"as A true linux user, I hate paying for stuff"
Hmmmm....as another "true Linux user", I'm not sure if sure if that statement is a good characterization of me.
While the free and open source stuff is a great benefit for exposing yourself to a variety of tools that you use to learn new things, when it comes time to working in a professional environment, technical support and commercial software also has clear benefits.
Case in point, my home machine has a Debian based installation. I bought a hard drive to install it on and paid $15 for a Linuxant modem driver. In total, I paid about what I would have paid to upgrade to WinXP. What I got was a lot of tools like Maxima, Octave, Python, QCAD, Xfig, Open Office, GnuCash, etc. that I use for my day to day at-home stuff. It's a darned good deal for non-critical use.
However, if I were building a Linux workstation, I'd probably go with SuSE and a support contract. For software, I'd replace QCAD with VariCAD, continue to use Open Office but also purchase Crossover Office, Maybe install NASTRAN, and so on.
The great thing about Linux is that you can get it and a boatload of software for free if you just want to "dink around with it". However, for a professional environment, the support is well worth paying for. That's not to say I don't use open source software in my work (I use Octave regularly), but I would never use an OS without available enterprise level technical support.
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Joseph K. Mooney
Director, Airframe Structures - FAA DER
Delta Engineering Corporation