There are several reasons why one might want to switch to Linux. I know I had lots of them. Here are some of my reasons why you should switch to Linux.
Reason number ONE is most certainly important. VIRUSES. It is widely accepted that Windows is incredibly vulnerable when it comes to viruses. Obviously, nobody wants to spend that extra money required to purchase the anti-virus software required to keep Windows secure. Linux does not suffer from the same viruses. Linux is secure by design. That means that it's much harder to infect a Linux system than it is to infect a Windows system. This goes for Mac OS X as well. Viruses may not be a very big deal for Mac users, but it's even less of a problem in Linux. As of 2005, there were over 1,000,000 different viruses reported for Windows! Now compare that number to the number of viruses for Linux, only about 15! All of those 15 were also written either in the '90s or early '00s. This means that these viruses are very nearly useless on today's much more modern Linux kernel.
Reason number TWO is stability. Put simply, Linux is way more stable that Windows. The operating system itself almost never crashes. If it does, you were probably doing something you shouldn't have been doing on it. In Windows, if one thing crashes, it's likely that your entire system is going to crash, simply because most programs are rooted so deeply into the Windows system. Linux is different. Everything you see in a Linux distro is its own separate program. The panel, the menu, the browser, the calendar, everything! It's all separate! If one program crashes, you just restart the program, not the whole computer. This makes things must faster and simpler for troubleshooting, and causes the system to be much more stable.
Reason number THREE is cost. Linux is ABSOLUTELY FREE. Linux is 100% free 100% of the time. You will ALWAYS be able to find a Linux distro offered for free. There are a few select distros that cost a bit FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE ONLY. Those distros simply have modifications done to them that you could do yourself, often without much difficulty. One of the other reasons you might have to pay for a particular Linux distro would be for commercial support. Cononical, SuSe Enterprise, and Red Had Enterprise make their money this way. All that being said though, you can ALWAYS find very good, well put-together distros for free. Ubuntu, all of its derivatives, and Fedora are very good options for the home and business user.
Reason number FOUR is customization. Linux is the ultimate customization experience. You can literally customize anything in a Linux distro. Check out my videos for some customization tips and tricks. With these tips and tricks, you can prove the people that say that "Linux looks cheap" or "Linux looks old" very very wrong.
Reason number FIVE is speed. Linux is incredibly fast, especially the distros using lighter-weight desktop environments, such as XFCE, LXDE, and MATE. Everyone knows that Windows is full of bloatware. And often, if you want to get rid of that bloatware, you can't. Because much of it is part of Windows. In Linux, because everything is its own separate program, you can get rid of any software you don't want. This isn't much of a problem though, considering that, unlike Windows, having large amounts of software on your computer DOESN'T slow down your computer at all.
Below is a very good video uploaded by YouTube user Spatry describing why he switched over to Linux from Windows, and why he thinks you should too. His numbers may differ from mine a bit, but that's bound to happen considering that we both used different sources.
Reason number ONE is most certainly important. VIRUSES. It is widely accepted that Windows is incredibly vulnerable when it comes to viruses. Obviously, nobody wants to spend that extra money required to purchase the anti-virus software required to keep Windows secure. Linux does not suffer from the same viruses. Linux is secure by design. That means that it's much harder to infect a Linux system than it is to infect a Windows system. This goes for Mac OS X as well. Viruses may not be a very big deal for Mac users, but it's even less of a problem in Linux. As of 2005, there were over 1,000,000 different viruses reported for Windows! Now compare that number to the number of viruses for Linux, only about 15! All of those 15 were also written either in the '90s or early '00s. This means that these viruses are very nearly useless on today's much more modern Linux kernel.
Reason number TWO is stability. Put simply, Linux is way more stable that Windows. The operating system itself almost never crashes. If it does, you were probably doing something you shouldn't have been doing on it. In Windows, if one thing crashes, it's likely that your entire system is going to crash, simply because most programs are rooted so deeply into the Windows system. Linux is different. Everything you see in a Linux distro is its own separate program. The panel, the menu, the browser, the calendar, everything! It's all separate! If one program crashes, you just restart the program, not the whole computer. This makes things must faster and simpler for troubleshooting, and causes the system to be much more stable.
Reason number THREE is cost. Linux is ABSOLUTELY FREE. Linux is 100% free 100% of the time. You will ALWAYS be able to find a Linux distro offered for free. There are a few select distros that cost a bit FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE ONLY. Those distros simply have modifications done to them that you could do yourself, often without much difficulty. One of the other reasons you might have to pay for a particular Linux distro would be for commercial support. Cononical, SuSe Enterprise, and Red Had Enterprise make their money this way. All that being said though, you can ALWAYS find very good, well put-together distros for free. Ubuntu, all of its derivatives, and Fedora are very good options for the home and business user.
Reason number FOUR is customization. Linux is the ultimate customization experience. You can literally customize anything in a Linux distro. Check out my videos for some customization tips and tricks. With these tips and tricks, you can prove the people that say that "Linux looks cheap" or "Linux looks old" very very wrong.
Reason number FIVE is speed. Linux is incredibly fast, especially the distros using lighter-weight desktop environments, such as XFCE, LXDE, and MATE. Everyone knows that Windows is full of bloatware. And often, if you want to get rid of that bloatware, you can't. Because much of it is part of Windows. In Linux, because everything is its own separate program, you can get rid of any software you don't want. This isn't much of a problem though, considering that, unlike Windows, having large amounts of software on your computer DOESN'T slow down your computer at all.
Below is a very good video uploaded by YouTube user Spatry describing why he switched over to Linux from Windows, and why he thinks you should too. His numbers may differ from mine a bit, but that's bound to happen considering that we both used different sources.