That isn't where the amazement comes from, CF.

Some are just skimming the discussion and leaping to wildly unsubstantiated conclusions... which again, IMO, serves to illustrate what an asinine waste of time such arguments are.

Back to netbooks, maybe?

Arguing on the Internet IS a waste of time anyway.

What about them?

Check again GIS is actually thriving on Linux, take a look at www.osgeo.org, it gathers some of the more prominent projects. Granted, there is no Arc-stuff, but featurewise it's not that much far behind, especially if you take into account the web-mapping solutions that originated from Linux. And the price is a bit more competitive than ESRI, but that's not that difficult to achieve

No, I just want to use it without some ***** telling me that I need windows if I want to access a public website, to interact with my government, my local administration, or some ***** sending me files in a closed, secret, format and so on.
In other words I don't want windows forced on me, at least at home where I have a choice.
Unfortunately and ironically at work I have to use it since I have to use some tools (again, forced on me, not me choosing the best tool for the job, they're actually quite bad) that only exist for windows, though I also have some time to play with linux.

Well said !

Thanks. Some of the comments have been really misguided. The evil is not in commercial enterprise ipso facto-- the evil is in far extremes... and that could include the extreme opposite.

If a shop doesn't work with your browser/os you can buy from another one.
If your government web site doesn't work with your browser/os you've no other recourse, so the democratic imperative is to get rid of closed formats and browser/os specific public facing applications.
Then, and only then, everybody can use what he prefers,be it windows, linux, macos, bsd or whatever.
The problem is that they "democratically" decide that windows is on 90% of computers, if it works with windows is good enough.
Guess what? Things change. Just a few years ago internet explorer accounted for 99% of the market, and just a few were using alternative browsers (and facing the problems, I still remember many many sites not working with mozilla or simply refusing to be accessed from anything other than IE even if they worked properly), but now mozilla has a sizeable share of the market, in part thanks to those stubborn individuals that kept on using an alternative browser.
You aren't realy free to choose if one operating system is mandatory and we know pretty well that there's no technical reason for it being so, just some ***** that made some "strategic" undemocratic decision.

Alternative browser has very little to do with the OS.

I was using Phoenix, then Firebird then Firefox since nearly the beginning. Also was supporting Opera back when you had to pay for it... all because I refused to use Internet Explorer 3.02 and 4.01.

And yes... I was a Windows admin/user then too.

The thing about thinking that a browser has much to do with the OS is quite ridiculous. Before that, you had Netscape, Mosaic, Lynx and since the beginning, options have existed in the browser world.

Same for OS. It's the fanboyism that needs to be removed. So you think that Linux is the best. Great! I'm glad you found an option that made you happy. Too bad it doesn't fit everybody's needs.

Neither does Windows - don't get me started on that one - and neither does OS X. But in the end, they're all just tools that are to be utilized.

Not worshiped. And for the last 15 years, I'm glad to have been part of the 1% wedge from the beginning to disallow Internet Explorer from being 100%. I've always hated it.

Really? Then why doesn't OVI services work on Firefox/Linux when they work on Firefox/Windows.

Who wants to force Linux on everyone? We're bummed here because we don't have a Linux option on the Booklet. I could care less if you or Texrat buy the Linux version. I want it for myself. So it's actually Windows that's forced (and not only in this product, but like luca said, on websites, file formats etc.) on us, but Windows doesn't fit everybody's needs.

And you can't support both closed and open formats, that's not democracy.

Ask Nokia. You're barking up the wrong tree dude.

Get over it. This product, in its current form, isn't for you. Perhaps with some patience, a Linux variant will be produced.

Last I checked, nobody is forcing you to buy anything. This doesn't support your choice, shop elsewhere. Or join others that want it on there. As it stands, whining does absolutely nothing.

And if the demand isn't there, then that doesn't support capitalism.