>>27
First, I wouldn't - EVER - recommend anyone who has no experience with OSes other than windows to just completeley switch to Linux.

That said, I pretty much only use Linux (Kubuntu, see, it even fits in with the topic). For me, it has several advantages:

• I have apps for everything I need (And probably for everything an average user needs), without having to search around a lot for apps - If I need something new, I just look in the package manager, which allows me to search, download and install stuff with about three clicks. And unlike most windows users, I get my stuff free and legally.
• My system doesn't crash. Well, it crashed one time. And that was because the harddrive failed. Also, apps don't really crash a lot, maybe one time a month.
• I am a geek, and as such, having a powerful console is great for me. You can do amazing things and be generally much more effective when you know what you are doing.
• I can be all elitist and feel superior and stuff.
• A downside: Yes, linux does not run windows apps, while there is an app called WINE which kind of simulates a windows environment and can get some apps to work, a lot of apps simply won't run. But most of the time, you will not even want to run windows apps anyways: For most things you'll need, there is a Linux app that will do the job as good as it's windows counterpart - or better (And by the way, a lot of those linux apps will not run on Windows, of course.).

It boils down to: Maybe linux is for you, maybe it isn't. Try a few live cd's (CD's from which you can boot a running Linux system which won't change anything on your PC) ot try installing a Linux distribution on a machine you have lying around (Or you could try installing linux on the same machine as windows, which isn't hard, but a tad more complex than the other stuff). Use it for a bit, and decide for yourself if you like it or not. Knowing a lot about computers still helps, but it is not as neccesary as it was even a year or two ago.