

I mean, I get what you're saying -- Linux has been my sole OS since '98-ish (barring a brief stint on IRIX at work, and now part time OS X at work via a company supplied MacBook). I see no point in paying for an OS, or most of the apps I use regularly. A large portion of the industry I'm in uses Linux on the desktop. For the most part, it works just fine. Heck, I even use gimp for photo retouching. But every now and then, there's something that's completely missing, or just so painful to use, that the "free" version just doesn't cut it. If they were a regular part of the things I use, it's not "paying for extra pain," it's paying for pain to go away (or, at worst, trading one pain for another, possibly more manageable, pain).

I recommended OS X to my parents, because a) it's better at things that they want to do than Linux is, b) is more compatible with the other people they share files with, c) supports software that isn't even available on Linux, and d) I didn't want to be their (unpaid) support technician.

Different strokes, you know?