I first got into Linux about ten years ago, but I couldn't understand how the development model could even work. The whole "Free Open Source Software" thing, with people volunteering to perform development work, just seemed too much like socialism, which of course has always been an abject failure.

Now though, I understand that the FOSS movement is more like an extended form of capitalism. Everybody who works on it is doing so for self-interest, even if it's just to get some street cred as a programmer in order to prepare for a high-paying career. (I even profit from it myself, due to my business as a Linux trainer.)

I've never been a huge fan of Microsoft, partly because of their unethical business practices and partly because they've never had the best products. In the pre-Linux era, I tried out Windows 3.1 when I finally got a computer that could run a GUI-based operating system. I was so unimpressed that I went out and bought a copy of OS/2, and never looked back. Nowadays, I'm forced to use Windows for some things. But, most of my computing needs are met with Linux, which I'm using right now.