That's not to say that Linux can't necesserily play a role in that, as Novell and IBM among others have proved. It's just that Richard Stallman and an (at the time) unknown finnish student among others didn't start writing free software for that purpose.

Free software has traditionaly been about people at the grass roots of society writing software and making it available to people like themselves to use for free. You're an IT professional well able to pay for commercial software, but your son is a young person with (presumably) limited means starting out in life. He dosn't have your financial resources, and likely also has more time and energy to explore activities, and therefore software tools that you wouldn't be interested in. Linux gives him a vast array of software with which he can do that for free, granting him opportunities he woudn't otherwise have.

No wonder he's so enthused and you just don't see the point.

Simon Hibbs