It’s bugs like these that make me think sometimes that “Linux” is going backward. Or maybe I should just go back to twm, xwd and the command line. Grandma doesn’t need to use my PC!

Price may not be, but choice should be. Call me a zealot call me a fanboy but, There were plenty of times Windows had problems like this. When it was supposed to be the best. BSOD, compatibility isuues, lack of user friendliness features, and people shelled out thousands of dollars over and over again because it was forced fed to us by a monopoly. So, fast forward to now, thanks to all of us lining the pockets of Microsoft over and over, they put out a stable product, that has ripped off every one of its good attributed (almost every) from *NIX (I will throw apple into here because it is closely related to BSD). I chose the lesser of two evils right now because,
A.) I am patient (sounds like you are too)
B.) I like to learn (same as above)
C.) CHOICE, not cost ( although if linux cost as much as windows I owuld never buy it.)

Is this all making sense? Comparing the two is trivial at best (ref. this log and the thousands like it) M$ is a billion dollar company with a constant influx of money. You should step back and be amazed that Linux has made it this far (see amazingly I dont need windows with linux, thanks to VMWARE and btjunkie.org, now linux can run windows…) on what you could compare to a college drop-out’s budget. Of corse windows is better, so is mac, would you expect anything less? but better is relative, better if you mean more compatible and more refined, then yes. But if you mean flexibility, choice, cost, control, stability then I would say no.

Compiz is definitely pretty, but there are problems with it too. For example, I’ve had lots of trouble getting the little previews working properly with an ATI card (it looks like something is wrong with image scaling or mipmaps). When I boot using Compiz, I usually end up staring at a solid white screen for an unreasonably long time. Another ATI-related issue is that 3d apps / overlays don’t seem to work very well (lots of flickering). The extra eye candy wasn’t worth the trouble for me… I would have reservations about wooing somebody to Linux based on Compiz’s “ooh shiny”.

I can afford Windows. Price isn’t the only factor I consider when picking an OS.