Microsoft is a pain in the ass

[bennyboy]

I have a question-- what software IS available for Linux that is non-replaceable in Windows?  And I don't mean some goofy file utility or a degrag program. . . I mean a major application.

There probably aren't any. The whole point of open source software is that people can contribute code and fork projects. So most open source projects work on both Linux and Windows, and projects which are Linux-only will have forks by Windows programmers in order to bring the product to Windows.

An operating system shouldn't be judged on what it can't do though, only what it can do compared to what you *need* it to do. If you want a gaming system, you're going to go with Windows. If you want a lightweight server, you're going to go with Linux.

Yep.  Best tool for the job and all that. It seems to me that Windows operates on a higher level-- and I mean that in a programming sense, not a rating-- so that the machinery underneath is better hidden, but also that you have less direct access to it.  I'm pretty sure that a programmer could do so pretty fundamental-level stuff in Linux that would be hard on Windows, right?

As a hobby programmer, I'm good enough to write programs that actually do things, but I don't have free time to develop massive utility libraries and stuff-- or constantly research and play with other people's libraries.  The thing I like about Windows is that if stuff works on my computer, it will work on 99% of other computers with little or no alteration.  Oh, and programming for Windows in C# is soooo easy.