Way back when, people used to argue (rightfully so) that Linux was painful to install and not desktop ready. You had issues with X11/graphic cards/drivers/etc.

Way back when, people used to argue (rightfully so) that Linux was painful to install and not desktop ready. You had issues with X11/graphic cards/drivers/etc. These days installing ubuntu (or any of the LiveCDs) is actually pretty straight forward. Having had to deal with Windows 7 in recent years, it is the most convoluted of the three OSs as far as a desktop installation goes. For me, in order of increasing complexity the list is: OSX, Linux, Windows. Things getting even more extra-special with Windows, if gasp you want to upgrade from a previous version (IE, have a valid XP/Vista license) and do so as a clean install. There are registry hacks there that sometimes work, sometimes you have to resort to calling MSFT tech support. If you swap out some hardware on the machine after activation and it determines you need to reactivate? That isn't always clear cut either. Windows 7 cleans up a number of things but system installs and maintenance (registry, install/uninstall, updates) need serious work.