<em>A penny saved is a penny earned!</em> Why not consider an open source alternative against purchasing several licensed copies of your favorite operating system or getting a pirated copy of the same.
Is just being free and open source the reason for increase in its user share as compared to its competitors? May be a better reason can be its competitive advantages over others.
Irrespective of the operating system, intrusion is one of the key concerns for computers connected to a network. Firewalls, as a matter of fact provide a resistance to this, if not a fool proof protection.
GUI allows users to navigate and interact with their computer by using a mouse to "point," "click," and "drag" icons and other data around on the screen, instead of typing in commands.
With the advent of LiveCDs, the perception for Linux has changed quite dramatically. What was one believed to be a geek's operating system is now being used by school kids, doctors and grandpas too!
Be it Noobs or a geeks - computers are indispensable for either of the clans. The amount of data which resides in the form nibbles and bits is enormous. Backing up your data is of prime importance from work/business point of view.
With rich GUI enabled installation procedures and live-CDs, installing a popular Linux distro is very easy. Gone are those days when you needed to compile the kernel from the source.