Paying The “Linux Tax”

“Most of us know about the ‘Windows Tax’–the extra cash you
shell out to pay for the cost of a Windows license when you buy a
new PC. But what about a (so-called) ‘Linux Tax,’ the cost incurred
by an ordinary user switching to Linux from Windows?

“The concept: An average user’s switch from, say, Windows to
Linux will involve some kind of cost, whether that cost is in the
form of time, effort, money (i.e., paying an expert, buying a
commercial-grade Linux distro), or what have you. This might also
include the effort involved to find a reputable manufacturer who’ll
sell you a machine with Linux preloaded, although that’s become far
easier as of late. Dell and IBM come to mind, of course, although
there has been a slew of smaller manufacturers who have done this
for a long time–just not as visibly…”

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