Motivation

Why did I turn to Linux?
One word : Virtob

As a regular Windows user for close to a decade, it was the first time that I felt helpless in face of a viral attack. As a prudent user who rarely visited dubious sites without precaution, I concluded that the only way the virus could have entered into my system was through someone else's thumb drive.

After the initial infection was detected by with a clean sweep with AVG and Avast and NOD and online Kaspersky, I found the virus rearing its head repeatedly, successfully, frustratingly. I concluded that AVG itself was probably facilitating the transmission of the virus, infecting every executable that it scanned. So I needed Avast just to scan AVG as it loaded, to ensure that it was not infected. Virtob would cause a system file to create a connection to a specific IP and begin download of additional files. So a dedicated Firewall was also needed. Comodo was the first preference. Fortunately, the latest version (3), also has a suspicious activity monitor that can alert the user every time a file tries to modify another, and if needed prevent such modification. Threatfire was another utility that I needed to ensure better control over file activities. Finally, Spybot was needed to check for infection from spyware. Hijack this was also used
The result of all this monitoring was longer load times and sluggish performance. And configuring the Firewall to allow all the needed online connections while preventing unwanted communication was causing some applications to act strangely.
Additionally, Virtob has an affinity for executables, making no distinction between system files and others, so usually after the first time the virus is found, the system would not boot again since some system file would have become corrupted thanks to the infection. Ultimately, the only way out was a fresh install. Fortunately, since no data files were corrupted, the critical stuff was left unharmed. (A Gentleman Bandit?)

I had sampled Linux a few times previously. But it was mostly to satisfy a curiosity rather than assess it's viability for regular use. But, this time around, a few factors, besides the virus contributed to increase the motivation.
1. A broadband connection meant I was spending longer times online. I was too anxious to avoid a reinfection.
2. Work mostly involved using Openoffice to create documents. And this was available in Linux as well.
3. Improvements in the interface meant that I could get away with minimal command memorisation. I prefer the point and click ease to figuring out the switches that accompany the many arcane commands.
4. The broadband link allowed download of ISOs making it easier to sample many distros. So no longer waiting for the computer mag to include distros.
5. Live ISOs are more popular. Knoppix was the sole live distro, then came Ubuntu and the rest. This immensely increased the interest to try out every distro before finalising one.