Despite what many of my fellow fanbois would say, Linux is not for everyone. In fact, if you’re thinking about trying Linux, you should ask yourself what benefit is there for you to do so.
Many people start using computer that have Windows installed. In fact, Microsoft made a great move when they got companies to install Windows on their computers. People never gave it much thought. Windows was just what the computers ran.
And honestly, for many people, Windows is a perfectly fine operating system. Lots of people don’t much care about the nuts and bolts of their computers. They just want to turn it on, do something, and not have to worry about the details. For these people, Windows is just fine.
Having said that, I will say that using Linux has many advantages over Windows. For one thing, it’s free as in price, as well as free as in speech. You can get Linux for free; you can get dozens, hundreds of Linux distributions for free. These distributions (called ‘distros’) can range from obscure, uber-geek ones that require advanced programming skills, to ones that are almost indistinguishable from more mainstream operating systems such as Windows. Whatever you want, you are likely to find it in some distro, somewhere.
I don’t see much advantage in using a Linux distro that more or less copies what Windows does. If you like Windows, it makes more sense to stick with Windows, than to try out something else.
One of the barriers to users switching to Linux is that you have to install it. Your computer probably came with Windows installed, unless you own a Mac. Either way, your operating system was already up and running, ready to go. If you want to use Linux, you have to find a distro you like, and then you have to install it.
Installation isn’t particularly difficult, but it isn’t altogether convenient. Often you get the distro on a USB that you can boot from. You follow the instructions, and eventually you’ve got Linux. If you’re unsure whether you want to abandon Windows altogether, it is a simple matter to make your computer dual-boot. That means that when you boot, you get a choice of whether to run Windows or Linux.
Linux would not be a good choice if you’ve got certain programs that you need to run that only work on Windows. Also, it can happen that some bleeding-edge hardware doesn’t have drivers made for Linux. Some companies don’t bother writing drivers for Linux, because the market is relatively small. Often programmers can write their own drivers, but it is likely that they won’t be able to take advantage of all the features. Be warned.
I would say that Linux is a good choice if you do programming, if you run a local network, or if you want to run certain specialized software. If you have a Web server, Linux works well with Apache, MySQL and PHP (so-called LAMP setup).
And certainly, Linux would be a great choice if you like to get into things to see how they work.