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You might be pretty happy with Windows XP. But Windows continues to suffer from more than its share of drawbacks: From the newer operating system's incompatibility with older software to Microsoft's well-known security problems, Windows still engenders a fair amount of user aggravation. Windows XP also subjects its users to the indignity of the Microsoft Product Activation service: You might have to ask Microsoft for a new key if you upgrade more than one or two major components.

The question for PC users, of course, is what's the alternative? When we last looked at Linux, it was still rough around the edges. Two years later, we can't say that Linux is better than Windows on all these counts, but Linux has matured. To find out whether it's finally ready for the average PC user, we looked at SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional ($80 boxed, free download, www.suse.com), just one of many distributions (customized Linux versions). Popularized in Europe, SuSE has made it to retail shelves in America, with a hefty set of printed manuals and a massive amount of useful software on CD-ROM.

If you can't get Windows to work your way, or if you feel like it never will, Linux represents the pinnacle of the customizable operating system. You can change the entire desktop if you don't like the way yours works. Linux also provides superior security compared to Windows systems, and works on more hardware, from 486 processors to the latest Pentium 4s. In many ways, Linux is more a set of infinitely rearrangeable operating system building blocks than a unified OS.

But Linux still poses a number of challenges to new users. Linux drivers are hard to find for some hardware. Unfamiliar file systems, incomprehensible error messages, and the occasional need to compile applications from source code await Windows users who are considering a leap over the OS divide.