Why do you choose Ubuntu over Windows

[UbuWu]

All that has been said, plus:

- Lots of free software that can be easily installed without clicking through a lot of dialogs and accepting the weirdest license agreements.

- Possibility of direct contact with the developers, contributing your own ideas, see the bugs you report getting fixed (some even on the same day!)

- Less drivers to install, in Windows I needed drivers for my video card, network, soundcard and motherboard, in Ubuntu only for the video card.

[krusbjorn]

The horrific green plastic Start-button is enough for me ;P

[RastaMahata]

talking about games... I currently play ut, ut2004, q2, q3, civ3, Sid meiers alpha centauri (and expansion pack), sim city 3000 unlimited, neverwinter nights. every game runs natively, except for civ3 which runs fine in wine.

more info of games in linux available at:
http://liflg.org/ (Installers for native and wine versions of the games. If the game runs natively, you can use the windows cds)
http://www.linux-gamers.net/ (Lots of info and howtos, besides great linux gaming news)
http://www.happypenguin.org/ (A great guide to feeware and open source games that run in linux)
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=53 (The forum of gaming in ubuntu, hoary version)

[somuchfortheafter]

personally i like how integrated i can make my network using linux. Currently I am buidling a server which will serve as my home mp3/ogg server, a cups server, and a http/ftp server for some minor hosting of things. I also like the fact i can turn junk hardware and a bit of time into something people pay hundereds of dollars for(I am a do it yourselfer i suppose). I still have windows installed on my laptop however it is never booted but maybe 1 or two times a month depending on whenver I have to use it and a usb drive enclosure for data recovery/ virus recovery.

[xequence]

No spyware/viruses or anything like that. No worries that you will get a virus and loose your 5 GB of music. VERY customizeable. Dont like the default gnome desktop in ubuntu? You can get a whole bunch of themes. Plus if you dont like any gnome themes, you can get XFCE or other ones.

I had windows ME and it kept freezing and blue screening me. Many times a day, it was as stable as jello as someone said a couple days ago. For me, windows is good and stable if you dont have ANYTHING whatsoever installed.

Linux IS freedom. Freedom to do almost whatever you want with it.

The apt-get stuff of ubuntu is great. Type one command and you can download and install something. Type one command and you can download and install updates to ALL of your programs.

Though in my opinion dual booting is great. You get all the good things about linux and the (yes, there are some, but not many) good things about Windows.

I do think one of those really popular games (Unreal Tournament or doom 3 or something) has a linux version. I dont know which one because I dont have a crazy powerful computer.

With linux you get a new up to date modern OS. For free. With a GREAT community. Unlike windows which basicaly doubles the needed RAM each time for its versions, linux is good at using system resources.

Another thing. Linux is much more advanced. On windows I could only get 800*600 resolution. On linux I got 1024*768. I didnt have to install any drivers on linux.

[Brunellus]

Freedom from fear. No viruses, adware, spyware...thus no headaches associated with them & countermeasures.

Freedom from bondage. No chance of being orphaned (in terms of OS or application support), provided the community continues to use & support the software. Try that with Windows down the road.

Freedom of choice. GNOME and XFCE. I prefer both operating environments to Windows. With Windows, you get Windows' GUI....sorry.

Freedom to learn. Linux has been an excellent way to teach myself more about my computer and how it works. I've missed this since DOS.

Freedom to experiment. I've been able to play with lots of different software packages very easily.

Overall, I find Linux a better tool for me--it does all the useful things I want. Windows has been relegated to the 'toy' OS--something to run games on.

[Curlydave]

talking about games... I currently play ut, ut2004, q2, q3, civ3, Sid meiers alpha centauri (and expansion pack), sim city 3000 unlimited, neverwinter nights. every game runs natively, except for civ3 which runs fine in wine.

more info of games in linux available at:
http://liflg.org/ (Installers for native and wine versions of the games. If the game runs natively, you can use the windows cds)
http://www.linux-gamers.net/ (Lots of info and howtos, besides great linux gaming news)
http://www.happypenguin.org/ (A great guide to feeware and open source games that run in linux)
http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=53 (The forum of gaming in ubuntu, hoary version)

Still, many games dont' work on Linux. I've got Doom3, UT2004 and Red Orchestra working on Linux. However, they all perform quite badly, and I can't turn on AA/AF/vsync. I can live without AA, but AF and vsync are very important. If I could turn them on I'd probably get around 2 fps, so I guess it's a good thing that they don't work. Frankly, I don't give a damn who's fault it is that my games run poorly on Linux, but the fact of the matter is that if you have an ATI videocard you'll suffer from the limitations I've mentioned, and pointing out that it's ATI's fault won't fix anything.

Oh, and you can't minimize in fullscreen mode, which I like to do on occasion.

[drizek]

Amarok is pretty good, but the only thing it has over iTunes, in my opinion, is being able to fetch the lyrics of whatever song you're playing--though, that's a pretty awesome feature!

theres also the wikipedia integration, the audioscrobbler integration and hte ability to play formats other than mp3/aac.

amarok also supports plugins, and it is more configurable and has a much better UI IMO.

and most importantly, you are forced to install quicktime if you use itunes. quicktime is a worthless annoying POS.

[MetalMusicAddict]

Its fun.

Really Im kinda of the same opinion as you in that I dont have a big need for linux but I like the Idea of it. I have 3 out of my 6 PCs running linux now. Those 3 machines are really day-to-day machines. Web browsing, e-mail, chatting, Music and video. All done pretty easy with Ubuntu. I dual-boot on my powerhouse machine. I play games and do graphic design on it. I actually paid for Photoshop and Im not gonna let that money go to waste.

There are also some apps I really like on windows. So it stays for when I need them. On a day-to-day basis though Ubuntu gets used. Its fun for me and I dont have to worry about my kids/wife gettin a virus and infecting my home network. That is untill people start targeting Linux.

I started also because I like to tinker and I dont agree with some things MS does. Just me.

[Takis]

A mouse whose pixels you can't see!
Seriously though, free and freedom. It's free as in $0. It's free as in spy/mal/somethingelse-ware free. You have the freedom to do whatever you'd like with it - this is by far the biggest plus, but the hardest one to really pick up on. I'm still finding cool stuff to change every day that I didn't even think possible.

Also, no ActiveX or registry, which is enough for me.

The registry ought to be shot.