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27 Good Reasons to Love Linux
jaden:
I love Linux. I started using it 13 years ago, spent 5 years as a developer at a Linux clustering company creating management and provisioning software for Linux clusters and ran it as my primary desktop OS for 7 or 8 years. I used to try to get everyone I knew to use it.
But even I wouldn't claim that Linux currently beats Windows or Mac OS X on ease of use. Sure, it's getting better, but I've tried and failed too many times to count to get non-technical people to use it without assistance. Invariably, they would run into a problem that would have been straightforward on Windows but required me to help them because it was too complex.
barney:
Of course if you do want some hand holding on Linux use Ubuntu, it's forums are a treasure trove of helpful people and technical advice. Personally, I've tried a number of distros, but always come back to Ubuntu.
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Yeah ... well ... Ubuntu is my preferred Linux distro, but as far as help goes, I gave up on the forae a couple-two-t'ree years ago. I encountered the same elitism and rtfm that has driven me away from many another forum. It's really easy to denigrate someone else for not understanding something you consider self-evident (and boost your ego at the same time, or so you think) - a hell of a lot easier than actually trying to help.
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A friend and I were speaking telephonically earlier today. He was, several years ago, a telecom field installer and troubleshooter (MCI, pre Bernie Ebbers) - a very good one, a very good one and running a field team of thirty-five (35) to forty (40) techs. He remarked, during the Linux/Mac/Windows OS discussion we were having, that he really missed the power of the Unix command line ... but didn't want to go back to it. All it needed was one typo and he could take down a whole remote repeater site.
Anyone who really gets a new technology is initially gung-ho about it, but there comes a time when comfort, ease of use, is more important than bragging rights. The one big thing MS/Windows did was to standardize software. In the Linux arena, some stuff works on KDE, other stuff works on Gnome ... too much of the software available is distro and desktop specific ... there is no standardization save for the kernel itself. OK, that's not comfort. It's fun for thee and me, but it would not have worked for my late parents. (You should have seen me trying to teach my dad how to use a mouse - he handled it as though it would break any moment, and trying to click w/o moving the [very delicate] mouse was a personal trial for him :o.)
Most folk who buy a personal computer want it to just work, to be able to do what they want to do without a significant learning curve. Granted, that leaning curve will exist whether you're using any of the extant OSes, but some of those curves are steeper than others. The Linux curve is a bit too steep for many new users, twenty-seven (27) good reasons or not ;D.
As jaden said, more or less, the Linux problems seem to be a bit more complex than those same problems on Windows. One of my most common go-to-guy experiences is helping someone out of a Linux jam.
app103:
A friend sends you an email with a PDF file attached: curse, do not have a program to read it. You need to go online, find a site that will download Adobe Reader (or another PDF viewer) download, install, maybe even restart. Do you think it over?. Attached to the email your friend will find a text file format. DOC. Your Windows can not even read that. Now or go to buy a copy of Microsoft Office (€ 500), or simply download OpenOffice (free), but you'll still need to find it, download it (I hope you have a broadband connection), install, etc.
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That's not how it works for me. I just click that "view" link in Gmail and view it in Google Docs. No downloading or installing needed. I don't even have to download the PDF or DOC file. :)
Linux has many music players (including Amarok, Rythmbox, Banshee, etc..), And some of them are exceptional. AmaroK Take for example (see screenshot): organizes and plays your favorite music, learn what pieces you like best and automatically find their title (and text) on the Internet. If still not enough, is for you, including CD cover art and author information!
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Yet, I could not find a player I liked and resorted to running Trout under WINE to get what I really wanted.
With Linux, everything is easier. Linux already has a list of a huge number of programs. If you need some new program, simply open the Add /Remove Programs "on the left are the categories, click and right you have a list of programs that category.
Click on one and get a description of the program (it is also indicated the popularity with the number of stars). If you like you do not have to do is tick the left of the name, then click "Apply and OK. All done, now Linux will download the program, install it and settle in the category of membership. Linux does everything, you just choose what you want.
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Sure, if you already know exactly what you want or like playing guessing games. But if you want to make informed choices, just like when on Windows, you are going to have to Google for info and read plenty.
And no more reboots? I reboot more in Ubuntu than I do in WinXP, and it's not always about updates and upgrades either. YMMV, but my experiences have been that the current Ubuntu is about as unstable as WinME with an ATI graphics card. :o
(want it to look and work like Win7 or OSX? no problem)
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Yes, problem...big problem. You can not have a taskbar under Linux that looks and acts like the Windows taskbar, in all of its glory, with all of its functionality. At least I can't. And that's a feature that's very important to me.
Support is universal
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Universally non-existent unless you are paying someone per incident or have a commercial support contract. Otherwise you are at the mercy of the moods and whims of unpaid volunteers on forums and IRC channels, many of which have big egos and will be quite rude with you, because their self-image, huge egos, and feelings of superiority depend on making you feel like a stupid idiot who shouldn't be using a computer at all.
Lots of luck getting and installing Linux drivers for your wireless card, and getting that to work...you are more or less on your own to figure it out. I hope you really like puzzle games because this one has a reputation of being a real whopper.
Under Windows, if I have a problem installing drivers for some hardware that came with my PC, help is just a phone call away, and I won't have to pull out a credit card to get it.
And no malware? safe and secure? really? are you sure?
http://forums.unrealircd.com/viewtopic.php?t=6562
http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/
I am sure there are tons more ways to exploit tons more applications that run on Linux.
Just because it's open source, does not make it safe and secure.
Free software and games
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Windows has that too. :P
No more piracy, registration, validation, verification, or cost
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Not all versions of Linux are free. Not everything open source is free. And proprietary closed source software for Linux does exist. In fact, I happen to be developing some, myself.
zridling:
If Ubuntu is your first (and only?) brush with Linux, I urge users to consider another distro, almost any other distro. My personal problem with Ubuntu is that the team leaves far too many problems within each release, that a great distro like Mint comes along and fixes.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Also, it's easy to tell from the responses those who have actually used a good Linux distro and those who haven't in a while and are hating. The article doesn't claim exclusivity or perfection for Linux, just a list of reasons to give it a try. Guys like f0dder see that as a call to yet another flame war. Jeez, start a blog, for your rants are so tired by now.
Josh:
I am not trying to flame anything ZR, and actually have thoroughly tried to give linux a fair chance at various points over the last several years. I have tried various distros ranging from fedora to opensuse (personal favorite) to mint to mandriva. I have tested just about every MAJOR distro out there yet I continue to run into the same issue with every major release.
I do not feel anyone here is trying to flame but more to stop the spread of FUD. When the author claimed that viruses were of no concern to Linux I had to stop and laugh.
What I do feel is that your post reinforces the belief that when someone bad mouths a product like Linux, they open themselves up to attacks, similar to yours, for voicing their opinions. I would LOVE to move from Windows, but until a platform works with the hardware I use, without requiring hours of hacking to force it to work, it is NOT ready for me. Hacking WiFi cards, printer drivers, scanner drivers and various other software packages is not something I consider fun for a system that is supposed to be used for my day-to-day.
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