Very few computer owners make a concious choice when it comes to operating systems. Sure, you could argue that the owner of an Apple computer has made that choice implicitly as a part of his/her decision to go down the Apple path, just like you could say that the owner of a Windows phone has implicitly made the choice of a Microsoft operating system on their phone.
But I'm really talking about personal computers (PCs) here. Most PCs come with Microsoft Windows installed, and very few people really consider changing that, even when they realise some of the shortcomings of that operating system. I would wager that the majority of PC users are unaware that there may be a viable alternative to Windows.
The alternative to which I am referring is Linux.
There are many myths surrounding Linux which tend to date back to years gone by. Nowadays some Linux distributions are every bit as easy to use as Windows, and many, from the day to day user perspective at any rate, work in pretty much the same way.
The vast majority of Linux variants (known as "distributions" or "distros") are free and open source software (FOSS). There are, however, a number of commercial distributions, such as Android (the Linux version used on so many mobile phones) and ChromeOS (as used on Google ChromeBooks). The remainer of this article referrs soley to free open source distributions.
Here are what I consider to be some of the main reasons why you might want to consider Linux.
Security
With open source software, anyone can inspect the program code. Not that you have to, of course. But the advantage of the code being open source is that hundreds of contributors, and potentially many thousands of other programmers, review the code. Anything untoward, and especially any security flaws, are swiftly identified and rectified. And also, and potentially more importantly depending on your perspective and level of distrust of "the man", there is no potential for tracking or surveillance software to be surreptititiously inserted into the operating system at source. In the case of propietory software, such as Windows or even Apple's IoS, you can never be sure.
Another advantage of Linux over Windows is that there are far less virus and malware attacks launched against the Linux operating system.
Linux is Free
As previously mentioned, you do not have to pay money to download, install or use FOSS versions of Linux, i.e. Linux is free. If you're buying your computer from a source that allows you to not have Windows pre-installed, then you should save a significant amount of money, not far short of £100. And, of course, you'll also save if you're building your own PC.
Efficient Use of Computer Resources
There are very many different versions, or distributions (distros), of the Linux operating system. Some of them are specifically designed to be light in terms of their usage of computer system resources. Often computers that have slowed down under the ever-increasing demands of Windows can be given a new lease of life by installing a "lite" Linux distro on them.
Software Availability
It may be that you need a specific piece of software that only runs on Windows. Whilst there are ways to make most software run on a Linux system (for example, running Windows within a virtual machine), I would have to agree that if your Windows software is of vital importance to you, then you may be better advised to stay with Windows. And the same is true if you use your PC primarily for gaming.
However, if your computer usage is, shall we say, "mainstream", i.e. you use a wordprocessor, spreadsheet, graphics program, then Linux has, for free, good alternatives to the Windows software. Sure, you may have to re-learn a little as everything will not be exactly the same, but most of these things are quickly gotten used to.
Many Linux distributions come with an office suite, graphics program and media player pre-installed. But for the software that isn't already there, most distros have pre-configured repositories from which you download the programs you need, again for free, with often little more than a couple of clicks of the mouse.
If you are a software developer or other type of "techie", then you'll find that you are amazingly well catered for on Linux, with multiple editors, integrated development environments, programming languages, data base management systems and servers all available. Microsoft have even made their Visual Studio Code available for free on Linux!
Updates
Even the most dyed in the wool Windows user gets frustrated with the Windows Updates system. You can be pretty sure that Windows will decide that it is going to update itself just at the wrong time.
With the vast majority of Linux systems, you have much greater control over when the updates are run.
Variety of Distributions
There are a huge number of Linux dristributions from which to chose, as you can see from Wikipeida's "List of Linux distributions".
Support from the Community
There are a vast number of websites and forums from which you can get all sorts of information to not only help you select a Linux distribution, but where you can also get help should you run into any unforseen problems.