11 reasons to switch to Linux

Geekzone ^ | 4-FEB-2009 08:24 | foobar

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

People like to publish top-10 lists of all sorts. And "reasons to switch to Linux" is no exception. Many of those have been published, and the latest entry is here. However, I think the author completely forgot a very important point. Also, some of the points he makes should be examined a bit more closely and critically. The comments on the original article reflect some valid and some unfounded criticism. Let me just run through those points (italics are quotes from the original 10-point list, my comments are directly below each point) and provide my own take on those:

1. Free:  Linux is an open source project. As they say, it is free as in free beer. All you need to install Linux is an Internet connection to download the iso files and a CD where you can burn the iso. Compare this with Windows which costs a lot!
   
   That is of course true. It doesn't cost anything to download a GNU/Linux distro, besides whatever charges you have for bandwidth. Note also that in the case of Ubuntu you don't even need to burn your own CD. They will send you one for free if you request it. On the other hand, most users are not aware of the cost of Windows, since it comes pre-loaded with their PC and is 'just there'. Consequently, for many this is not really a reason to 'switch'. The cost advantage is only relevant if you are installing a new computer from scratch. Also, the author forgot to mention a very aspect of 'free'. See point 11 below.
    
2. Linux distributions are COMPLETE: All the decent Linux distributions are complete: they include almost all the applications like office applications, pdf reader, web servers, compilers, etc.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From phoronix:

An Early Look At OpenSolaris 2009.06

[fremont_steve]

Drivers - hmmm...

First to admit that there are some pieces of hardware that don’t work with Linux. At the same time there are whole bunch of things that DO work with Linux.

If your world consists of a standard PC under “normal” use, about the only thing that MIGHT be compatibility issues are going to be wireless modems. There is a bunch that work with Linux, and some that don’t. Other than this - any PC will pretty much do all the things you can do under XP/Vista.

[Sean4000]

As of now I am using 64bit xubuntu Linux. Have been for 2 years now. xubuntu is the XFCE desktop environment alternative to ubuntu’s GNOME, and Kubuntu’s KDE. Everything has been fantastic once I found the right software set.

ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com
kubuntu: http://www.kubuntu.org
edubuntu: http://www.edubuntu.org
xubuntu: http://www.xubuntu.org

VLC Player plays everything I have thrown at it, especially when coupled with full gstreamer support.

Asunder is a fabulous CD ripper. http://www.getdeb.net/app/Asunder

Handbrake is the same for DVDs. http://www.getdeb.net/app/HandBrake

Abiword 2.6.6 has been great so far and even has support for .docx files along with a comprehensive feature set. I even wrote my senior thesis on it. http://www.getdeb.net/app/AbiWord

GNUcash and GNUmeric handle my business accounting and spreadsheet needs perfectly.

3D animation and FX are handled by Blender 2.48a. 2.5 when released will be akin to Houdini on the professional front. I also use Houdini but with all new releases of Blender 3D, it is getting harder and harder to open the other apps like Maya, 3DS Max, and lightwave. http://www.getdeb.net/app/Blender

Ardour Digital Audio Workstation v2.8 now includes VST support and has shaped up to be the leading DAW on the Linux format. http://www.getdeb.net/app/Ardour

GIMP has been with me since the beginning. It is a little awkward to use at first but once you get used to the interface it’s a good tool to have. Its major drawback is that it only supports 8nit per channel color, better known at 24bitRGB. For higher bit depth color I use Cinepaint, it supports 8, 12, and 24 bit color per channel as well as HDRI. http://www.getdeb.net/app/Gimp

NLEs or Non-linear Editors are a big flaw on the Linux platform with many contenders but no really up to snuff apps. The best we have up until now for SD video is Kino, and for HD is KDEnlive. Of course all of these will be flushed away when the Lumiera project is complete. Lumiera will be a professional level editor and compositor for Linux. http://www.lumiera.org , Kino: http://www.getdeb.net/app/Kino

My jukebox is songbird 1.1.1. Once again no problems with usability as it is modeled directly after iTunes. http://www.getdeb.net/app/Songbird

All of these apps plus many more can be downloaded in their newest versions at http://www.getdeb.net (ubuntu, kubuntu, edubuntu, and xubuntu Linux only)

The only proprietary driver I have is my nVIDIA graphics driver and it has never flubbed out of me ever.

Specs:
Dual AMD Quad-core 2346HE CPUs, 16GB DDR2 667 SDRAM, 2TB (4X500GB) WD SATA 3.0 7200 HDDs, ARECA ARC-1210 RAID controller card, nVIDIA 8800GT, TYAN Thunder S2927-E Motherboard BIOS v2.03, xubuntu Linux 8.10 Intrepid Ibex 64-bit edition

[MarkL]

I have to say, I’m quite impressed by Linux Mint. It seems to be based on Ubuntu, but it has all the drivers and libraries built in, so you don’t have to manually hunt down and install the damn things, like DVD libraries, and Flash.

I’m playing with it at the moment, using it in a VM on my work laptop. I think that I will be building a system using it at home.

Mark

[ShadowAce]

[sionnsar]

There is another issue -- documentation. Not that everything Windows is great (back in the 80s/90s I knew a fellow who wrote books that were the user manual Microsoft should have been writing), but the documentation is sometimes absent, sometimes misleading.

That said there are user forums (too many of them, it sometimes seems) for help. Last week I had done something that caused the quote key to misfunction under Xubuntu (but Kubuntu was fine!). I finally found a thread where somebody had the exact same problem and the fix was simple -- change the "keyboard layout" to "us (default)".

Now if only I could get Adobe Flash to work. Haven't found the fix for that yet...

Been playing with Linux since '98, made the complete switch 2+ years ago.

[antiRepublicrat]

The faster we rid ourselves of the Microsoft tax, the better.

The "Microsoft tax" is pretty much dead with the wide availability of OEM Linux systems.

[antiRepublicrat]

In my experience, the only modern OS that was easier to install than Ubuntu in a VM was the OS X Leopard upgrade.

[calex59]

# 1 reason to switch to Linux: Because you want to and like using it. # 1 reason to stay with Windows: Because you want to and like using it.

All these arguments about Windows Vs Linux are silly. They are a matter of choice, people who want Linux will have it, Linux will eventually get a bigger market share than it does now, presuming that Bozo doesn't totally destroy our free market system. Windows will continue to be the dominant system unless they totally go off the deep end with renting their software instead of selling it.

The preceding was my opinion. I like both systems for different reasons I choose not to go into here.

[Paradox]

I've dabbled with Linux ever since I built up a Gentoo Linux system about 7 or 8 years ago. Real nerd stuff for sure. It was very difficult to install. I didn't reap any real benefits from it, so I went back to Windows. A couple of years ago, I tried Ubuntu. That install was STUPID EASY! Very impressed. I keep an installation around somewhere on my network of 5 machines, in case I need it, but to be honest, I stick with XP for now. It just works, and for me, it is as fast as any decent Linux install. I also use MS Office, which is faster than Open Office in my experience.

The cost thing for me is not that big of a deal. A few hundred dollars for software might sound like alot, but overall, its a small fraction of the money I make using said software. If you are really hard up, there is alot of Open Source software available on Windows anyways.

[IYAS9YAS]

Having said that, I use and prefer 64-bit Vista. It’s been absolutely flawless for the year or so I’ve had my laptop—flawless.

I run Windows Vista 64-bit home premium. I like it. I have experienced no issues with it. Everything runs, runs well, and runs fast. I kept debating the switch from XP, but our old computer was on its last legs, and the deal was too good to pass up. Now all I need is a faster network connection.

[hiredhand]

Ah yes... but of course! We stopped running Micro-Shaft in our house back in 1998....that is for anything we actually DEPEND ON. MS Windows needs to taken into correct perspective, as with a toilet. That's pretty much the way I use it. At work, I'm fortunate to be in a position to dictate that I WILL operate in a UNIX environment. But I do like Visio and MS-Outlook...and I do sometimes take advantage of cross platform functionality as with Evolution and Korganizer.

But even my data for my one (disposable) Windows box at work is stored in my primary box which is a Linux (Ubuntu) laptop. I pretty much treat MS Windows like the toilet that it is. Sure I use it...everybody does. But I REFUSE to depend on it. I have no misgivings about flushing it and reloading the OS because there's no data on it. It only holds applications. It's a brainless application server in my case and far too many people have been let down and disappointed by MS's sorry excuse for an operating system for me to ever depend on it professionally.

Besides this, as easy as Ubuntu is to install...along with a BIG application base of free and non-free software, I simply don't understand why people run Windows any more...especially why they "depend" on it. Crossover for Linux lets one run Windows apps in Linux, and if that doesn't work, there's always VirtualBox (by Sun) and VM-Ware server (which is free).

I know I'm preaching to the choir to you. :-) Maybe somebody else will glean something from my ramblings. Who knows?! :-)

[B Knotts]

I use Debian. In Debian, the easiest way to deal with flash is to add www.debian-multimedia.org to the sources.list, and then just apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla.

[hiredhand]

A lot of people aren't impressed, and I can understand why especially with your frustration involving the video card. I recently suffered this pain with a NEW Nvidia card which was a bit too new. I'm usually pretty good at solving these types of problems and this one pretty much maxed me out. I came very close to just taking it back and buying another (older) one. In the end, I managed. But it was definitely frustration, and definitely NOT something that an end user should have to deal with. Until Linux OS developers can take the "edge" off of things such as this, end users are going to shy away from it.

In the LAN/WAN management arena however, Linux is a very impressive. It's like a huge tool box at the disposal of the person who knows enough to be able to use it. The problem is that these "type" of people aren't usually "normal". Here's a case in point though, and it happened just this past Friday.

My team lead where I work came to me and needed a system which gathered network traffic for three of our remote sites (out of 100), from three different interfaces on our sniffer (a Debian Linux server with a bunch of Gigabit Ethernet cards in it), but he ONLY wanted to see traffic to and from a certain specific service, and he wanted the capture sessions to span ONE HOUR intervals. He wanted to be able to retrieve the data and load it into a protocol analyzer so he could troubleshoot a problem. We solved the above problem with nothing more than what ships with a stock Debian Linux server distribution. In fact, the one we used is way, WAY out of date and dreadfully in need of patching. We've put it off because a lot of people use the machine in my group for troubleshooting and they won't let me take it down to patch it!

But I CAN empathize with the video card problem. Things like that can and do keep Linux relegated to nerds and uber geeks. It's moving into the user realm slowly though.

I just think it's a shame that MS didn't change their vile greedy ways and integrate something with Linux. Mac did this with OSX using BSD and it's one of the nicest operating systems I've ever checked out. MS doesn't share though. If they can't OWN all of it, they try to kill it...something they've tried with many other operating system producers.

[sionnsar]

Xubuntu is Debian-based and it's even easier. Open up Synaptic package manager, click the box on [whatever the package was named], select "Install" then click on "Apply" and "Yes", and wait for it to download and install. It even fetched the very latest from Adobe.

HOWEVER, it doesn't always work. I found one thread where somebody uninstalled a number of related drives, reinstalled in a different order (not clearly stated), and he said it worked. Order is apparently important.

[JamesP81]

What kind of video card?

At the time, GeForce 6800. Haven't tried to make it behave with the GF8800GTX I'm running now, don't really care to either.

I work on computers and write software for a living. I really don't want to work on that crap when I get home.

[JamesP81]

A lot of people aren't impressed, and I can understand why especially with your frustration involving the video card. I recently suffered this pain with a NEW Nvidia card which was a bit too new. I'm usually pretty good at solving these types of problems and this one pretty much maxed me out. I came very close to just taking it back and buying another (older) one. In the end, I managed. But it was definitely frustration, and definitely NOT something that an end user should have to deal with. Until Linux OS developers can take the "edge" off of things such as this, end users are going to shy away from it.

And keep in mind, I write software and do tech support on computers professionally. That's my day job. I guess the result of that is I don't want to work on this crap when I get home from work. I'd rather be at the range.

[JamesP81]

I would like to point something out.

Linux is free and it runs on the same hardware as its competitors, so conversion doesn't involve hardware costs.

And yet it continues to not be adopted as a desktop OS.

Makes a great server OS, to be sure, but something is very wrong with your product when people won't adopt it when it's free. The free market is a cold, unforgiving bitch at times.

[snowsislander]

BTTT.

[MichiganMan]

6800GT was an awesome card, an old one of mine still runs a decent system I just rebuilt for a buddy.

Just guessing at what may have happened with your experience, I'm speculating from the GeForce 6800 that this was a couple years ago before Ubuntu got the automatic video driver ironed out. You installed the video driver from NVidia's site, which back then meant you had to let the installer compile it for your kernel, so when your system got an update to the kernel the video driver stopped working.  Or you were one of the lucky bunch of people hit when a particular update to XORG fubar'ed the system a few years back. That one was annoying. 

Fortunately, like I said, the video driver install is pretty much handled automatically nowadays and I haven't had a bad experience with an update in, hmm, can't remember the last one.  Life in Linux isn't perfect, its still code written by humans, but I enjoy its benefits over Windows much more than I miss Windows' benefits over Linux.