Please, Ms. GrannyGeek, may I ask you, if you could sum up what it is you like about Linux? (btw, I recently installed 5.8 and noticed your name among many others scroll by 
I like the choice that Linux offers users. I'm a big fan of XFce and don't have any desire to use a different desktop, but who knows? Maybe I'll change my mind in the years ahead. I like knowing I have many choices for desktops. Choice goes way beyond desktops. I like being able to build a system that can be lean or very rich.
I enjoy watching the development of Linux and programs for Linux. We've made amazing advances through the years. The fact that a lot of this work is done by unpaid volunteers is remarkable and demonstrates that there are many people who are motivated by a desire to do good more than by greed.
I like the challenge of dealing with Linux. Although most things are easy these days, once in a while Linux will throw us a curve. Solving the problem is good for keeping our brain cells alive, and at my age, it's important to keep on learning things and solving problems--use it or lose it.
There are many more things I like about Linux, but I doubt people want to spend the time it would take to read my list.<g> I should add that I've been using Linux for a long time. I may have started in 1999 or so--I no longer remember. At that time, my relationship with Linux was love/hate. Linux was a lot harder to use in those days, the programs were painfully underdeveloped, and hardware support had big gaps. Also, at the time I had a collection of old, underpowered computers in addition to one computer that was decent for the time. I made the mistake of running Linux on the crappy computer(s). It's a lot more fun to run Linux on your best computer! I would get frustrated with Linux and remove it, but somehow I always came back--like a moth to a flame. I consider VectorLinux 4.2 to be the version where Linux got really good. I've been with it ever since.
I do use Windows but considerably less than Linux. Dislike for Windows doesn't figure into my liking for Linux at all. I've never had problems with Windows, and I've been using it since Windows 3.0. I've been online for 15 years and have never been affected and afflicted by malware. I've never had to reinstall Windows because it got messed up beyond saving or slowed down compared with when it was installed. But Linux is just so much more *fun* than Windows! And the great Vector community has a lot to do with that.
--GrannyGeek
