Yes, Windows is hated by hackers and so on. But still I don't think Linux can or ever will replace the desktop. Look at the users who just want to chat/e-mail etc. you can't give them a UNIX system. They won't know how to work with it. Even AOL is a good option. Some people just don't want to know what their OS is made of etc. I can understand that if you are in the IT field that you would choose a Linux flavor but it still a work in progress. Most IT people use SCO or Solaris, and still do not trust Linux. Buit for the people who can't afford a unix system, on their laptop or desktop Linux is an alternative. Look at OpenBSD, I have a box running it as a firewall on my home network. But I wouldn't use it as a main system to run multimedia applications. The Mac is allso an option.