Between the troubles faced in the US domestic economy, the conflicts in the Middle East and Asia, health care reform, and setting a good example for his daughters, Obama is a man to be respected for his accomplishments during the past year.
What? What? I'm sorry, but what did you say? Huh? What? Oh, sarcasm!!!
I've given several people a couple of minutes prep on Linux, and then let them go on their own. Only the dumbest of the bunch had trouble. Everyone else was fine, and even liked it more than Windows. So I guess my experience makes it more like 75/25 in favor of Linux (and in my case, the dumb one being the only one with a problem and that was because it wasn't like the Windows he'd been using for years - I bet he'd have been fine if he hadn't started with windows). Granted also, I did pick bright people for my subjects (with the one exception), because I knew they could handle the change better. But not because Windows is easier than Windows. Brighter people tend to be able to change environments more easily.
Now that doesn't mean that all those people stayed on Linux. They had to have Windows for some applications that they ran (like Quickbooks), but they would have liked to have used Linux if there had been the application support.
I've used Unix/Linux since 1980 for work, and since 1992 at home. I'd hate to have to give it up for Windows. Yes, I use Windows plenty (unfortunately) and I support several businesses and many homes that use it. It's kind of like being a Doctor - I'm treating a crippling disease without having to have the disease myself.
My Dell Latitude D820 is loaded up with Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex. My co-workers use Windows. Yesterday I got our department Sprint data card. They told me it would probably take me a bit to get it working on the laptop (because it took them a while to get the driver installed and setup to run). So I took the card and inserted it into the PCMCIA slot. In about 20 seconds (without my doing ANYTHING else) it was connected to Sprint's network and I was using it like the laptop was born to use it.
I use it for doing every task that I have to do for work. There are over ten thousand windows users here at work. We went through a big change from Groupwise to Exchange and Outlook. I use Evolution, and I get complete access to everything I need - scheduling, email, the works.
When people say that Linux is not ready for business use, they smoking somethin' that making them see the world in a false and distorted way. I'll never go back to Windows.
It's not difficult, it's just screwed up. Why should they have so many differing levels of the OS other than marketing and a way to make more money? You get people in with the crappy starter versions, then when they realize what a piece of crap it is, they go to the next level, always paying more to do it, and getting just slightly less crappy software all along the upgrade path until you buy the top of the line crap that's less crappy, but still crap, but you *feel* better about it because you paid more.
Bait and Switch is illegal, but this is a similar marketing method. Bait and switch is getting them in with a low-cost item, then getting them to buy the higher priced one. With the Windoze marketing, they don't switch, they just get you to buy an upgrade. Same basic strategy. Different, but unfortunately legal, method of execution.
It's also an appeal to customer vanity, jut like fashion. What makes a pair of faded, beat-up, torn jeans from a trendy shop more valuable than a pair of jeans from a thrift shop? The price is higher because of the designer label. "My jeans are better than yours because I paid more!"
Same thing for versions of Windoze. "I've got the Uber-Premium, Ultimate, Kick-Ass, Expensive version of Windows on *MY* machine! What's on yours?"
Consumer stupidity and corporate greed are what have put our society in the crapper. If you don't think I'm talking about you, you're probably wrong.
For those who are die-hard Apple fans (and they are the largest group of iPhone purchasers), the only way to make an iPhone Killer is to have Apple be the one to make it.
Let's face it people, if Apple came out with Apple iFeces, there would be a line around the block of Apple fans eager to buy it on the first day.
"More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined." -- Fred Brooks, Jr., _The Mythical Man Month_