The Pitch

With the recent press that Linux (and Ubuntu in particular) has been getting, it seems to be a good time to go back and look upon reasons for switching. HardOCP spent 30 days with Ubuntu and found installation "from the LiveCD is incredibly easy and problem free." Their bottom line was

For those who stick it out throughout the learning curve period, the rewards are great.

I'd admit, not everyone wants the same things from their computers. They're very general purpose for that very reason, so migrating to Linux may not be worthwhile for you. When I changed over seven or so years ago, it was fun. It was a huge learning experience that I never could have gotten from Windows. I had access to the code that ran everything I was doing, and it was like my first steps on the web. A wealth of knowledge.

At the time, that knowledge was a bit of a puddle of mud. I was stuck in it and needed how to learn how to breathe. Luckily I was looking forward to getting dirty. Nowadays though, installing and setting up a Linux system isn't nearly as dirty. Most of that is done for you, and for those that aren't, there are quite a few resources sitting about.

So why should you bother putting a Linux CD in your computer? First of all, it's free. Free as in "free beer" and free as in freedom. You won't have to worry about being mistakenly identified as a dirty pirate, functionality won't be forced away from you in an upgrade, and it inter-operates well with other systems. While no operating system has perfect security, you'll have less malware infecting your computer. It will also be generally easier, cheaper and have more choice when extending functionality.

Starting out is simple. You can download a copy of Ubuntu and get started without even installing anything to your machine.

The Resources

Ubuntu Documentation Team has a great desktop guide. For specific questions, The Ubuntu Guide is comprehensive, if not a little overwhelming.

The best thing you can do is to use the system and ask questions when you have them. Google may solve them for you. They were probably already solved on the Ubuntu forums, and if they weren't, you can probably ask it there.

Oh, and just asking me would generally be a good option as well