According to the article below, your next OS and Office upgrade from Microsoft will set you back almost $700. Granted, it's the "Ultimate" version, meaning it's bundled with a bunch of extra crap (that you don't want or need)...

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4463/53/

What is Microsoft thinking?? Windows Vista Ultimate edition is going to be geared towards us power users and techy geeks. What Microsoft didn't take into account is that free Operating Systems are starting to get a lot better. Distributions like Ubuntu are making it very easy to switch from Windows to Linux. Completely. For free.

This entire website is ran with free code, thanks to Ubuntu and the rest of the Open Source movement.

The fact that Microsoft hasn't released a new Desktop Operating System in more than 5 years should be enough to make you think twice about upgrading.

Remember when you upgraded from Windows 95 to 98?

Remember when you upgraded from Windows 98 to ME? (I hope you didnt...)

What about 98/ME to 2000?

Remember when XP came out? Microsoft took years to crank XP out and its first release was absolute garbage. It took 2 years for them to release Service Pack 2, which finally put a lot of nasty bugs to bed.

Microsoft's products are constantly under attack by nasty bugs and worms. Their products are full of vulnerabilities. You can sit an unpatched / unfirewalled XP box on the internet and it will be dead within 10 minutes. Try it. Have a firewall? Start browsing the internet. Internet Explorer will be infected with Spyware faster than you can download patches to fix it.

Although Microsoft claims Vista is being built with security in mind, my expectations are low. Is this implying that none of their other OS are built with security in mind?

By profession, I'm a Windows (and UNIX) systems administrator. I have worked with Microsoft products since the Pre-Windows days of DOS. I have never been impressed with their products. Most of their innovation comes from stealing the ideas of others, or by acquisition of companies who can't compete due to Microsoft's massive size.

Well, my friends, Microsoft's days are numbered.

This Thursday, June 1, Ubuntu will be releasing their newest distribution, named Dapper Drake.

I have been using Dapper for several months via pre-release builds, and I've got to say: I'm impressed. Not only does it install with a couple clicks, but you can even burn the CD/DVD and try it out without even installing to your hard drive. How's that for a no-risk peek into an alternative OS?

After the install is complete, you will notice something very strange: Everything works. Ubuntu has loaded their distributions with so many drivers, you can install it on just about anything. No fiddling with drivers, no tedious configuration, no need to bribe a geek to come make it work for you. It just works.

Security? It's Linux: Open-source software means that updates are released quickly and efficiently. It's a community project, meaning everyone shares the same concerns as you do.

Updates? What?

Have any of you ran updates on your Windows systems recently? Does Windows Genuine Validation ring a bell? I legally own all my copies of Windows, and the fact that Microsoft assumes us guilty until proven innocent is appalling.

What about applications?

Dapper uses what's called Synaptic, which is a very neat software package manager. It contains a database of applications available for you to install, keeps it up to date, and takes care of any package dependencies.

Proprietary Windows applications? There are several ways around making Windows apps work under Linux, the most popular being WINE.

Windows Vista and Office 2007 may look nifty, but it just doesn't make sense to upgrade. As a matter of fact, all the extras that make Windows Vista look so slick won't even work on your PC unless you have bleeding-edge hardware. This is no good. Microsoft is in bed with numerous hardware OEMs, meaning they're in it together: Release an operating system that requires people to cough up a few grand on a new PC. Not cool, guys. Not cool. You should be ashamed.

I guess it doesn't bother me. Microsoft will be out of the Operating Systems business by 2010.

Join the open source movement, switch to Ubuntu!