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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: 5, Informative) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:45PM (16 children)
I think you're accustomed to a lot of pain, frustration, and cost from proprietary software and you just don't even think about it.
Ever assemble your own PC? It's a great way to save money on the price of a PC. You can often reuse older components. But then you have to install the operating system yourself. My wife's computer had its primary hard drive corrupted, and I had to reinstall Windows 10. The process took three or four hours, starting with entering a 16 or 20 digit alphanumeric activation key. Plus I had to sit through a whole bunch of clicking and waiting as I recreated the accounts for family members, because as I logged in each person I got a "Welcome, please wait while we set up your account" dialog that took up the whole screen for five or ten minutes. Plus I had over a day of Windows updates. Then I had to download and install Firefox, Chrome, LibreOffice, 7-zip, VLC movie player, Minecraft (plus Java), and Steam. The last time I screwed up and wiped out one of my hard drives and reinstalled Linux, the operating system was ready to go in half an hour and the accounts were all set up in fifteen minutes total. Installing all of the software I needed took five minutes clicking through the Ubuntu App Center.
Ever have Linux do an update in the middle of your work and lock you out of your own machine for ten minutes, or twenty minutes, or two hours? I haven't.
Ever have Linux pop up a notification asking you to try Cortana, or set up a reminder? Ever get a notification on Steam asking you to update Firefox, or Java, or Steam? Me neither.
Ever have a Linux software update break your machine so that it won't boot, and need to reinstall the operating system? That's happened to me several times with Windows Update. It happened to me with Linux when we had a power failure during a software update, and that's it.
Apple products "just work", you have far fewer headaches than with Microsoft. But you pay for that privilege by literally paying for that privilege. That sleek machine with the genuinely gorgeous user interface is $999 while I'm working just as efficiently on $450 in new and used parts I bought off Ebay - and the user interface I'm staring at is quite pretty too. Yes, your Macbook or iMac looks better than my FrankenBox, but I can (and have) set up six computers in my house for my family. If you can afford to do the same with 6 Macbook Airs and iMacs, I want your job.
I mean no disrespect to you or to other people using non-FOSS operating systems. I understand your choices and the reason behind them. But it's nonsense to call FOSS a scam and a waste of time. The benefits in time savings and money savings, on top of FOSS freedom, are substantial.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:08PM (8 children)
It doesn't fulfill its main selling point (as far as I'm concerned): Customization and related collaboration.
Nothing in your post detracts from my appraisal: You end up having to work the way the Collective wants you to work, and it can be very VERY irritating to try to add your voice to that collective; the main selling point (as far as I'm concerned) is a scam. I use it because I can, and because I've learned how to use it, but it's been a dismal failure with regard to my original intentions for a customizable, collaborative computing environment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)
Right, like Wikipedia was going to let the entire world collaborate according to their desire to thus advance human knowledge together. Anybody can edit Wikipedia!
There's always somebody claiming the [fishing ground, surf beach, park, codebase], isn't there?
Communism never delivers the promised utopia because people take ownership and MINES!! Get offa mah land!
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday July 25 2018, @05:44PM
Someone who takes "ownership" of a Wikipedia article's text is violating conduct policy [wikipedia.org]. But if an article's regular contributors are regularly reverting edits that show a genuine problem, it can be hard for a new editor to tell the difference between preserving article quality and gaming the system [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:44PM (2 children)
I suggest you switch away from using GNOME.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @12:58AM (1 child)
Install NetBSD. With the base install you get the Tab window manager. If you want to get fancy you can install fvwm2. But it's nice to just have .twmrc and .xinitrc in your home directory to easily modify your desktop.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @06:27PM
OpenBSD uses fvwm by default, but also comes with cwm, which is my favorite these days. It's very simple, and absolutely lovely to use (at least once you read the man page and learn the keybindings and how to change them).
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:42PM (2 children)
I'm not sure what you're asking for in terms of customization or collaboration. Windows, macOS, and iOS allow customization exactly as much as Microsoft or Apple permits. Linux gives you more choices. But no, you won't get every possible combination you want. You also can't make the community of contributors follow your own vision. And if you pick a more obscure combination of features, you are more likely to encounter bugs. My advice to Linux novices that are not tech tinkerers is to look for a Linux distribution that has a user experience close to what you want by default. If you like the way Elementary OS (a Linux distribution) works right at install, then it's a fine choice. If you like it somewhat but have ten substantial changes to the user interface in mind, it's best to skip it and look for something else that provides what you want right at install instead.
Customization and collaboration do not mean you can have any software feature you want. I wish it did. But you only have the freedom to use what already exists or work to build what you want. Unfortunately for all of us it's not a technology utopia.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @04:17PM (1 child)
That's what I mean by "customization".
I'm not the dummy you seem to have in mind; I know what I'm talking about down to the nuts and bolts of the OS.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:50PM
So what kind of customization do you want but are not allowed to get? Some kind of coding conventions in the kernel? The use of a different programming language?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:29PM (2 children)
Your pain and suffering and waiting could have been alleviated, if you had ponyed up for a SSD on her computer. You want to impress someone, switch out their HDD for a SSD. A 500mhz upgrade or an extra two cores generally won't be noticed, even 1333mhz vs 2400mhz RAM isn't as noticeable as switching from mechanical to solid state.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @03:23AM
Perhaps if you're using Windows. Swapping out a hard drive for a SSD on Linux is nice but not that impressive.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday July 25 2018, @11:06AM
I switched all of our computers except one to SSDs for the primary operating system drive years ago, for the exact reason you stated. The Windows installation and update process is just painfully slow.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday July 25 2018, @03:57AM (1 child)
No, because I've read that barebone laptop kits aren't worth it [tomsguide.com], and switching from a laptop to a desktop would mean inability to get work done while riding transit or while waiting for my roommate to finish her grocery shopping.
Yes. The release upgrade from Xubuntu 14.04 "Trusty" to 16.04 "Xenial" on a Dell Inspiron mini 1012 caused Linux to hang on second boot when it couldn't find the backlight control port of a keyboard that isn't backlit. See bug 107651 [kernel.org]. But I was able to work around it by pasting someone's solution into a terminal.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:27PM
I grant that in the world of laptops, Linux is a less compelling choice. I still consider it the best option, but the advantages outside of freedom, privacy, and security are weaker than they are on the desktop.
I'm sorry you had an update fail, and glad you were able to fix it. I realize it's an enormous headache - but two things to consider are that I have had Windows Update wreck Windows installations more than once, and the process of backing up your existing data and reinstallingis less painful with Linux.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:14PM (1 child)
It doesn't fulfill its main selling point (as far as I'm concerned): Customization and related collaboration.
Nothing in your post detracts from my appraisal: You end up having to work the way the Collective wants you to work, and it can be very VERY irritating to try to add your voice to that collective; the main selling point (as far as I'm concerned) is a scam. I use it because I can, and because I've learned how to use it, but it's been a dismal failure with regard to my original intentions for a customizable, collaborative computing environment.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday July 25 2018, @03:11PM
You re-posted https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=26768&page=1&cid=711921#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] -- see my answer to that post.