First of all, try the humour. Here is a link to a flash animation eulogising Linux. It plays on the "geeky" image of Linux and has to be taken rather tongue in cheek. For a different take, an IBM advertisement being shown in the US depicts Linux as a child progidy learning to benefit us all, ending with the caption "The future is open".

If that wets your appetite to consider Linux, then there are plenty more reasons to go ahead and see what it has to offer.

Reason number 1: Microsoft are worried by Linux

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, warned employees in June this year (link) that noncommercial open source software, particularly the Linux operating system, was a "competitive challenge." This followed the decision of Munich city governement to switch from Microsoft to Linux despite a personal visit from Ballmer and drastic cuts to the price structuring on offer.

Microsoft have more recently become alarmed by a Japanese government proposal to develop an Asian open-source operating system which has, according to Reuters, the verbal agreement of China and South Korea (link).
"We'd like to see the market decide who the winners are in the software industry," was the response of Tom Robertson, Microsoft's director for government affairs in Asia(link) . Could this mean that Microsoft has suddenly become an advocate of fair competition? Somehow I doubt it.

This is not one of the most important reasons to consider Linux, but if Microsoft are giving the time of day to think about the Open Source movement, then maybe its time to find out what it is they are worried about.

Reason number 2: Linux and Open Source software represents a remarkable achievement of global community spirit

Over the last 12 years since the birth of the Linux operating system, many thousands of programmers around the world have devoted their efforts to producing software that is freely available to others to use and improve under the GPL licence.

Reason number 3: Linux is great for the user

I will come back to this at a later time.