What is the pros and cons of linux? Does it cost money to get or is it free?

Most distributions of Linux are free and open source, there are some commercial ones which in my opinion are pointless.

The pros pretty much are that it is more customizable, free and web things (besides asp and .net and that) are built around Linux.

The cons are that it doesn't have any of the better commercial programs for it and you have to find worse equivilents for it. Also it's not widely supported, servers are probably the main use but it's not generally used on home computers because it takes some learning and getting used to.

Well, Linux's pro is also its con. There's a lot of choices. However, for some people that can get way too overwhelming. People have to make choices between KDE and GNOME, and etc. Standardization is still in progress. Some people can get frustrated from these choices. Thus, if you're not ready to make decisions like that, then don't jump to Linux. If you love choices like that, well what are you waiting for? Linux is the world's most customizable operating system!

As for software support, you'll be amazed at how much applications Linux has especially since it is a free operating system. There are even some games that work on both Linux and Windows; which may not be available on MacOS X.

xboxrulz

The biggest pro of linux in my opinion it that is very low cost or free. You can get thousands of dollars of software fo it for free or next to nothing. You can get most of the distros for free online at linuxs site or get them on cd for low cost. Another thing i like about linux it that its very stable and relieable. It doesnt have as many problems with the os and you can leave it on for weeks with out having to reboot alot. Also windows tends to crash alot for stupid reasons or sometimes no reasons where linux can be ran for years with out crashing. This is mostly cause the people developing linux build it as more of a hobby and build it for them self and others other than corperate sale such as microsoft does. A con of linux is there is a lot of duplicate programs. For example if you look at mail programs you can find alot of different ones doing the same job just with a different development approch. Another con is alot of drivers for hard ware are not made for linux. You can have a great deal of problem trying to find certain drivers. Also its hard to find support for linux for new users and people that dont know whats wrong. Other then that though i find linux a good os to use. hope that helps.