> But what about .NET framework? Flash player? Antivirus? Office Suite? DirectX? New browser? (Since you won’t be using IE, that’s for sure.) Mailing client? Pd

> But what about .NET framework? Flash player? Antivirus? Office Suite? DirectX? New browser? (Since you won’t be using IE, that’s for sure.) Mailing client? Pdf reader? Some image editor? WinRAR? Even after you paid for your operating system, you’ll probably end up paying a couple of hundred bucks additionally just to make your system usable. I personally don't want all of that stuff pre-installed, because I won't use most of it. I have no need for flash anymore. I rarely need an office suite, but when I do, I just use Google Docs. The same goes for a mail client: Gmail.com is fine. I do install Chrome (which handles PDFs, so no need to install Adobe Reader), but Internet Explorer isn't that bad anymore. Also, all of that stuff is free (or has free alternatives), so I don't know where the author came up with the "couple of hundred bucks" figure. > Even if you are tech-savvy, careful what you install kind of person that doesn’t just blindly install new software (by clicking next->next), you’ll end up with some crap like a new toolbar in your Firefox/Chrome from time to time and you’ll have to scan your system with some antivirus software from time to time. But, keep in mind that installing antiviruses might get you some crapware too, (AVG toolbar, I’m talking about you!) so what will you do then? Really? Because I consider myself quite tech-savy and have never had a single toolbar installed without my knowledge. As for antivirus software, Microsoft Security Essentials is very good and doesn't install any extra crapware. It's even built-in on Windows 8 and later, so there's another thing you don't have to install yourself. > You want to play something really old like DOS games? Well, too fucking bad. DOSBox, which you would also have to install on Linux if you wanted to play old DOS games. > All I have to do is to download Visual Studio Community edition. After all, it is free and it requires “only” additional 20 fucking gigabytes of disk space! Yay! You also get what many consider to be the best IDE available. For free. Yay!