Options Wonderland

[IHUBfan]

Hi, I have been trying to understand options and this info is very helpful. I have a couple of questions.
Why do covered calls? If you buy a stock anyway, wouldn't it be better to buy puts to protect your stock from loss instead of selling a call and obligating yourself and limiting the upside?
Is buying calls better than actually buying the underlying stock, because you are spending less money to start with for an option to buy if the stock goes up?
Thanks