If you are a gamer, there are a lot of new games coming out for linux, and old ones being ported... alot of new graphics cards being supported.. many changes.. but.. there is still a lot more support for windows than linux in that area.

It is definetly true that you should use what you are more comfortable in.. but if something pushing you to try linux... then you got all the drive you need to start learning. The Linux/Windows who's better thing is... has been around for a while.. who says you have to make a choice? You can dual boot.. or install linux on an older piece of hardware to start out with.. your windows machine will make an excellent 'reference book' as much (most) of the documentation you need is on the internet concerning learning about GNU/linux, or *BSD flavours.

So no one's making you choose.. you have the choice. Linux has it's perks, and it's really, really interesting to see how your OS works, to be able to play inside of it... and it does everything windows does... even drive your tv card, hehe... Everything short of run some of the latest games out of the box the way windoze does.

Take what everyone has said here, and an afternoon with a spare junker computer preferably, or a try a dual boot after you've done some reading on the install process, and try and get mandrake up and running... then decide if you want to 'get into' linux flavours a bit more!

Ryan