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All medical equipment, all ATMs, every single factory automation system, every single biomedical device interfaces with windows.

"Interfaces with" is a very broad term. Anything that speaks a standard network protocol that an application made for or ported to Windows also speaks can be said to "interface with" Windows.

Now as for health care stuff actually running on GNU/Linux, look at these free health record databases. The VA's VistA can run on anything that runs MUMPS, and there are distributions of the VistA that run on an Ubuntu VM.

The computer you're typing on was made because of Windows.

That's quite a "stretch" of logic, especially as I type this comment into a Lenovo ThinkPad X61 running Debian 9. Could you explain your reasoning?

A few weeks ago I cut the cord and migrated away from Windows to Linux (mint). Was using SyncBack to backup my files, now I need to find a new solution.

I'm on my 5th package, because the first 4 were screwy in various ways. The default backup tool doesn't save profiles, so you have to type in the source and destination every goddamn time. (But when you do, it *does* work.)

"BackInTime" apparently allows multiple profiles, so I created a profile and hit "close" and got the error "default profile source directory invalid". Yep, multiple profiles allowed, but will ONLY run the default profile. Google reports that this is a known issue with the program. "apt-get purge" to the rescue.

It can't be *that hard* to copy files from one place to another. I like to have multiple profiles that I can just click and let run overnight - sometimes it's copying to my backup server, sometimes it's copying to a thumb drive, and sometimes it's a different subset of files.

I live in hope that one of the packages (there's like, two dozen) will do what I want: let me set up a 1-click solution that will copy files to a remote location.

Four down, about 20 to go. I live in hope.

first hit: http://www.linuxlinks.com/arti...

I did some research into this topic awhile ago. Here is a list depending on the age group:

3-7: GCompris (http://gcompris.net/-en-) *** Best ***, KDE Education software (http://edu.kde.org/), Tux Software Series (http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/), TuxPaint, TuxMath, TuxType all excellent, Omnitux (overlaps with Gcompris) (http://omnitux.sourceforge.net/), SuperTuxCart (no education just game) (http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/), SuperTux(http://supertux.lethargik.org/) (entertainment only), Secret Maryo (similar to Super Mario, pure entertainment, no educational value) (http://www.secretmaryo.org/), Frozen Bubbles (pure game, no real education here)(http://www.frozen-bubble.org/), Crayon Physics Deluxe (commercial, puzzle game)(http://www.crayonphysics.com/)

6-14: Scratch (teaches computer programming in an amazingly intuitive way..had 11 year old figure it out with no computer background and no experience) (http://scratch.mit.edu/), Alice (teaches 3d art), (http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice), World Of Goo (commercial, puzzle solving)(http://www.2dboy.com ), Trine/Trine 2 (commercial, puzzle solving)(http://http://trine-thegame.com/site/) (good for developing puzzle solving skills..good graphics), Greenfoot (teaches Java to pre-teens similar way to Scratch) (http://www.greenfoot.org/door), Cogs (Commercial puzzle game) (http://www.cogsgame.com/), DreamChess (Stragety...its chess)(http://www.dreamchess.org/), E-Adventure (teaches people to make their own point/click adventure games) (http://e-adventure.e-ucm.es/), Gbrainy (Math/logic games) (https://live.gnome.org/gbrainy), Inkscape (Vector Graphics..works well with Scratch/Alice as teaching tool and book)(http://www.inkscape.org), And Yet It Moves (Commercial puzzle/alternative physics) (http://www.andyetitmoves.net/), Machinarium (Commercial, flash adventure game..great for kids) http://machinarium.net/demo/, Minecraft (semi-commercial, install on Linux may not be straightforward) (https://minecraft.net/), Botanicula (Commercial, Flash adventure Game)(http://botanicula.net/)

Most of the non-commercial games listed above are readily available hrough the software game channels of most Linux Distros including Ubuntu, Mint (I've confirmed all on Mint), Fedora and Debian. I included links in case for some reason the user friendly Software Install Dialogs in Ubuntu/Mint or default Synpatic Package manager channel configuration doesn't do the trick. The commercial ones come in various installers, most user friendly but a few you may need to make a menu launcher manually.

Children specific OS Distros: I've never tried these but it may simplify your OS installations with pre-installed game/activities: http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/index.html ***(this looks VERY good for kindergarden first timers on a computer)*** http://www.qimo4kids.com/what-is-qimo/ http://www.edubuntu.org/ http://www.foresightlinux.org/release/foresight-kids-edition-1-0-release-notes/

Recommend all purposes Distro for early starters (6-and up): http://www.linuxmint.org/ (Not education specific but software installation menus make it easy to find/try educational and non-educational games...ubuntu does to but Mint makes it easier for non-techies...have 9-12 year old using it with no training...no problem)

other list of games for Linux are here: http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080510052539217/Games.html http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080522164112313/Games-Part2.html

While educ

I did some research into this topic awhile ago. Here is a list depending on the age group:

3-7: GCompris (http://gcompris.net/-en-) *** Best ***, KDE Education software (http://edu.kde.org/), Tux Software Series (http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/), TuxPaint, TuxMath, TuxType all excellent, Omnitux (overlaps with Gcompris) (http://omnitux.sourceforge.net/), SuperTuxCart (no education just game) (http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/), SuperTux(http://supertux.lethargik.org/) (entertainment only), Secret Maryo (similar to Super Mario, pure entertainment, no educational value) (http://www.secretmaryo.org/), Frozen Bubbles (pure game, no real education here)(http://www.frozen-bubble.org/), Crayon Physics Deluxe (commercial, puzzle game)(http://www.crayonphysics.com/)

6-14: Scratch (teaches computer programming in an amazingly intuitive way..had 11 year old figure it out with no computer background and no experience) (http://scratch.mit.edu/), Alice (teaches 3d art), (http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice), World Of Goo (commercial, puzzle solving)(http://www.2dboy.com ), Trine/Trine 2 (commercial, puzzle solving)(http://http://trine-thegame.com/site/) (good for developing puzzle solving skills..good graphics), Greenfoot (teaches Java to pre-teens similar way to Scratch) (http://www.greenfoot.org/door), Cogs (Commercial puzzle game) (http://www.cogsgame.com/), DreamChess (Stragety...its chess)(http://www.dreamchess.org/), E-Adventure (teaches people to make their own point/click adventure games) (http://e-adventure.e-ucm.es/), Gbrainy (Math/logic games) (https://live.gnome.org/gbrainy), Inkscape (Vector Graphics..works well with Scratch/Alice as teaching tool and book)(http://www.inkscape.org), And Yet It Moves (Commercial puzzle/alternative physics) (http://www.andyetitmoves.net/), Machinarium (Commercial, flash adventure game..great for kids) http://machinarium.net/demo/, Minecraft (semi-commercial, install on Linux may not be straightforward) (https://minecraft.net/), Botanicula (Commercial, Flash adventure Game)(http://botanicula.net/)

Most of the non-commercial games listed above are readily available hrough the software game channels of most Linux Distros including Ubuntu, Mint (I've confirmed all on Mint), Fedora and Debian. I included links in case for some reason the user friendly Software Install Dialogs in Ubuntu/Mint or default Synpatic Package manager channel configuration doesn't do the trick. The commercial ones come in various installers, most user friendly but a few you may need to make a menu launcher manually.

Children specific OS Distros: I've never tried these but it may simplify your OS installations with pre-installed game/activities: http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/index.html ***(this looks VERY good for kindergarden first timers on a computer)*** http://www.qimo4kids.com/what-is-qimo/ http://www.edubuntu.org/ http://www.foresightlinux.org/release/foresight-kids-edition-1-0-release-notes/

Recommend all purposes Distro for early starters (6-and up): http://www.linuxmint.org/ (Not education specific but software installation menus make it easy to find/try educational and non-educational games...ubuntu does to but Mint makes it easier for non-techies...have 9-12 year old using it with no training...no problem)

other list of games for Linux are here: http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080510052539217/Games.html http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080522164112313/Games-Part2.html

While educ

It's an ad link site.. Turn off your cookies on these guys..

Information that is provided to advertisers consists of aggregate statistics that we collate. This includes geographical and psychographic* information.

When links are submitted to our site, we request that the sender provides us with their real name and email address.

You know the routine..

*Huh??

http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/2011040308270275/DiskEncryption.html

Here. Not so hard, but bog - can't the submitter figure that out? Slow down, guys, nobody is gonna scoop you on this stuff.

"The bwshare module will refuse your requests for the next 1139999994000000000 seconds.
You have made too many requests per second. "
I like how clicking the link gave me that. Isn't that like... a few million years or more?

Here. Not so hard, but bog - can't the submitter figure that out? Slow down, guys, nobody is gonna scoop you on this stuff.

I love how you managed to quote a single /. article about a single persons opinion (albiet an influencial opinion) about the Linux Kernel and have used it as evidence in a sarcastic reply to an even more sarcastic post.

Windows *is* bloated. I believe the Windows 7 footprint when I installed it was in the range of 2-3gig, and that was *just* the OS.

Ubuntu footprint from my latest install on a laptop: 2gig, and that was *WITH* all sorts of games, apps, web browser, etc all installed with it.

If you stripped Linux down to what M$ gives you out of the box, the footprint would be significantly smaller.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure you couldn't get Windows 7 to fit on a 1.44" floppy and still have it boot.

A concise list is available here: http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20090529205342507/RemoteDisplay.html Remote Desktop Grdc GTK+/Gnome Remote Desktop Client TightVNC GTK2 frontend for rdesktop and other remote desktop tools rdesktop Client for Windows Terminal Services RealVNC Client/server allowing remote network access to graphical desktops Vinagre VNC client for the Gnome Desktop LTSP Linux Terminal Server Project adds thin-client support to Linux servers x2go Fast terminal server suite based on NoMachine's NX libraries NX Free Edition Terminal Server and Remote Access solution FreeNX Implementation of the NX Server and NX Client Components Other OpenSSH Encrypted communication sessions using the ssh protocol Add to that Neatx. What's that...?

http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/

In that list, I tried blue flops before, (a two floppy distro, with an enhanced graphical Links browser) it worked fine on an old mostly broken pentium 1 laptop with 16 megs RAM that I was given. It says in the notes minimum requirement is 16 megs or 8 with swap, and a 386, has Ethernet card drivers and a text editor and some other stuff. I know I was able to get online with it and surf reasonably.

http://blueflops.sourceforge.net/

A Trove of these things:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/

Promising:
http://atomic.eyedropvideo.com/remote1.shtml

Non-X woth graphical browsing:
http://blueflops.sourceforge.net/

another vote for savage 2.

s2 games is also working on heroes of newerth, a dota clone/fork/somethingorother (currently in beta). it runs (on all low settings) on my pentium m 1.8ghz mobility radeon 9700 old laptop. much nicer on my new desktop, but playable on weaker hardware. in short, s2 games gives me hope for the future of linux gaming.

also:
world of goo (amazing)

http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080510052539217/Games.html
http://whdb.com/2008/top-25-linux-games-for-2008/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_gaming

Linux FAILS on the desktop except in specific cases where a user has it installed by someone technically proficient or is technically proficient themselves.

The same is true for Windows and Macs. Dare you deny it? My wife got me a t-shirt to wear to family gatherings that says, "No, I will not fix your computer." because of all the questions anyone 'technically proficient' gets. Macs are better than Windows, but what do they call those people at the Apple stores? "Geniuses"?

Your other complaints have nothing to do with Linux per se and apply more to the environment it finds itself in. Frankly, I haven't run into the need for commercial Linux software so far (aside from some games), the FOSS stuff works for me. As to Linux games, you have half a point - but as Sturgeon's Law says, "Ninety percent of everything is crap." There are good games for Linux (and those are just commercial ones) but how much shovelware do you see for Windows? Even in the FOSS games, there are good ones, too. My kids love playing plenty of them, and even I enjoy a good game of bzflag now and then.

Linux FAILS on the desktop except in specific cases where a user has it installed by someone technically proficient or is technically proficient themselves.

The same is true for Windows and Macs. Dare you deny it? My wife got me a t-shirt to wear to family gatherings that says, "No, I will not fix your computer." because of all the questions anyone 'technically proficient' gets. Macs are better than Windows, but what do they call those people at the Apple stores? "Geniuses"?

Your other complaints have nothing to do with Linux per se and apply more to the environment it finds itself in. Frankly, I haven't run into the need for commercial Linux software so far (aside from some games), the FOSS stuff works for me. As to Linux games, you have half a point - but as Sturgeon's Law says, "Ninety percent of everything is crap." There are good games for Linux (and those are just commercial ones) but how much shovelware do you see for Windows? Even in the FOSS games, there are good ones, too. My kids love playing plenty of them, and even I enjoy a good game of bzflag now and then.

For example, some of the following: OCaml, Python, Ruby, C++, D.
But there are really lot of them available. What's best, depends on what you try to do and your taste.

Well, as you can fit linux on a floppy...

That's nice, but I think he's more interested in analysis and management tools rather than actually running a stock market...

I think you're right. Here's a list of apps from something I just googled.

"At home, again, I thought I would probably finding myself switching back to windows to do certain things, but that hasn't been the case (I haven't tried to manage my iPod yet, though)."

Although I haven't tried this solution myself, apparently CrossOver Linux from CodeWeavers supports running iTunes. You might want to give it a try. Of course, make sure to have a good backup of your music and iTunes Library just incase.

As a alternate, you can try gtkPod, which runs natively on Linux. This article gives you a quick rundown on the program's features.

Good luck...

Oblig. disclaimer: I'm not associated in any way with CodeWeavers or the gtkPod project for that matter.

Here's a list of applications to look through.
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Wordprocessors/Typesetting/index.shtml

Not sure what exactly you are trying to do, but there are several small Linux distros that boot off of a single floppy disc. Do a slight rewrite and get it to boot off the harddrive. An OS that is under 2 meg on a HD should run relatively fast, although you will be greatly limited by what you can do.

http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/ if you want a slightly more complete list.

The site or the author is a complete joke. On one of their 42 more best free games lists they put Crystal Space and Delta3D engines on there. Seriously what the fuck?

List the best free games. We're all well aware of the proprietary ones.

List the best free games. We're all well aware of the proprietary ones.

I was disappointed in the article as well. I expected more security in general and less distro/package specific advice.

I know enough about security to know I'm no expert but here are some of my personal tips:

• Install a hardened distribution instead of hardening one yourself if you have the option. Gentoo Hardened, Annvix and Trustix spring to mind. All are designed to be secure from the outset. For that matter, OpenBSD is a good option for a hardened server if you're not bent on using Linux. See: http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Secure/
• Don't install anything you don't need. Default installs from major distros include a lot of stuff you probably don't need. If you're setting up a server that needs to be secure, then doing a custom installation with only the minimum you need installed is probably far better than trying to go back later and pick and choose what you remove. A minimal RHEL install for example comes in at around 700MB. Annvix is around 300MB and it's been a while since I used Trustix, but I'm sure it was under 1G and I think it was under 500MB.
• Worry more about what is running than closing ports. Yes, a good firewall configuration is wise, but the main issue should be making sure that your system is doing only what you want which will result in only the ports you intend to be open being open. I haven't used Ubuntu in a bit, but I recall being surprised that it didn't firewall by default and instead relied on not having any listening services by default.
• Really use a good package manager. If you install software without it then it makes auditing your server much more difficult.
• I'd like to see more done with WORM media. If you have a small server install you can probably back the entire thing up to a single CD and put an md5 (or sha or both) on it. Then you can reinstall it at the drop of a hat and just do updates when it is re-applied.
• If you are using a distro that supports it (like RHEL) then learn a little about SELinux. It does tremendous things to make sure that software can only do what it is supposed to. Yes, like many other security approaches it takes a little more work, but it goes a long way toward turning Linux into seriously secure software.

Slashdotters should be able to add quite a bit, in fact hopefully this will turn out to be a discussion I reference later myself.

Are you kidding me? There are tons of minimalist distros. Here over one hundred minimalist distros to get you started. Many are specialized for some function, but many are not.

It did the job for what I was trying to do, but I would have been happier to use an actual CAD program.

It did the job for what I was trying to do, but I would have been happier to use an actual CAD program.

The distros that he looked at all have companies backing them and are the most popular because of this fact.

And shouldn't those distros be the BEST ONES because they have companies BACKING THEM UP? I had NEVER heard of PCLinuxOS, or Kanotix. I heard of SimplyMEPIS in some linux discussions.

But seriously, when you have more than 300 different distros to choose from, how could POSSIBLY you choose and make a wise decision? Do you really think a Joe User can have the intelligence, wisdom and patience to do such a titanic task?

Yeah, instead there's Mandrake, SuSE, Gentoo, Debian, Slackware, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Mandriva, Knoppix, Lindows, Caldera, Ubuntu, Xandros, aLinux, Arch Linux, Beehive Linux, Black Cat Linux, Symphony OS, BSD, Open Solaris, and many many others..

So much more simple ;o)

Yep, I completely agree with you...

OSS is not bad, but being at least 403 linux distributions, at least 40 window managers and at least 40 desktop environments available for Linux and like xxxx different "stable" office application available developed by almost the same number of different people ON ITS FREE TIME it is impossible to make them interact in a COORDINATED way...

I think what OSS needs are standards, communication and structure standards its like KDE and GNOME try to do this, the sad thing is that for OSS people only do what they WANT TO DO, so if some constraints are needed in order to make their software interoperable with others then people will just not do it...

And that IS the difference with a closed propietary software, because over Redmond, all the developers MUST comply with certain development structure and standards.

For an example the simple COPY/PASTE copy paste? It took (although I am not sure if it is working now) like 5 years to make COPY/PASTE to work *kind of* correctly in Linux (X Window and KDE or GNOME) and of course NOT with all the applications.

What about Windows?? well, at least since WIN95 the basic copy/paste behabviour was tehre for all the apps using a simple edit box and the like.

Yeesh! if OSS developers can not play togheter in those little things what can any company expect when trying to create a "full blown software enterprise office solution" haha... sorry folks but we [OOS Enthusiasts (yep I am one =o)] are got a looong way to go.

my 2 c

Yep, I completely agree with you...

OSS is not bad, but being at least 403 linux distributions, at least 40 window managers and at least 40 desktop environments available for Linux and like xxxx different "stable" office application available developed by almost the same number of different people ON ITS FREE TIME it is impossible to make them interact in a COORDINATED way...

I think what OSS needs are standards, communication and structure standards its like KDE and GNOME try to do this, the sad thing is that for OSS people only do what they WANT TO DO, so if some constraints are needed in order to make their software interoperable with others then people will just not do it...

And that IS the difference with a closed propietary software, because over Redmond, all the developers MUST comply with certain development structure and standards.

For an example the simple COPY/PASTE copy paste? It took (although I am not sure if it is working now) like 5 years to make COPY/PASTE to work *kind of* correctly in Linux (X Window and KDE or GNOME) and of course NOT with all the applications.

What about Windows?? well, at least since WIN95 the basic copy/paste behabviour was tehre for all the apps using a simple edit box and the like.

Yeesh! if OSS developers can not play togheter in those little things what can any company expect when trying to create a "full blown software enterprise office solution" haha... sorry folks but we [OOS Enthusiasts (yep I am one =o)] are got a looong way to go.

my 2 c

Why not try,

I've got an even older thinkpad (486, no cdrom) and it gets at least 90 minutes from a charge. Possibly because it is so ancient it draws next to no power, I'm not quite sure.

Because I'm lazy and can't be bothered doing an NFS or HTTP install of some proper linux distro on it, I use basic linux , which is somewhat limited but can do a few basic things. There's a collection of these types of things available here if anyone is interested...

Well, USB1 is what the notebook comes with but consider, the guy is currently booting dos and some old word processor off a floppy disk. You complain about USB 1 speeds, but floppy is even slower. There are plennty of Linux Floppy Distros. With 128 mb of ram and a USB thumb drive, that would be great.

It should be simple to pick one of the distros and make a very workable solution. I mean if he has a 512 mb USB thumb drive, he could load something like Vector Linux on the USB drive and just make a boot floppy to mount the USB drive. Last time I used Vector it fit in 300mb. It should work pretty decent as it was designed for lowend machines.

Your in luck. I've been looking for something similiar and I bothered to search the web.

A grumpy editor's calendar search
Enterprise Solutions Overview
Open Source Overview
Linux Links

Freshmeat is always worth a look too. The biggest problem I found was too much choice.

So far I've tried Chronos but I found that not all it's CPAN dependancies were resolvable for me. I've also tried MyCalendar.
It's nice and simple, accessible via the web, but unfortunately it's webpages are too big to fit in my cellphone's memory. My ideal solution would serve up some tight WML when necessary and possibly be accessible via Outlook for my secretary.

So, I haven't found my ideal solution yet.

If anyone has any opinion on the other web calendaring solutions, please share...

Hey, if you're extremely worried about the RAM resources, are too cheap to shell out that extra $40 for 256 MB of memory, or expect to run the whole thing on TI-83 calculator, then maybe next Windows is not for you.

If you want functionality, you have to dedicate resources, if you don't want much functionality, stick to Linux on a floppy with pre-installed vi and life would be great.

Mozilla Firefox 0.8 is currently taking up 63 MB of RAM, and that's just a browser with no media players, mail clients, task schedulers, etc.

Also check this link out: http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Home_and_Educat ion/Educational_Games/

The search for linux on MSN India have the following top results:

Linux and Unix Resources

The other side of linux

Linux for all

And not linuxsucks or whatever but bashing MS is just the default acction aint it?

Jeepers will you all cut it out already. Let the man try Redhat, and let him hear about the alternatives: here here here here and here.

Ten'll get you one he'll eventually be installing this distro with a 2.6 kernel and either Redhat or Debian based, and he won't give a rat's ass about all this trash you're talking.

We now return you to your regularily schedualled flamewar...

I meant http://www.linuxlinks.com/portal/content/png/tkcPl ayer-MediaLibrary.png, of course ...

Also a list on Linux Links that may be of some help.
Possibly a 3D modeller could be of some help too for visualisation purposes. Especially if used in conjuction with CAD software.

I found this useful for some, had other stuff also but couldn't find the bookmarks.
Accounting For Linux

...let's see here...
-tappity-tappity-tappity-
In less than ten minutes of Google/Freshmeat and Sourceforge searching we have the following:

Links to commercial software, some of which has functional demos:
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Graphics/CAD/in dex.shtml

Some FreshMeat projects which fit the bill:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/varicad/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/cycas/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/brl-cad/

And some SourceForge stuff to pick through:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/k3studio/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/k3dcad/

And ya know what? There's a ton more!!!!! (The only reason I spent even this amount of time was to satisfy my own curiosity). So, why don't you, my dear Ask-Slashdotter, go forth and use the resources available to you!!

1) Get:
- 1U 4bays rack mountable chassis from Sliger Designs
- 3WARE 6410 Escalade IDE controller (Choice of 0/1/0+1/5 Raid) on a 90 PCI riser card
- 4 x 75/100GB ATA100 drives (maybe DiamondMax)
- MicroATX mainboard with NIC and Video integrated on board (invest in RAM not in processing power - 750/850MHZ should be more than sufficient)
- Minimum Linux/*BSD OS booting from a read-only 16 to 64MB flash IDE device, loading kernel and a customised Ramdisk root filesystem, mounting Raid devices in R/W mode, starting SAMBA (and/or Netatalk).
A good starting point is Linux Bootdisk HOWTO

2) Choose 0+1 Raid and you get quick and completely redundant 150/200GB storage that can survive the full failure of one disk.

3) Want remote grafical managment from a standard web browser? Go for Webmin or SWAT.

Asking why Linux is better is a little like asking why breathing oxygen is better than breathing methane. Linux has so much going for it it's tough to even imagine using anything else. Some of it may be chauvinism, but Linux hardly needs chauvinistic support. It just needs pragmatic support, and computer users are some of the most pragmatic people around.
Here are ten listed reasons why Linux is better than commerical OSes. Here is a well-written article on the subject.
Perhaps the most pragmatic reason is that Linux is the cheapest OS in existence. You can find the latest release free for the taking on many servers worldwide. The time and the technical skills needed to actually make this option work are prohibitive, however, and few people will actually do it. For the rest of us, plenty of CDs are sold (or given away with big, useful instruction manuals (hey, that's how I got Red Hat 7.1!)) for under a hundred bucks. These CDs, called 'distros', or distributions, are made by various corporations, like Red Hat, Caldera, Slackware, Debain, etc. and come loaded with thousands of dollars worth of software. They also come with friendly, graphical installation programs that can get even the rankest of newbies started with Linux.
Once you get Linux going, there is a plethora of free software online. The GNU's Not Unix project is the best-known source, but you can find thousands with a simple Google search. Most Linux software, and Linux itself, is free in two senses: Free beer and Free speech. Free speech? Yes. Free in that sense means you can look at the source code (it is Open Source, in other words) and modify it to your whims. It is liberated software, software anyone can modify, learn from, change, and improve.
That brings me to my next point. Linux is the most stable OS in the world. Programs can crash and burn, scream and die, and just plain quit and Linux soldiers on. That's why it's used in servers. Saves thousands, if not millions, in maintnence costs, compared to Microsoft products (the Blue Screen Of Death can be expensive if the server that handles financial transactions crashes). It's stable because it has an army of people the world over fixing what breaks. How many software companies can claim that skilled programmers volunteered their time to make sure their operating system works on every hardware imaginable? None. Only Linux, the operating system used by the people who write it and written by the people who use it.
That brings me to my last point (promise! :-)). Linux is a state of mind for many people. It is a declaration of independence from the closed model of software development. It is a great big 'up yours' to the bloated, insecure, crash-prone shit the Big Two (Microsoft and Macintosh) foist on the world. Eric Raymond wrote a book on the Linux Revolution called The Cathedral and the Bazaar, pointing up the superiority of the open development model (the Bazaar) over the closed development system (the Cathedral) by following one of the many successful open development projects, fetchmail. Linux is a community of people who want to make the best software for everyone. It can give you the best technical support because the guy who wrote the program you're having trouble with is probably reachable. And if not, reams of people who helped him fix bugs are. Your problems might influence the next version of the software, in fact. Because Linux is open, anything can happen. Microsoft doesn't stand a chance. :-)

Li n4W in
WinLinux2000
All the distributions
WvDial

HTH.

At a project I've been working on during the summer we've added computers based on the open-source movement to elementary schools. Its never to early to learn and become involved. In fact we have second graders writting pure HTML and running the GIMP with great results. You can check out the results and the culmination of project at Osef.orgI know that as a student of computer science I have learned alot about where linux can be headed in the education world. OH and BTW, the osef.org is of course a not for profit organization. As a teacher I think students should be asked as to what they feel they want to get out of the class. Let the students deside. Perhaps have each of them contribute to a Linux project and report what they accomplished. LinuxLinks.com is a good place to see whats out there and what can be done to help.