While I don't doubt that pirated copies of Windows abound, I don't think that is the reason linux hasn't taken off. Most of us (especially non-geeks) have expensive software that runs on Windows. Even if you discount the purchase price, what does someone like me who uses Adobe Photoshop (which I purchased!) do with linux? If there were an equivilant linux product, what is the cost of the time I need to expend in order to learn the new application? Multiply that by Dreamweaver, Word, Excel, ACDSEE, etc. It isn't the 200 bucks. It's everything else. Now I have a freeBSD box that is my web server and email server. There's nothing wrong with the 'nix operating system. Even the command line isn't so bad. Linux is like the Mac. The real price of moving over isn't the OS, it's all the other stuff that has to be replaced. It's way too easy to claim that the reason linux isn't more popular is due to the fact that Windows is free. The real reason is that most of us do more than surf the web and download MP3's, and we don't want to find replacement programs and climb new learning curves. $200 is cheap to avoid that hassle.