The vast majority of Windows users in the world have never experienced the advantages that a multiple desktop computer environment provides. That is because most people use Microsoft Windows and that operating system only comes with a single desktop environment*.

A course set up by a Junior High public school in Monza, Northern Italy, involves students who find difficult to focus on theoretical, talk-only lessons by teaching them how to build their own computer and install Ubuntu on it. A few participants went back to Windows after the course, but the majority liked Ubuntu so much to stick to it.

« Many universities and engineering schools provide their students with a free Microsoft Windows ® license through a partner program with Microsoft. Yet, when students buy a new computer, they also pay for another (OEM) Microsoft Windows ® license included in the computer price.

Most people with an interest in software freedom will turn to GNU/Linux as their operating system of choice. Few realize however, that the vast majority of GNU/Linux distros are not entirely free. Imagine migrating away from Windows, only to find that by installing GNU/Linux you are accepting a restrictive Microsoft license!

If your daily routine means that you spend much of your time behind a Windows system, yet you love the power and flexibility of a Unix-based environment, it might be frustrating not to have access to the tools and environment that you want...Cygwin is a Linux-style environment for Windows.

Microsoft Windows comes pre installed with hardware in most of the cases and hence a vast majority of Windows users probably have't ever seen Windows installer. But that is not the case with Ubuntu. Only a handful of manufacturers sell pre installed Ubuntu hardware and hence the need for down to earth simple and eyecandy Installer.

So, given that the vast majority of users don't actually use an OS as anything more than a launchpad for their word processors, IM clients, games and web browsers, why has Linux failed to make any real impression in the desktop OS space? The problem, in a nut shell, is that the word processors, IM clients and games they use in Windows don't run in Linux.

The Minimalist GNU for Windows (MinGW) project is a way to get GCC and tools like binutils working to build software for the Windows environment—something that might not sound very interesting to Linux users or developers.

Nearly everybody knows that Android is built on top of a Linux kernel, so that should mean that it is good old-fashioned open-source software, right? Actually, that’s not the case. […]