[jan1024188]

I love open source (in right hands)

[apoorv_khurasia]

because no body else uses it...

And please do not say that linux does not put trial softwares on your distro....

[stubbe]

here're mine :

7. I'm the only Linux user among my friends. That make me feel a little "I 0wn the world" feeling. I can talk about stuffs that make them raise a brow and said "eh?" . Thus make me feel a little bit smarter than them too ROFL
6. I can do anything with my Linux installation, although most of the time they turn out disaster and my system won't boot
5. I get new, updated version without any license update, registering, activating, trial period craps or something similar like that
4. Paranoid free internet usage
3. Free softwares under Linux
2. Linux is free (both as free beer and free speech)
1. New technologies for Linux aren't restrained by economics or commercial and market consideration. If people got great ideas for Linux the next thing you know it's included in the next release.

that is what I can think of right now.

[lam]

I love free choice
I love information sharing
I love something that works without having to be coddled

On a Windows machine my first thought is “What's wrong with the OS this time?”

In Linux it's “OK, what am I not doing right?”

[hazel]

Some of my reasons:

1. I can understand how it all works. Windows is easy to use but no-one outside of Microsoft has the faintest idea how it works. (If you want to know why this is so important to me, see my earlier post on "Being a Little Old Lady")

2. I feel safe surfing the web with Linux. No viruses, spyware, trojans, etc.

3. I can use it on my legacy hardware.

4. There's masses to learn so you never get bored.

[jonantice]

Many reasons but two main ones:
Repositories and package management
Makes me feel oh so special.

[harner]

Originally Posted by Ataxicwolf

2. Linux doesn't act like my system resources are delicious chocolate donuts.

I like that one. I think the people who support/like to troubleshoot Linux are great. Once in awhile I support Windows issues, and it usually takes some thought and research to figure it out. My workplace is a Linux shop (99% SUSE) and when there's a Linux issue we sit down and bang it out. Usually because if there's a bug/conflict/issue Linux will display an output of what is wrong, as opposed to "Error 98072439082473."

Linux usually runs applications more smoothly. For example, if any of you are familiar with Lotus Notes, we loaded our Domino servers on Linux boxes. The emails flew through them so fast we couldn't even see them coming in. it took us a few hours to make sure they even work. That was on legacy server equipment! We since upgraded to some nice Dell rackmounts. I'd still have my fancy Linux workstation if I would have gotten the Notes client working. Damn Mozilla!

There's so many more reasons. If I think of any I'll share.

[fatalexception]

I don't think anyone mentioned the UNIX philosophy that continues to be a tradition in 'every' Linux distribution! Linux is a descendant of the long line of UNIX operating systems that stem back from the '70s.

That said, one of my favorite aspects of Linux is the incredible set of user-land utilities that are sure to be there when you install your operating system, such as sed, awk, bash, and the other GNU utilities, etc. I'm in love with bash scripting, and the command-line, which I owe exclusively to Slackware. I use GNOME, and I have some flashy Beryl effects, but the CLI is so incredibly powerful, I can't imagine how I *ever* got by with the strenuous actions necessary to do even the simplest things in Windows. Its text-based, communicate-with-other-programs nature is truly an outstanding design.

Linux, combined with its inherent ease of developing, makes it seem like anything is possible. I know this sounds corny, but I can feel the power in my fingertips. It's opened up a whole new world of open source that I was never aware of while using Windows. Exciting for a budding programmer.

There're a million reasons, but I won't reiterate or continue. No need to because others will in my stead. Oh. And I love GNOME and the flashy Beryl effects.

[harner]

Did anyone mention how the Xgl 3D desktop > Mac + Vista wrapped in a tortilla wrap? Honestly, the 3d desktop blows both of them out of the water.

[thulasi]

Linux is used in numerous domains, from embedded systems to supercomputers, and has gained a stronghold in server installations with the popular LAMP(Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) application stack.
Linux distributions support dozens of programming languages.
Linux documentation project provides all the materials free in digital format.
So if you are familiar with linux internals,don't worry about your career.