ChrisShaul.com

Why I use Linux…

About a year and a half ago, I decided to take a leap of faith and get off the Microsoft bandwagon. I backed up my data and installed Mandrake Linux (now called Mandriva Linux). I wanted to try something new. Having been a MS user since DOS 4.something, I felt that it was time to open up my eyes to other things. I decided to install Linux on my system and try using it. I didn’t do this without checking it out first. Prior to that I had installed a test version on my extra hard disk and ran a “dual boot” system for a while. After realizing that all the things I did on my Windows XP system were available (for free) and with easier access to support than the Windows, I decided to take a leap of faith.

I am not going to write about all the details of installing the system. Suffice to say it was no more difficult than a Windows install. After it was installed, I was pleased to find that all of the applications were installed with it. I didn’t have to spend an hour on the operating system and then countless hours installing the various applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, games, etc. They were installed along with the Linux system.

Trying to figure out the new list of programs with strange names such as “the Gimp“, “Kaffeine” and “Amarok”. It was fun finding out what all of these new things do. It is kind of like landing in a new country for the first time and trying to orient yourself to the new surroundings. The familiar “start menu” or in this case a “K menu” was there, though things were in different places. But I soon realized that it was organized in a way that made a lot of sense.

Working with the programs, I realized that I could do just about everything I could on Windows, and a whole lot more in some cases! For example, the MS Office replacement in Linux is called “Open Office.” It has a word processor, a spreadsheet program, and a presentation program that reads and saves to all the MS formats. I didn’t have any problems opening up my old documents and saving them again. I even email documents to people and they do not know the difference.

The main thing I do on my computer is to edit websites and view them. So I found Quanta, an open source (free) web editor that was already amongst the installed programs. I have been an Allaire Homesite fan for many years (now owned by Macromedia). But after trying out the Quanta program, there are a lot of great features that I find make it easier to create web pages with than my old tool. And for browsing there is my all time favorite browser, Firefox. I have been a loyal firefox devotee since the 0.8 release. It is now up to 1.07 and is a much better browser than the old Internet Explorer.

Why is it a better browser? Well, no spyware, no popups, accurate rendering of pages, it is fast, and a lot of other neat features. Especially cool are the plugins. You can download and install hundreds of little “mini apps” that “plug into” Firefox. I have weather, Google’s toolbar, a web developer toolbar, Stumble upon, Pluck, and a bunch more plugins installed to add a lot of functionality to this cool browser. I had a colleague who’s daughter was downloading ton’s of spyware and popups to the point the PC became unusable. After cleaning the system and installing Firefox, there is no longer a problem. She still surfs who-knows-what type of sites, but Firefox has stopped it cold.

Oh yeah, I mentioned spyware. Well guess what, on Linux, spyware and virus are essentially non-existant. If you get a virus and try to run it in Linux, it chokes as the operating system is laughing at it. Most all viruses these days are written for Windows. Since this isn’ t Windows, viruses do not know what to do and die.

So Linux is free, you can download it from the web, you can run it on just about any computer, it is a lot like Windows, and there are thousands of applications available. So why wouldn’t people everywhere be using it? A couple of reasons. First, I have tried installing it for people and they just hate change. The fact that the icons are different and the screen looks different is enough to get people to want to switch back to Windows. Also, some people are so hooked into paying for software, they think that if it is free, it must not be any good. Did you know that Linux and Apache (a web server) are running a majority of websites on the Internet today? It is a very stable and solid operating system. So you have to go with what makes sense for you. Software is just a tool. If you like spending hundreds of dollars each time there is an upgrade and you don’t mind the perpetual issues with security and annoyances and you hate change, then stick with Windows. If you have a little adventurous spirit, do not mind trying new things, and want to save a lot on software, then try out Linux. I should point out that there are Linux Distributions that charge. Even Mandriva, the system I uses has a packaged version that you can purchase. But you are paying for the packaging, the manual, the CD’s themselves and the value added services that the vendor provides. The software itself is at no charge. You can forego all of this and just download the system for free and burn your own CDs. The choice is yours.

How do you get started? Well if you have a CDROM drive, you can take Linux for a test spin. There are a lot of Live CD’s (CDs that will boot into Linux without touching your system) that allow you to play with Linux and try out the applications. I personally recommend SLAX. You can see a whole list of vendors (Linux is not owned by anyone and there are many, many variations of Linux, all revolving around the same core software) on this Live CD Listing website.

Once you have some comfort with Linux, try installing it. The Live CDs usually offer an install function. You can try installing it alongside your Window’s system. But to be on the safe side, I would recommend that you get an inexpensive new Hard Disk drive. These are available for under $100. Then you can install it on the same system as your Windows system and not touch or mess anything up. You will then get an option’s menu when you start your computer to choose which Operating System (OS) you wish to boot up. If you are really adventurous, then try downloading the full install of Mandrake Linux (a good starter system for most people) and install this on either a new computer or a computer that you don’t mind losing the Windows system. It will install alongside Windows and it even has a partition resizing tool that will automagically resize your Windows partition. This is not really that dangerous, but I would make sure I had a good backup of any of my documents first!

So in summary, Linux has for me been a very stable and trustworthy operating system, that has saved me a lot of money and has taught me a lot more about my computer and how it works. I find it fascinating and fun. But I have also tweaked and tuned the system just how I want it. I have even got some Windows programs running on it through WINE (a program for Linux that let’s you run Windows programs under Linux). I use it every day and find that it just works. I still use Windows on my company’s laptop, though I am finding more and more little annoyances (I wish it would do this or that like Linux does..). I can even access all of my company’s programs and data under Linux from my home machine though. I just don’t want to mess with the company laptop and their policies. My recommendation is that you try Linux and see if it will work for you. If not, you can always continue paying Mr. Gates.