20 reasons to shed the Microsoft yoke and use Linux

Source: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20528/1154/
By  Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 09 September 2008

Well, well, well! We seem to be going on a crusadehere at iTWire - the old W vs L battle. The Windows is better thanLinux creed - which I think is another way of proffering reasons whymarketing is better than technology.

Ten reasons to run Vista? There are far more reasons than that to runGNU/Linux. And it doesn't take as long to enumerate them because thereasons are simple and you do not need ten paragraphs to outline eachargument. When it comes to GNU/Linux, the KISS principle applies.

This isn't a matter of belief - just one of pragmatism. I have beenrunning Debian GNU/Linux for the last eight years and some - six yearson one PC and the balance on a second one which I upgraded to.

I've taken up the 10 reasons cited by my colleague Alex Zaharov-Reutt and then given my own. Double or quit, Alex.

1. Updates: if anyone is crazy enough to allow automatic updateswith Windows, there is a good chance that you are going to hose yoursystem sooner or later. That doesn't happen with any distribution ofGNU/Linux. So when you factor in costs, please add the amount you, theaverage user, would pay to have your Windows re-installed. You can alsocalculate how much valuable time you spend getting all yourapplications/utilities reinstalled and customising them as you had doneinitially.

(Windows XP service pack 3 is sitting on the desktop of a PC next tome, one I'm building for a friend. I'm scared to install it afterseeing all the negative reports about it. Yes, a 300mb-plus updatereleased to the public by the biggest software company in the worldcannot be installed on a system put out by the same company. Didsomeone say automatic updates???)

Remember, reinstallation every year, two years or three years, is NOTa normal feature of computer usage - not unless you are buying dodgyhardware. Neither is constant rebooting - at times, after moving yourmouse a few centimetres to the right. These practices have beennormalised by Windows.

My first Debian update - from Potato to Woody - took 44 hours on a56k modem - the internet connection cut out twice but nothing happenedto my system. Any comparable examples from the Windows crowd???

2. Security: I've never seen any malware on my GNU/Linux systems- since July 1999 when I first started regular usage with Slackware. Inthose nine years, I have cleaned dozens of Windows PCs for payment, andalso free - for friends, and members of my family. In half these cases,there was so much muck that reformatting and reinstallation were theonly solutions.

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And don't forget spyware, adware, worms, viruses... what delight isnext in the pipeline for Windows? Remember, all these irritants are NOT a feature of computer usage - they are exclusive to Windows.

In some settings, the use of USB sticks isn't possible due to securityreasons. Only big organisations like the tax office can get this kindof feature in Windows - smaller bodies have to live with the securitythreat posed by these USB sticks. With GNU/Linux, anyone can turn offUSB support. A number of remand homes have GNU/Linux systems preciselybecause this is possible.

3. Hardware integrity: unless you buy dodgy hardware. you haveno need to bother about your PC while running GNU/Linux. But when yourun Windows, the poor quality of the operating system does not stresstest the hardware - you can be using bad RAM for years until youinstall GNU/Linux on the same machine. Bingo, it shows up immediately -and this is from personal experience.

4. Cost: GNU/Linux is free as in money. It is also free as infreedom. When you run Windows, you need dozens of additional programsthat cost an arm and a leg. You get very little with the operatingsystem.

As to the number of applications available for GNU/Linux, the DebianGNU/Linux archive has something in the region of 15,000 packages. Wouldthat do for the average user? Oh, and lest I forget, there are dozensof other archives from which software can be downloaded as well.

5. Constant settings: Of course, you can buy a laptop and takeyour Windows settings with you. Incidentally, laptops aren't free. Andyou would have spent twice the time customising - once on your PC andonce on your laptop. Or you can buy an USB stick - which isn't freeeither. So what are you - some kind of millionaire? What about poor JoeBloggs who has just one PC that is five years old and has to share itwith his wife, three kids and two cousins? Do they all share the samesettings? That would be the best way to disrupt domestic harmony.

With GNU/Linux, that problem doesn't arise. Your settings are all inyour home directory. No user can snoop on another -

6. Hardware support: If truth be told, Linux supports a muchbigger range of hardware than Windows. Support for wireless is spottybut it is not an impossible hurdle to surmount. It is certainly a minorirritant in the bigger scheme of things - and I'm speaking as one whohas used Vista with, and without, service pack 1. There is certainly enough hardware in the market to use with a GNU/Linux system.

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But when it comes to wireless speeds, GNU/Linux beats Windows handsdown. Once again, this is from personal experience - I had all threeoperating systems in the house. The Macs run fastest, GNU/Linux is aclose second and Windows is a dog, despite hours of tweaking.

7. Support: One of the major irritants with GNU/Linux systemsis faced by people with itchy fingers who have grown used to fiddlingwith Windows just to keep the system as it is - something like runningin the same spot.

With GNU/Linux, it gets boring at times because things just keep running.

There is no surprise awaiting you because wearecomingtogetyou.com (Ijust picked that one out of the air) has installed some malware on yourPC which is slowing down your internet connection and you have tofiddle to get things back to normal.

8. Abundance of software: Repetitious argument, covered in point 4.

9. Familiarity: This one is a furphy, it is no argument at all.If you were in a bad marriage, would you stick with it due to thefamiliarity factor? Just how much pain would you put up with? How manyirritants are you willing to put up with from Windows before you goover the top? You would probably become familiar with something elsepretty soon if you really wanted to.

10. Microsoft: If one says that this company continues tochange, evolve and improve, then I can't argue. The changes aregenerally for the worse. The evolution is in the direction of moremediocrity. And the improvements are in snooping on customers - Vistais a super snoop in finding out everything you are doing on your PC andreporting it back to Redmond. If your argument is that you have nothingto fear unless you are not breaking the law, then why don't you keepyour bedroom windows open when you sleep with your partner??? That'snot a criminal activity, now, is it?

11. Simplicity: Has anyone seen anything more complex than theWindows registry? This single point of failure on a Windows system is amystery to even seasoned Windows admins. GNU/Linux has all itsconfiguration settings in text files. Easy to change and reload withoutrebooting.

unless theadministrator has given specific permission.

12. Openness: When there is a security scare with GNU/Linux, youalways get to know all the details. Even with the biggest GNU/Linuxcompany, Red Hat, it only took eight days, for a full account of asecurity breach to be provided. With Microsoft, you never know untilsomething leaks to the media. (When I reportedabout the theft of Windows 2000 code in 2004, the Microsoft PR peoplein the US suddenly rook an inordinate amount of interest in me. Andmine was only a second-hand report!)

Of course, it you have trust in big corporations and love weasel words, openness isn't a virtue, it's a vice.

13. Independence: With GNU/Linux, you are not dependent on onesingle entity to keep it going. You can do it yourself. You can hirepeople to do it for you. Or you can contribute to a project along withothers and keep it going so that you get what you want. With Windows,you are at the mercy of one company.

14. Versatility: You can run GNU/Linux on any one of a hugenumber of architectures. I am a non-technical user - and I run Debianon the AMD64 (desktop), x86 (laptop) and the MIPS (server)architectures. Imagine what it would have cost me to buy operatingsystems for all these architectures.

15. Community: Windows user groups - ever heard of them? Ihaven't. I have heard of plenty of Linux user groups, though. I'm aquiet member of two. Nice folk, good discussions on the mailing listsand plenty of cheap services, not limited to GNU/Linux, through thecontacts.

16. Solutions vs workarounds: With Windows there are alwaysworkarounds which have to be constantly reimplemented; with GNU/Linuxthere are solutions which, once implemented, make the problem go awayfor good. No need to elaborate on that one.

17. Hardware longevity: With every version of Windows, you needmore expensive hardware and more of it to achieve acceptableperformance. Vista, for example, needs 4 GB of memory to run at a speedacceptable to me on a dual-core 64-bit AMD processor -  but then I'vebeen spoiled by using GNU/Linux all these years. Oh, my desktop is asingle-core AMD64 system with 2 GB of RAM and I do a lot of videoencoding and processing for burning to DVD while I'm using the box formy regular work. My last PC was used for seven years, six of themrunning Debian.It's now being used as a server in an university.

18. Peaceful co-existence: How many times have you tried to usea product that competes with some application or the other fromMicrosoft and found that its features are blocked or disabled? Thelatest one hears is that IE 8 may start blocking text ads from Google -which is why Google came up with its Chrome browser!!! This kind ofactivity goes down to the level of drivers - unless a company has paidthe Microsoft tax, the drivers are often replaced by drivers fromMicrosoft. Or else the hardware in question starts playing up.

Try installing a second operating system on the drive in yourbeautiful $2000 Vista PC - but don't hold me liable for the damage.Youcan try it on my PC, which cost about half as much two years ago,without a problem.

19. Freedom: You don't have to register your copy of GNU/Linux.You don't have to validate it. You don't have to call up some facelessentity every time you change to a new PC and want to re-use the samecopy. You are your own boss. Even with commercial distributions likeRed Hat, you can always opt for CentOS - which is Red Hat minus thetrademarks. With Windows, they don't sell freedom.

20. Education: GNU/Linux encourages you to learn. And the moreyou learn, you find that you can extract more and more from that greybox which you bought for a few hundred dollars. It does not servemashed food - it encourages you to masticate food yourself. I know ofone individual who learnt to program in C after he had retired - andthen promptly became a Debian developer. The man was 70 when he joinedthe project.

What Windows does in this respect is best left unsaid.