I’m one of millions of computer users who find that free is better than paying for closed software. I don’t condone stealing software but like so many have not proudly done so for financial reasons in the past. These days there is no reason to practice this larceny. You can have a functional working system with all the software you could wish for, free at no cost at all. Open Source solutions are the answer to avoid many user woes like viruses and nasty Trojans that plague other operating systems. It is understandable that any change can be perceived as strange and uncomfortable to a person. If you recognize yourself in this description just think of all the frustrations you went through with your current system. There is the discussion in hilarious commercials between the two big players on the market. The real question you have to ask here is not if you’ re a Windows PC or an Apple Mac, but if you want stability and freedom. Let’s face it, the trouble free system like Apple Mac OS X are stable and robust in their application but usually cost twice as much as a perfectly good PC. Apple has established themselves as a status symbol with an aura of wealth and riches. This is not an option for most people with modest incomes. Microsoft has Vista as their last major distribution of Windows OS, we all know this wasn’t a great commercial success for Microsoft because of legacy hardware driver issues and forced hardware upgrades gave fuel for a disgruntled user-base. More and more tech savory people know you can use the stable and robust UNIX like system on PC hardware with freedom from the money hungry clutches of both companies. Be free from DRM’s and software patents use Linux instead! Saving money is a good thing too in these challenging economic times. I’m talking about quality software free thanks to the work of millions of programmers and volunteers across the globe. The Linux OS is considered a good and cheap solution by major companies and school systems these days, and that is a real good thing for computer users like yourself. These companies pay their developers to work on Open-Source software projects for needed features and through this give back to the community. I highly recommend Ubuntu to any person new to Linux who wants to give freedom a try. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download this will download an image in ISO format which you must open with your cd burning software and burn to a cd. A live cd can be used to try Linux out on your computer without erasing your data.