I left the Windows platform in both heart and soul long ago. It was not a sudden epiphany or a clearly marked crossover point for me, but rather, a long period of personal education and continued use of Linux. Eventually, it became quite clear to me that there are fundamental flaws in how Windows is designed that make the OS painfully open for attacks and inherently prone to unreliability.
I only had two users on my home computers, myself and my wife. My wife was used to using both Mac and Windows at her office, so learning yet another OS was not a big problem for her and she made the transition as a user pretty easily. I on the other hand, as the system administrator and user of the system, needed more hand holding and books and especially user groups to understand the new operating system.
Eventually, over a period of years, I became familiar enough with Linux administration to make my server and desktop computers do whatever I needed them to do, from the command line and from a text editor over Secure Shell. As my understanding of Linux inceased, my vocal musing about how superior it was to Windows soon gave me a reputation at work as being a “crazy Linux guy” who has no patience for the incompetence that is Windows. I yearned openly for a day when everyone used Linux and so many problems would just fade away.
Unfortunately, business uses Windows and changing the minds of business leaders who have become enslaved in poor business practices over decades of use, is pretty much impossible. So I had to maintain a foot hold in the messy, illogical world of Windows if I wanted a job in the IT industry. Now I look upon helpless Windows victims as poor unfortunate souls. I shake my head, bite my tongue and walk away.
If you find yourself in a Windows based business and are looking for ammunition to get management to switch to Linux, this report on The Register should be required reading. It sums up the valid reasons to use Linux over Windows and puts to rest much of the marketing FUD that pours out of Redmond about their hobbled OS. Good luck my friends, I hope we can eventually turn businesses back from the dark side, like Luke eventually did for his father.