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Forbes.com has published a piece by contributor Jason Evangelho entitled "5 Reasons You Should Switch From Windows To Linux Right Now".
When I published the highlights of my journey switching from Windows to Linux on my everyday laptop... it became one of my most viewed pieces this year. From where I'm sitting, that tells me a ton of people are interested -- are at least actively curious -- about ditching Windows and making the jump to Linux.
With that in mind, I wanted to present five reasons that may lead you to consider switching. Know that these are subjective, and they're targeted at the average Windows user and not folks who rely on Windows-exclusive applications for a paycheck.
One thing to know right up front: the modern Linux desktop OS is no longer the obtuse, bewildering and command line driven thing it used to be. Not remotely.
It's nice to see a free operating system getting some love in the mainstream press. Forbes running this article is more the story here than desktop Linux having advantages over Windows.
Be sure to read TFA to find out what the five reasons are. (Or see spoiler, below.)
1: Linux Gets Out Of Your Way
2: You're Not A Slave To The Terminal
3: Installing Software Is Even Easier
4: Updates aren't a headache. They're glorious
5: The Linux Community
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:52PM (14 children)
Seriously? You haven't run a Linux in recent years. Maybe you've never run Linux. Have you even browsed the applications available on Linux? http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/50-essential-linux-applications [linuxandubuntu.com]
Maybe you're looking for something specific. https://alternativeto.net/ [alternativeto.net]
You're just spreading FUD here. You know it, I know it, but not all of the spectators know it. The fact is, you can do damned near ANYTHING on Linux that you can do on Windows. And, if you need something that you just cannot find - you can put up a bounty for someone to make it. Small tasks here, https://bountify.co/ [bountify.co] Larger tasks may take a greater investment, up to and including a Red Hat support contract. It's all up to you.
But, when you're finished, the end product won't be reporting back to Microsoft corporate headquarters. Nor will Microsoft be targeting you for advertising, or much of anything else.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:22PM (5 children)
Runaway, I've been using Linux since it came on an armful of floppies (professionally, even!), so your marketing snowjob is aimed at the wrong person.
Sure, you can set up a desktop that looks superficially like Windows: icons, a trash can, a printer. That's not either of the sticking points I mentioned. Where is the Microsoft Word icon? Photoshop icon? Professional accounting software icon? Nowhere to be found. With Linux, you are OK if there is a webapp for it because that is the lowest common denominator of software. THE-LOWEST.
For Linux desktop apps, the best you can hope for is some clunky and idiosyncratic software that does a fraction of what the Windows alternative does (GIMP vs. Photoshop as an example). For hobbyist, tinkerer types, that can be enough. Tinkerers can chain programs together or write their own scripts to fill the missing pieces. On the other hand, if you want the kitchen sink all wrapped neatly in a package, good luck unless it's a software development package.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:35PM (1 child)
Oh good grief, let's just cut to the quick.
Only incels who hate women because they can't get laid use Linux.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:44PM
No, the main users of Linux are *programmers*... uh, I see your point.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:58PM
Using a webapp to accomplish something isn't a bad thing. It's not the "lowest common denominator". I put my shared family documents in Etherpad - Word for Windows and LibreOffice Writer for Windows and Linux work better, but with Etherpad I can edit the same document from five different computers. Likewise for the Ethercalc spreadsheet.
And using webapps also offers a migration path. That's how Google made ChromeOS propular, they invested billions in the Chrome browser and web standards and open source web software so that people could switch from any operating system with a decent browser to Chrome OS. But it's also the only thing that could possibly save the world from being owned by Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS - as Progressive Web Apps improve and WebAssembly tools improve, the same thing that makes it convenient to jump to Chrome OS or Windows + Edge browser will make it convenient to jump to Ubuntu or FreeBSD or ReactOS or ReduxOS or Jolla or WebOS or whatever.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:45PM (1 child)
I don't want Word, I don't want Photoshop, and I am not an accountant.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @10:17PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ilsa on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:54PM (3 children)
Your argument is ridiculous and the GP is not spreading FUD.
You seriously expect the average user to go through the effort of a software bounty? If they are stuck, they are going to ask their local geek for assistance, and if that doesn't work, they're going to say "This is crap I want Windows back." If someone is knowledgeable enough to even know what bountify is, they are not an average user.
The value of a repo full of software drops precipitously when there are 5-10 different applications that purportedly do the same thing, but each one is finicky in it's own way and the user has no way of knowing ahead of time which one is most appropriate for them to use. One example: I want to open a PDF form that contains javascript calculated fields. Which application do I install? (Trick question... NONE of the PDF readers in the default ubuntu repo support such PDFs. I had to do a bunch of googling and experimenting to find that the commercial tools Master PDF and Qokka PDF Studio could. And no, installing a 9-year old, abandoned, security riddled, acroread is NOT an acceptable option)
I can give you an entire essay worth of examples where Linux falls catastrophically on it's face. I mean hell, I just tried Budgie Ubuntu 18.04 and apparently it can't even be bothered to bring up a progress window when copying a file. It just went along merrily in the background with zero notifications. When I googled about it, I found forum posts where people actually said to just use rsync "cause it's better anyway". Seriously?
Linux is absolutely unusable in a non-curated environment. Linux is so unpolished that the average user absolutely cannot use it without having a technically adept person to back them up. Heck, there are times where even a technically adept person might unexpectedly struggle with something. Linux (specifically Gnome) won't let you do something as simple as drag an application to the programs menu.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:34PM
That sounds like an entirely undesirable feature that exists only in proprietary garbage.
Ultimately, if users don't value freedom above all else, then they are going to be tricked into using proprietary software at some point, even if using such software is bad for society.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by el_oscuro on Wednesday July 25 2018, @12:30AM
I want to open a PDF form that contains javascript calculated fields. Which application do I install? (Trick question... NONE of the PDF readers in the default ubuntu repo support such PDFs.
That sounds like a feature, not a bug.
Given all of the exploits [nist.gov] that current versions of Acrobat have, why would you ever want to run scripts in a PDF? PDFs have exactly one purpose: printing. All of that extra crap is what makes Acrobat a steaming pile of shit.
I'm sure there are better tools for performing field calculations and they probably have print to PDF functionality too.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @06:40PM
Mupdf supports javascript. Maybe the Ubuntu package doesn't, but it is supported.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:34AM (3 children)
Find me some drop in replacements for SolidWorks and Altium and then I'll switch to Linux.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:54AM (2 children)
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/07/24/1729244 [soylentnews.org]
Oh, wait - you said "drop in". Meaning, you want Solidworks and Altium to run on Linux. In that case, you want to talk to the developers over at Solidworks and Altium. They don't support Linux? Must be a reason for that.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:45PM (1 child)
What *are* Solidworks and Altium?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:07AM
Cad software. Of course, there are open source alternatives, but no one can promise that they are "drop in" replacements for proprietary software.