[parma]

Many of the K-12 schools require students to use Office 2007 applications and file formats to submit their assignments.

Easy to allege. Where's the proof? Most of the school systems in my area have a hard time getting books to every child, let alone upgrading software that functioned as they needed to begin with.

Not being in the Microsoft ecosystem as you put it is akin to using the wrong technology to accomplish a necessary task such as using a flat bladed screw driver on a Phillips head screw.

Now, that's a breathtaking statement. If I get what you are trying to say, Microsoft is the appropriate arbiter of all things related to computing. Wow. Everything necessary, they've given us. I really hope that is not what you meant, especially given your apparent career in network consulting.

Full featured commercial *nix applications and support cost many times what Microsoft applications cost.

First, remember that we're talking about home usage here. So I'm not sure what apps you have in mind. I will say this: in my 5 years, I have personally spent a grand total of $40 on one app that had no acceptable free equivalent. My firm, which now runs 2 Linux servers and 5 Linux desktops (along with 3 Windows desktops), has spent $65 in FIVE YEARS on linux software and support. (All the updates are free.) I support the machines, just like I supported all of our windows machines before we switched. This, in addition to my normal duties at the firm.

I fully realize that one case does not a comprehensive argument make. But I speak having lived the experience, and I'm here to say that it was (and is) clearly cost effective.

That is a bad argument since virtually everything anyone does in a capitalist economy has a financial implication including your hype for Ubantu.

Yes, but not everything benefits my pocket directly. If I were getting paid to argue this on behalf of Ubuntu, or if I sold Ubuntu for a living, readers of this thread would justifiably take my assertions with a grain of salt. Because, in that instance, the more converts I got (even by exaggerations) the more money I might deposit in my account at the end of the month. That's why "conflicts of interest" are required to be disclosed in many professional codes of ethics. But it's pointless to debate that -- everyone knows undisclosed monetary interests can color one's public statements. It's human nature.

Most home users do not need the levels of security I've mentioned. . .

Looks like we agree on something. But I didn't notice your prefacing your earlier browser complaints with the fact that the websites you're talking about are not likely to be on the radar screen of home users. That's an important distinction. And this thread is about home users. Isn't it?