7 Ways Using Linux Helps You in a Hard Economy

Make Use Of ^ | 12/3/22 | Bertel King

[ProgressingAmerica]

There are economic good times and economic bad times. When times get tough and money's tight, it's good to have Linux on your PC.

1. The OS and Apps Are Free

2. Your Current PC Will Run for Longer

Running Linux means you can expect to use the computer for as long as you want. Rather than running into the artificial limitation of a company declaring your machine end of life and unsupported, you know you will receive free updates until your computer physically falls apart or becomes too underpowered to do what you need it to do.

This makes each PC purchase a more dependable investment. And if times are hard, you can put off making hardware upgrades for longer.

3. You Can Revitalize an Old PC if You Need To

Linux's lower system requirements and lack of product license mean you can breathe new life into older machines.

4. Second-Hand PCs Become More Appealing

5. You Don't Need to Pay More for Features

6. Protection From Companies Going Bust

Linux offers a great deal of insulation from the market. Rarely does open-source software go away, since someone can fork the source code and continue the project even if the original developer steps away.

7. Linux Nudges You to Keep Your Data Local

Many apps have transitioned from living on your desktop to living on someone else's server. These web apps are easy to charge a subscription for.

Linux Makes Good Financial Sense

Linux is what we call a good investment. It's free to acquire and free to maintain. It provides you with access to other free programs that can help you make more money. And you keep access to all of this software, even when you don't have a dollar to spare.

[dayglored]

> Which distribution would that be? (that doesn't need the command line)

It's possible to run Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 completely from the GUI, assuming of course that your applications are GUI (browser, mail, office apps, etc.) and that the GUI-based system config and update apps do what you need (likely true for most users).

As a system admin, I've lived in the command line (terminal) by choice for many decades on every system I work on (Linux, Windows, MacOS) but that's not required for normal user operation.

[Openurmind]

I have tried about all of the most popular now, and always go back to Mint with Cinnamon as the best so far. It is based on Ubuntu but I have found it to be better than Ubuntu. But most of the newer major distros are full point and click GUI and use of the command line is rarely needed. Maybe if you absolutely cannot live without an outdated app, some of those older ones require command line install. Or if you are doing some techy work like building your own VPN server. But for a normal user, the new ones are no more complicated than windows. In fact, Mint cinnamon is almost a straight across trade for Win 7. :)

[Openurmind]

“MAME on Linux is excellent. I have really honed my “Mr. Do!’s Castle” skills, though I am still having trouble with the arcade version of “Looping”.”

But it is no limited to simple old games. You can go purchase and lownload up to date 3D games from Steam that rival anything for windows... :)

[Openurmind]

Yep, most of the most popular are simple full GUI for the average user. And as you know, GUI Linux apps are universal. They work on all Linux old or new. :)

[Dr. Sivana]

But it is no limited to simple old games. You can go purchase and lownload up to date 3D games from Steam that rival anything for windows... :)

I know. I prefer the really old games. I suppose to a modern Fortnight or Call of Duty fan that is quaint, but I find that the first person shooters are more like movies playing out than inspired gameplay. Something as simple as Space War can never get that old if you have an opponent, and a game like Defender managed to have a LOT going on with very limited (but tightly written) code.

I am waiting for someone to take modern AI principles and apply them to successors of the old "Zork/Colossal Cave"-type text only games using natural language with a LOT more options, possibly with learning growing off of the feedback of players. The technology is there to do it well, but all the effort is put into graphics.

[CatOwner]

I have one Windows 10 PC, one Linux PC, and my laptop on Linux (both Linux machines with Mint). The latter work pretty well for most things, but I have a great number of apps and batch file streams that will take some time converting over, assuming I can find suitable replacements.

The Win 10 PC has been has turned off updates to Win 11 (via registry). Once Win 10 is EOL sometime in 2025, that will be the last active Windows machine I will own. At worse, I will keep Win 10 around for those applications I can't replace, but it will be offline from the Internet.

[Openurmind]

Yeah, I used to like the text games from back when... :)

[Lee N. Field]

Linux is a challenge for most people because it can be complex.

But you CANNOT beat the price.

Linux passed the "Mom test" a long time ago. I don't think a modern Linux desktop is any worse to work with than current Windows.

I own about 6 Comupters.

4 are Linux/Windows dual boot.

One is windows only and one is Linux only.

A variable number of laptops and desktops, all scavenged from work. ("Oh, you don't want to fix this, so we can recycle it? I'll put a SSD in it, and bump the ram.") Stuff that I might take around with me for work is dual book Win 10 and stable brance Debian. None are Windows only. Data on the Linux boxes is rsynced regularly with some brute force handmade scripts. I run them until they fall apart. If one fails, I can grab another and be functional with minimal loss.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

...you know you will receive free updates until your computer physically falls apart or becomes too underpowered to do what you need it to do.

I just retired my mid-2014 MacBook Pro because numerous parts were failing simultaneously -- screen, keyboard, power connector, and a USB port. It still had all the speed I needed, but fixing everything would have cost well over half of a new machine. Then it reached the end of the OS life and that clinched it. All eight years I got free OS updates. I figure eight years out of a computer is darn good. And it is about as simple to use as a toaster, so I saved hundreds or thousands of my hours not having to tinker in the guts of the OS to keep it running.

[daniel1212]

I have tried every major and many minor Linux distros (and Mint is daily used daily on my old computer by a brother, just for email and the Internet) and I have Puppy on another, but I have concluded that Linux is simply not worth trying to achieve a like degree of enhanced customization and efficiency available for Windows, though that can change. And then there is the issue of illegal use of certain multimedia codecs.

And there are many to choose from:

[Lockbox]

7. Linux Nudges You to Keep Your Data Local

Many apps have transitioned from living on your desktop to living on someone else's server. These web apps are easy to charge a subscription for.

Linux Makes Good Financial Sense

How about it’s my data, not something others can collect to spy and sell. Cloud computing is for people and companies who want to risk all. If you don’t think your government and competitors aren’t reading your data, well won’t you be surprised!

[Lee N. Field]

I’ve been running Linux on my computers for 5 years.

I've run Debian Linux with short detours into Ubuntu and Mint since 2000. Worked a little with Red Hat before that.

It used to be hard to get stuff working, if you had funky hardware. Hardware support is much better now.

I retired the first one when it was physically broken, but it was 8 years old.

I'm routinely using stuff that's at least that old. Stuff with Win 7 licenses on it. As long as I have at least a dual core CPU, can bump the ram to 8GB, and install a solid state drive, it's good for my purpose.

It was a bit of a challenge to set this computer as a dual boot, but the instructions to do it were pretty clear.

As long as you start with the Windows install, on a reduced size partition, it's easy.

What's fun is, a dual boot system with properly encrypted file systems on the Linux side. Not so trivial.

[Lee N. Field]

Which distribution would that be?

Mint is the easiest I've encountered so far.

[isthisnickcool]

I met Linus when he was working on his first kernel. Later I would build one of the first Linux based servers after doing so on platforms like SCO. EISA boards, experimental I/O cards and 16 or so drives. Great stuff then, great stuff today.

[Mlheureux]

Used Slackware 1.0 in 1998. Currently use ubuntu. MS is crap and Apple is woke. Both are authoritarian and suck you dry.

[OKSooner]

Thanks

[Mr. Jeeves]

Yeah, I used to like the text games from back when...

I spent quite a few hours playing Rogue on a VAX 11/780 running Berkeley Unix at my college, circa 1981. Fun times. :)

[NorthMountain]

Linux is a challenge for most people because it rarely comes installed on your computer when you buy it. Most users have never installed an operating system of any kind.

Installing Ubuntu is no more difficult than installing Windows 10.

Using Ubuntu is no more difficult than using Windows 10.

Few users have ever installed either one ...

IMO.

YMMV.

[Still Thinking]

Yeah, exactly. I use Windows and I’m in a command window all the time, so that’s not a barrier.

[Still Thinking]

Exactly, what a stupid idea.