The Future of Linux is Google (PCWorld)

The best you can expect from OEMs is if you nuke your system and install from scratch and it still does not work then they may take back your system and work on the software if it is in warrenty.

Microsoft will give you a shit.. I think a troubleshooting phone call is a minimum of 75 dollars, after that they charge a large fee per minute or bill by the hour or something like that. It's been a while since I last looked at it, but for a consumer Microsoft's support costs are attrocious.

There are a couple issues here:

1. There is a large turn around for accepting kernel drivers into the kernel. The process is long and drawn out and can take 6 months to a year to get new hardware supported properly in the kernel.

This is a serious issue for OEMs, but it can be dealt with.

The much bigger one is #2

2. There is no Geek Squad for Linux. Anywere in any part of the country you can walk into computer stores and get help with Windows. You pay them 300 bucks to remove viruses or some other thing, but it's still avialable.

When people want to learn how to use Windows and Office they don't go and search mailing lists, they go and pay for class time in a community college. They do this because it's worth paying 300-700 dollars to learn Office and Windows because it'll help them get a job.

With Linux there is almost no places were people can take it in and get help. You go into Best Buy with a Linux netbook they will happily sell you a 'student' license for Windows and OFfice and charge you a hundred bucks to install it on your netbook, but they are going to refuse to help you get a printer or VPN working.

This is a societial issue. The negative costs of running Windows is absorbed by the society at large as just a cost of doing business or running a PC... Linux has no similar infrastructure.