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With all the other options that exist nowadays I find it hard to believe people still get excited about, or even use - whatever Microsoft release.

I'm not anti-Microsoft in the was I was 15 years ago, I'm happy with whatever OS runs the apps I need and gets the job done with the minimum of hassle.  It just so happens, the answer is rarely a Microsoft product.

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Wow, there seems to be heaps of hate and misinformation here about Linux.  

I run Linux almost exclusively.  The only app I lack under Windows is Cubase.  I have a lot of history, investment and time/experience tied up in Cubase.

Photoshop?  For what most of us do, GIMP is actually more than sufficient.   I know many professional photographers who do the majority of their post processing in GIMP.   I personally use Darktable (an Adobe Lightroom clone) as my only RAW image converter/processor.    I also do video editing using OpenShot and 3D modelling/rendering (again for video) using Blender.

These are fantastic software packages, not half-arsed buggy 'compile from source', 'lib dependency hell' packages.   Most software you could ever want is available in standard (or extended) repos.  It just works.

As for drivers, I've not had any driver issues for years.   This isn't even true of Windows, which still seems to require additional drivers for basic things like printers, some USB chipsets (USB3?), any even slightly unusual soundcards etc.

Window managers - how can choice be a bad thing?  People love OSX because it's different.  People also love KDE, Gnome, Xfce etc - different solutions for different people.  Some like the window manager to hide in the background, others like gadgets and interactive toys to brighten up their desktop experience.

There seems to be a huge amount of hate for Unity but ... you know what?  It's mostly just a launcher;   It launches apps.  I spend most of my time actually using applications - not bitching about the lack of some wizzy composite effect, or the fact I now have to right click whereas before I could left click.  

Check out these packages, then their windows (or OSX) equivalents (and their costs) and you may find yourself reconsidering Linux.

Darktable: http://www.darktable.org/ (Canon/Nikon/Pentax/Sony etc RAW editor)
OpenShot: http://www.openshotvideo.com/
Blender: http://www.blender.org/
GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/
Libre Office: http://www.libreoffice.org/

Linux *is* now a mature OS with mature applications.  Your decade (or more) worth of Windows experience may not be easily transferable, but then this would be equally true if you moved to OSX (which is also rock solid with superb applications), or any other desktop OS.

It's sad that I feel the need to defend Linux on an Amiga forum.  You guys are dismissing a whole world of quality free software - you're seriously missing out.

Seriously, I can't give enough thanks to the developers of Darktable, Openshot, Blender and GIMP plus Linux / OSS in general.   Having such amazing software available for free is just incredible.

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Wow.  I'm really sorry to hear people have such a difficult time with Linux.  Mounting an ISO image has been a simple task for a very long time and it certainly was not broken in Ubuntu 9.10.  It sounds much more likely the ISO was corrupt, or in fact not an ISO at all (perhaps a zipped ISO without the .zip extension?).  Regardless, I'm sad to hear it was a world of frustration for people.

Regarding the comments on Gimp - I don't understand any of the criticisms.  I wasn't a Photoshop user, instead I migrated from Degas Elite (Atari ST), to Deluxe Paint (Amiga), to Paint Shop Pro (Windows) to Gimp (Linux).   The path wasn't at all painful and I can still switch between Gimp and PSP with very little frustration (basic tools, layer windows etc are all very alike).   Are you sure it's not Photoshop which breaks the convention? I've heard people say Photoshop has a learning curve and can be difficult to get started with - I have no personal experience here.

My surprise at defending Linux on an Amiga forum?  Perhaps I should have worded that as my surprise people are so pro-Windows on an Amiga forum.   The reason I felt so at home in Linux was due to years of experience with the Amiga.   Amiga (AmigaDOS?) to Linux (BASH) seemed a natural progression, certainly a lot more natural than Amiga to Windows.  

If anyone needs any Linux support please feel free to poke me.

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"After 5 years of all this s**t, I simply had enough."

This is exactly how I've felt when battling with Windows in the past.  The random slow downs, the driver issues causing random blue screens, the endless patch updates that always seem to be applied when least convenient (on startup or shutdown), the need to run stacks of anti virus and anti malware software just to browse the internet, the need for third party software to do absolutely *anything* useful, not to mention every windows version I've tried constantly stealing window focus on startup; you start typing in one window, only for another (windowless) background process to start and sneakily steal focus - half of what you typed has vanished.  Repeat this several times during startup and I'll willingly throw the PC out the window.

And you say Linux is broken...

I suspect it's very much a case of being happiest in whatever environment you're most familiar with.    Personally, I'd be very happy if I could ditch Windows 100% - it's only currently Cubase (or rather the cost of Apple hardware) that's delaying this.

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I may be looking back with nostalgia clouding my judgement but I'm sure the Amiga CLI was much more capable than DOS.  I remember my first year in university, discovering Linux & Solaris and thinking "wow, it's like a multiuser Amiga" (my comparision being the power of the shell).   It was certainly my familiarity with the Amiga CLI that gave me the confidence to dive into Linux.  My other friends (all with DOS/Windows experience) seemed to fear csh/tcsh/bash.