For more than 8 years I've been using Linux everyday in my life, not only on my Server, but also on Desktop PC. And I think that Linux is much better and safer than Windows.
My first encounter with Linux was around 2007. My friend advised me to download a free copy of Ubuntu 7.04 image from the Internet and try Linux in Live-CD mode.
At that time I was an active Windows user and used it since version 3.11, if anyone remembers, it was the times of Intel 386DX. Later, my father gave me his Pentium 166MHz, which by default has installed Windows 95, but I did not like it and I put Windows 98 on this PC. Later my father bought himself a new PC, and he gave me his Pentium III, to which I installed Windows ME. A few years later I sold my Pentium III and bought myself a Pentium 4 and on it I already used XP, almost until I switched to Ubuntu.
So back to the moment, as my friend advised me to try Ubuntu in a Live-CD mode. To be honest, I did not believe that, it was possible at all, since Windows did not give such an opportunity - it had to be installed first, and then it can try this out.
I downloaded this image and burn this on a CD. Having rebooted my PC, I began my acquaintance with Linux. To be honest, I did not understand much, since I did not know anything about Linux at all. In addition, I was given a bunch of disks with SuSe Linux some time ago, which I could not even install on my old 386DX PC. So I put the disk down and continued working on Windows.
But after one year, I was finally tormented by hangs, viruses, trojans, spending money to buy commercial software and so I decided to try Ubuntu-Linux again. This time it was version 8.04 LTS. I saved all my data on a separate disk and decided to install Ubuntu as my primary operating system.
Immediately after installation, I was able to do what I could not do in Windows - it's work out of the box. It was not necessary to search for any codes, antiviruses, install a bunch of Service Packs and extra programs. In Ubuntu there was a package of necessary programs, many of which I knew from Windows: Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, Filezilla, OpenOffice and others.
The only thing I spent a little time on, is to get working with linux console, which I liked, because it reminded me of the good old MS DOS, but it's much more convenient and more functions. Also I had to forget about Adobe Photoshop, which did not work on Linux, but it was quickly replaced by its analog Gimp. I started using Gedit, which replaced me Macromedia Dreamwaever and Notepad ++, which although it was not an equivalent, but it was enough to work.
Also, I was particularly impressed by the fact, that when I installed Windows Vista on my laptop (Intel Core2Duo processor, 4GB memory, 160GB hard drive, Nvidea GeForce 9300 graphics card, 15.4 'monitor), the sound card did not work. More precisely, it worked on a 32 bit, but it did not work in 64 bit version, and as you know 32 bit Windows only support 3 GB of memory (and Windows is gluttonous, the antivirus Software eats almost 1 GB of RAM). And when installing Ubuntu - all immediately working. There was no need to look for a driver, everything worked out of the box. Awesome! :)
I really liked the new interface of Ubuntu, because i has enough of blue colors of XP and I already had calluses in front of my eyes. The usability on Ubuntu was much better than XP and Vista, although a little uncommon at the beginning. I was happy with the fact that you do not need to install an antivirus Software, and the system worked much better and faster, more stable and consumed fewer resources than XP or Vista. If I wanted to install a program, I just drove its name and with one click it was installed - there was no need to buy anything, to search on the Internet - almost like an Google Play or AppleStore on smartphones now.
When everyone was delighted with the next version of Windows 7, I was delighted with the next version of Ubuntu (which came out more often than Windows), unlike Windows, I did not have to pay for it and the transition from one version to another was very easy. By that time, many of my friends had already switched to a free Linux system and as I still do not regret it.
After almost 8 years, I can still say that for me there is nothing better than Linux. Those who tried Linux one time and did not like it, most likely just did not understand what it was or did not want to change. Linux is not Windows!