Posted on 12/06/2012 7:52:51 AM PST by ShadowAce
I’m not saying Linux is the best thing to use for everyone. I am saying, however, that it may be better for you than what you’re using now. Linux is different from Windows or Mac OS X in some fundamental ways. For thousands of people, these differences are a reason to choose Linux over its alternatives. Are they for you? Read on to find out!
What is Linux?
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you already know, at least a little bit, what Linux is. For the purpose of this article, we’ll view it as an alternative to Windows and Mac OS X. However, it also runs on most of this world’s smartphones (Android is a flavor of Linux), and most of this worlds web servers (Google, Facebook and Amazon use it in their web infrastructure), and on a great many other things. Even this very website is served by a Linux server.
Before we start looking into differences, let’s not forget this: Linux is a collective term. There are many flavors of Linux, with Ubuntu probably being the most well-known one for PCs and laptops. Ubuntu is Linux, but Linux is not necessarily Ubuntu. Think of “Linux” as “a car”. Saying that you’re considering to switch to Linux is like saying you’re considering to buy a car. It can still be any brand and any model. Ubuntu is like a brand, and the version of it is like a model. Other popular “brands” include Fedora, Arch Linux and Debian.
Now that we know a bit better what we’re talking about, let’s start looking into why Linux may be better for you than Windows/Mac!
Boss of your own computer
Have you ever read those long and boring legal texts you have to agree to when you just bought a new computer or (re)installed one? Probably not, but if you did, you’d know that you don’t own Windows or Mac OS X, even if you paid good money for them. Instead, the texts say you get a bunch of files that you are allowed to use (on only one computer) but not share. You’re also not allowed to reverse-engineer them. This means that you’re mostly stuck having to use the software the way the programmers intended it to be used. If you don’t like that, you don’t have a lot of choice. However, most people are used to this lack of freedom, and don’t feel too restrained by it.
Imagine, however, a computer where you could change the way it worked in any way you liked. You could finally get rid of those annoying warning messages! You could set a keyboard shortcut for that simple thing that costs you 10 clicks to do right now! You could stop the computer from doing things you don’t want it to do, and the computer could finally work with you instead of against you like it sometimes does! Well, with Linux, this becomes reality. Mind you, not all changes are easily made, and you may need a book on C programming and/or help from a community member here and there, but at least you are allowed to!
You see, Linux also comes with a long and boring legal text, but this one tells you that you have a right to the source code behind what you’re using, that you can use Linux on as many computers as you want and share it with anyone you want! With the help of the source code, you can change Linux to your heart’s content, and you’re allowed to share your changed version. But even if you don’t actually change anything yourself, you can benefit from other people who do. Many people in the Linux community like to share their improvements, and the good ones tend to end up in a next version of the software.
Benefits of freedom
This freedom to do what you want with the software that runs your computer has some nice benefits:
Command line
Besides all the good reasons above, there is another reason why people choose Linux over (especially) Windows or Mac OS X. Virtually all Linux flavors come with an extensive command line environment. You know, the old green characters on a black background terminal interface, but in a modern jacket. Entirely text based, controllable with only your keyboard, and not very intuitive. You might ask why including ancient ways of controlling a computer is beneficial.
Truth is, once you get used to it, the command line often becomes indispensible. It might not be as intuitive as looking about the screen and clicking your mouse, but it allows you to express in a direct and powerful language what you want the computer to do. Anything you can do for one file on the command line, you can do for thousands just as well. Anything you can start by hand on the command line, you can schedule for regular intervals as well. Also, the command line hasn’t changed its interface in years. It remains the same between versions of Linux, between flavors of Linux, between platforms on which Linux runs. Learn once, use anywhere, and forever. And it’s fast. Not requiring your mouse, it allows you to keep your hands at the keyboard and make the computer do what you want without being interrupted by the distractions of a graphical user interface.
Mac OS X also has this command line, though it requires some tweaking to make it as powerful as it is in most Linux flavors. And Mac lacks the benefits of freedom above. If Apple decides to limit access to the command line in the next release of Mac OS X, it would be hard to get around that.
Before you jump…
Now, suppose this article got you warmed up to try Linux and see if it really is better for you. That’s great! But before you try, let me highlight some of the problems many people taking the plunge have run into:
. Outside the more standard things like web browsing or sending/receiving e-mail, you will find that every button has a new place and/or works slightly different. Give it some time; you would face the same frustrations when switching between Windows and Mac for the first time. Believe me, once you get the hang of it, you may find yourself to be able to work more effectively than you were! And to get to that point faster: Get some help learning the ropes
Learning to work with Linux can be hard, and fortunately the web is full of helpful articles and screencasts to show you how to do things the Linux way. This very website is a good resource, but many articles require you to already run Linux to be of much use. If you want to get some hands-on experience with the command line mentioned above, without the hassle of installing Linux first, give the free trial of linuxacademy.com a go. You’ll get understandable lessons and a free server to practice on. Happy learning!
shucks, i’ve used linux for years. have stuck with suse for years starting with 8.0. using 11.4 right now.
i dual boot between windows & linux, but usually stay in linux for months at a time. have a few apps i use on windows occasionally, but not often. I am not a computer whiz by any means.
however, i don’t have to spend alot of time worrying about viruses and buying the latest windows optimizers, registry fixers and whatnot that lines everyone’s pockets except those that use the operating system.
i find it funny that while searching the internet, that i get constant notices that my computer has countless viruses, registry errors, and is running slow and i need the latest program to fix my computer, while i am searching in linux.
if their programs can’t even identify what operating system that i am running, i doubt that they can fix windows problems.
blessings, bobo
shucks, i’ve used linux for years. have stuck with suse for years starting with 8.0. using 11.4 right now.
i dual boot between windows & linux, but usually stay in linux for months at a time. have a few apps i use on windows occasionally, but not often. I am not a computer whiz by any means.
however, i don’t have to spend alot of time worrying about viruses and buying the latest windows optimizers, registry fixers and whatnot that lines everyone’s pockets except those that use the operating system.
i find it funny that while searching the internet, that i get constant notices that my computer has countless viruses, registry errors, and is running slow and i need the latest program to fix my computer, while i am searching in linux.
if their programs can’t even identify what operating system that i am running, i doubt that they can fix windows problems.
blessings, bobo
Well, with Linux, this becomes reality. Mind you, not all changes are easily made, and you may need a book on C programming ....
bkmk
You forgot Option three:
Option 3: Call your local guru and have him come out and set it up for you, the same as he did on your Windows box, because as a 'mouth breathing user', you didn't know how to set up the damn printer in Windows either.
I have approximately 25/30 home users that have been converted to Linux, and the transition was not terrible for any of them. Some found it completely painless. It has been a pretty easy fix for them. No more bugs, which is the main reason I was normally called out anyway, in most cases...
More and more, local service techs are becoming conversant with Linux, so relying upon 'snooty Linux forums' is really not your only recourse.
Pretty much any distro will get a web browser up and running. However, the problem is going to be all the plugins and codecs that allow for a rich browsing experience (Youtube videos, java apps, other multimedia). No linux distro (of which I’m aware) has all that stuff configured “out of the box” due to legal/licensing concerns. (there may be some I just don’t know of any). So there is a one time cost involved with getting all that stuff going. Printers the same way.
Least painless way to get that going is probably to pay or barter with a known expert to get over that one time hump. After that it should be smooth sailing for an install that just has to do basic browsing.
From a net cost perspective you’d still be way ahead particularly if you can work something out via barter.
Meant to say “least *painful*” - typing too fast.
I actually think that this may be one of the biggest differentiators between linux and the “Pay” OS’es. Since you pay a Windows tax or a Mac tax the various plugins and codecs can be all rolled into there and part of your tax is going to go to pay small but non-zero licensing fees.
To date this sort of arrangement just doesn’t exist in the linux world. So while a linux distro will “work” right out of the box, it won’t be fully functional in a true multimedia sense. Will this change going forward? It’s possible but quite frankly I don’t see it changing.
So viewed in this way, linux is a bit like buying unfinished furniture or maybe a cake mix, while the “pay” OS’s are like buying finished furniture or a pre-baked cake. And this is a direct consequence of some fairly fundamental things like business model, GPL licensing, and basic philosophy.
There are certainly websites (not to mention linux tools) that will get your multimedia stuff going for you but at some point there is some effort required, and some knowing where to find the websites or tools etc.
At the end of the day there are a whole lot of people that just want to open up a box, connect a few cables, hit the power button and see youtube videos of dogs jumping in swimming pools and have it all done by the time it’s time to eat Christmas lunch. For those people linux will never be their best option.
Question: If one has an Android phone, is there an advantage to using Linux?
In terms of using your phone, though--I doubt it. I don't have any issues accessing my phone on the rare occasions I need to, though.
There's definitely no disadvantage.
Obligatory post.
I like that pic.
I've been playing with that since it was Monad, and now do most of my work in a PS shell or the ISE. Anybody with a clue should have seen this coming when they put Jeffery Snover in charge of the Server division at MS.
“Command line”
Command lines are for idiot geeks that can’t write an effective user interface and think they’re being clever by memorizing arcane command line codes.
“More work gets done under Linux than with any flavor of Windows. “
Yeah, OK, and liberalism isn’t Communism.
I can do that much faster in the CLI than you can on the GUI.
Or, they're the pure, direct interface into the O/S and used heavily by actual system administrators with enough experience to know that there is no GUI that can effectively cover the millions of variations on commands needed to do everyone's job effectively.
Maybe that's it. :) ...or maybe you're right and tens of thousands of sysads really are idiots and have been doing it wrong all these decades.
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