The other day I got into a somewhat heated discussion about why Linux is a viable alternative desktop OS. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to move the other side past the rhetoric and myths that seem to surround Linux. It is because of this discussion that I am writing this…as a way to give accurate information. Let’s start by looking at some of the most common myths.
Myth 1: “Linux is hard to install”
This could not be further from the truth. Many Linux distributions are as easy, if not easier. to install as Windows. Ubuntu, Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS are but three of the most popular. The install is nothing more than a few mouse clicks and basic options like timezone, language and name. All these are explained well and you need to provide the same information when installing ANY operating system.
Myth 2: “Linux does not recognize my hardware”
Like all Operating Systems, Linux requires “drivers” in order to use a piece of hardware like a sound card or modem, etc. Also like other OSs, if your system is cutting edge with the latest and greatest, there may be challenges at first. This doesn’t happen with Microsoft Windows? A year after it’s release, Windows VISTA is still suffering from poor driver support! The fact is, if your system is 6 months old, hardware support is usually a non-issue.
Myth 3: “Linux is too complicated to use”
In what way? It has a graphical interface with a mouse and windows. It has an auto-updater to keep things current. It has software add/remove capabilities that allow you to install programs with a couple mouse clicks. It even has many apps found in Windows and Mac OS X like Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Audacity, etc. It’s as easy as Windows…just different. Let’s put it this way, if all you ever knew was Linux and you decided to try Windows for the first time, I’m sure you would find Windows complicated and hard to use too.
Myth 4: “There are no applications available”
One of the points thrown at me during my discussion went something like, “Walk into a computer store and try to find a single Linux app on the shelf…you won’t find any”. Until now I’m not sure what that had to do with anything. There are many thousands of applications available, for free, and are readily available for download. Many Linux distros even come with a point and click interface to download and install these apps without effort. To say there are no applications available is not only a myth but a flat out lie.
Some reasons to use Linux
There are many more “myths” hanging over Linux, but those were some of the more common ones. Let’s now look at a few reasons why one should consider Linux.
Reason 1: Security
Viruses are less of a threat on Linux. The very way a Linux system is designed makes it very difficult for a virus to function as it does in Windows. This also applies to spyware, malware, etc. The fact that almost no viruses are written for Linux also adds a nicer sense of warmth. Wouldn’t be nice to read the almost endless stream of security holes in Windows and know it does not apply to you?
Reason 2: Updatability
Linux is in a constant state of development and improvement by professional and semi-professional developers who donate their time and skills to the various projects. In addition, the majority of the system and available applications are Open source, so if you wish and you had the ability, you could add any feature you needed. Linux also has the ability to expand the life of many systems as it’s reduced overhead and need for system resources means that it will run great on older machines.
Reason 3: Support
Yes, support. As hard as it is to accept, you can easily get support when you do run into difficulties. In addition to the plethora of online forms, both independant and those provided by the distro supplier, there are also more and more 3rd party service providers that offer service contracts for Linux systems. Good to have in a corporate/business environment. There is also support offered by more and more traditional Technology names such as Dell, IBM, Novell, Sun and others. And finally, for support a little closer to home, most major cities have Linux User Groups that can and do offer help and advice. Help and Support IS available and does not usually mean spending hours on hold to speak to someone in a call center on the other side of the planet.
Reason 4: Self-improvement
Personally, this is one of the most important reasons why I switched. Linux gave me the chance to learn new skills, gain deeper insights into how computers work and provided an excellent platform to develop on. Some people may be satisfied with going through life with blinders on and living the “status-quo”. For those that enjoy the how/what/why of life, Linux is an excellent choice.
Reason 5: Cost
Most people would put this at the top of the list. For me, cost is one of the least important reasons to switch to Linux. However, the cost advantage of Linux is huge. In a nutshell, you get the complete OS, thousands upon thousands of applications AND support for the grand total price of….$0! We’re not talking a watered down, feature deprived OS either…we’re talking a full-blown, complete, enterprise ready OS…for free. “But my time is worth something and the extra effort needed with Linux cost me money.”, alright…and how much does it cost you when Windows bluescreens in the middle of editing a large report that hasn’t been saved? Or how about when a virus or spyware prevents you from even using your system…probably costs you a lot.
So you see, you are going to hear a lot about why you should not use Linux, and they are going to give you many reasons why you shouldn’t…just very few good reasons.
If you are interested in trying Linux, I would recommend Ubuntu, Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS. Download their LiveCDs. Booting to a LiveCD allows you to try and use a complete Linux environment without making any changes to your hard drive. Once down, just reboot and go back into windows as normal.
Jason Dyok is a regular in the PCMech LIVE chatroom as Ded_Ryzing. You can view his tech blog at 
I don’t use Linux on my main machine but I have installed it on other machines. The myths about Linux not supporting hardware and not having the applications may have been true 5 or even 3 years ago, but nowadays Linux seems to be getting better with every release. I have used Ubuntu mostly and every time I try out the newest version I am impressed with how much it changed and how much easier it gets to use. Right now I only have a macbook that I use mainly for work and general computing, but when I buy a desktop I will definitely dual boot Linux/Windows mainly because I want to learn more about it. Because I work in the computer field, the more OS I know, the better.
My main complaint with Linux (used as a server in a business environment, not a necessarily as a desktop environment) is that the installation and configuration of individual services and software can be a nightmare. There really isn’t one cohesive process by which this is done. Instead we must cope with inconsistent and often different ways of configuring and installing software, much of which involves terminal commands that are often nonsensical and not standardized. On top of this, you must be acutely aware of the various versions of software available and the conflicts between them. Many pieces of software need to be compiled from source, which means you need the dev tools etc.
Linux could really benefit from a major rethink of application deployment.
I run Ubuntu and Fedora, and I like both. Fedora runs latex
very nicely–I can’t get it to work in Ubuntu. But, Ubuntu runs videos nicely ( once one figures out how to get Mplayer
and Totem to work).
Linux is fast and free.
I prefer using the command line–it gives me use of easy Unix commands, which are powerful. I never did understood the obsession people have with Graphical interfaces.
Installs using synaptic don’t always work in Ubuntu–as witness my attempt to get Latex working. But, they work most of the time. Synaptic needs improvement. Similarly for RPM in Fedora. I still can’t get MPlayer to work in Fedora and I have tried. It’s an older version of Fedora, though.
Linux is not yet for everyone–you have to be smart, and you have to tolerate a certain amount of frustration. But, it
works well for my needs and it is free, and doesn’t need expensive upgrades.
Firefox needs improvement–it hangs too much.
I am not a gamer–Ubuntu has GNU chess, which satisfies my need for games.
I think you forgot the most important reason to use Linux, in my opinion: Stability.
I’d usually agree, but Ubuntu crashed on me during my installation… When I finally had it installed, I had to reinstall, at which point I got rid of it and installed Kubuntu ><
I’ve used MS products since the early MSDOS days (switched to DRDOS just to be a rebel). MS products are not secure. Say what you want about availability of software and the perceived ease of use (or, more properly, familiarity), none of you can utilize Windows safely in a networked environment (including that recent Internet thing a few of you now use). “Drive-by” infection, root kits, etc. make MS products too vulnerable. You claim ease of use? Try removing a root kit. Usability? The criminal who just snagged your login and password for your bank account feels Windows is very usable, too. I’ll gladly deal with Linux’s quirks then roll the dice with Windows vulnerabilities. Hell, if you took away Linux and left me with *BSD I’d figure it out so I wouldn’t be a sitting duck for all the black hats out there. I’d even learn and (shudder) pay for a Mac just to know my computer isn’t owned by someone else. Windows are for those that don’t get it when it comes to vulnerability. Really. . . you don’t get it; the Windows OS (pick any itineration) cannot safely access the Internet.
lol, windows can be hardened, services can be shut down and the win team patches, apparently. Linux isnt invulnerable, they have just been escaping notice due to low home user use. I think thats a very important point. Linux is a great server environment, and in that area it really does flourish. Lots of large organizations use it and its stable and fast and you can bend it to do what you want. But they are then trying to take that code base and after a few bundled apps and gui changes, claim its just as good for a desktop environment, which its not. This manifests its self in many places, arcane config files(users arent devs), poor gui reaction time (ever resized a window and compared it to the same thing on a win box?). Then theres the double edged blade of flavors. Although the code is open source and there are a few million eyes etc, they have all decided to break off and do thier own thing, meaning instead of one single trunk linux that moves ahead with goal and purpose, there are umpteen ditros that all try to be something slightly different, because they tried to add that to a current distro but the core devs said no. I am going to give a laptop to my g/fs niece for her birthday, i was considering installing linux for her, there is something there and maybe it would be a benifit to know a bit about it. Then i thought, she’ll want to watch movies, divx, play games, msn her friends etc. sure it can be done, but if she gets stuck, besides me who can she go to for help?
[...] terms, a big-ass traffic spike. In other terminology, it was a Digg Effect from our article Why Use Linux? getting onto the homepage of Digg and basically coming in as the #8 most popular article on Digg [...]
I liked the article, but I must say that I’ve found the comments much more interesting.
I’ve been running Ubuntu for about 8 months now (deleted my windows partition about 6 months back) and I have to say that it handles everything I want it to do as a desktop user just fine.
Admittedly, just as the Mr. Dyok said, every OS has it’s weak points. And for Linux that would be games, but I view this as a “chicken & egg” type problem. Developers don’t want to send effort/money developing games for a small user base, and many users don’t want to switch to a platform without their favorite games… but if the current trends continue it won’t be long before Linux is much more widely used. Plus at least once a month I find out about another developer who is starting to code games for Linux.
I love reading the stories on digg.com regarding massive OS switches “School Board X switches 10,000 computers over to Linux” “Gov’t department X in Russia/Sweden/US switches 3000 computers over to Linux”. I get the impression that the next generation (possibly sooner) will be much more comfortable with a wider variety of OSes. Once that happens, who knows.
I noticed a number of posts talking about difficulty installing Linux “I tried in 2005″ or “I tried a few years ago and had nothing but trouble”, to those people I would suggest trying again now! I tried, unsuccessfully to install Linux for years, always going back to windows because of some critical installation failure, but like I said, as of 8 months ago that all seemed to go away (for me at least). You might have better luck this time around.
As for people talking about how much harder it is to use, will you have to do some learning to do if you want to be as good in Linux as you are in Windows, for sure. Think of how many years you’ve been using Windows, and then compare to how many months you’ve tried on a different OS (maybe more like days/hours/minutes?) It took me a while to get used to Linux and it’s an ongoing learning process, but after the first month or two of putzing around figuring out the command line and such, everything seems to work how I like (at least as well as with Windows). Am I as comfortable yet as I was with Windows… not yet, but it’s hasn’t even been a year yet and I’ve been using windows for the better part of a decade.
Why did I switch? (and why would I recommend switching?) For me it’s a matter of philosophy. When I found out about open source software (do a wikipedia search), I was blown away. Companies/people give programs away for free?! I don’t have to pay for/pirate a copy of MSOffice? (now only $129.99!) I can use Open Office for free. that is just one example, the list goes on…
It’s true that there are fewer hacks/exploits for Linux desktop users for now, and that will change as popularity increases, but the beauty of open source software is that anyone can audit the code for security purposes, and then submit corrections. I use Ubuntu because they have a huge repository of software that is constantly being corrected and improved and I get the benefit, without cost. (well ok, fewer games, but the ones i do get are free!)
Is Linux for everyone, probably not, but for anyone that is curious, check it out! It’s not like it costs anything to take a look.
And by far, the best feature (in my humble opinion) is my Advertisement Free Desktop.
I really love your comment. Definitely Linux isn’t for everyone, but it worths a try. But still, if Linux can improve itself more, I believe it is even easier for beginners to start off. I haven’t been using other version of Linux but the one I have, Xandros for Asus EEEPC, requires me to open terminal quite frequently as long as I need something new to install, regardless it is a software or even just a new font.
As has been said earlier, I too still use Windows because of my games, but I dual-boot XP and Ubuntu Linux. There are still some applications I use, too, that won’t run in Wine very well or don’t have a Linux equivalent.
I mainly use Linux for everything /except/ gaming, unless I have to use an unsupported app. If I feel like playing a game, I either boot into Windows, use an emulator, or play a supported game. Or I boot up my Wii. My laptop doesn’t run any of the new games, anyway (i.e, Assassin’s Creed, Bioshock, Crysis). I get by with my setup.
Vertimyst is a pragmatist; as am I. It takes effort to escape MS’s OS and sometimes it is just better to minimize it’s influence (by the way. I’m damn good at using any MS OS). I was once intimidated by Linux; I got over it and I’m happy I did. Most of my software is now free, it works well and I feel secure when I access the ‘Net. Linux does not pretend to be perfect; but it is, IMHO, a better choice. And for you BSD aficionados, with the proper effort, BSD is a very good choice, too, as is Mac (if you have the bucks). But let’s make one thing clear; you posters that cannot get Linux to work for you are lame. You have no business advising others on how to use computers, the Internet, attraction to the other sex, etc. Linux is not that hard. Oh, and by the way, some fool mentioned “hardening” Windows. I assume you are referring to the “uber” secure Vista distro that has had such spectacular reviews. Then, again, maybe not.
Jim, you are 10% of the population of computer users. OS´s are a business that markets the other 90%, linux is not ready for them yet. Because its immature and built by techies who cant understand why a lay man cant look at “(?<=).*(?=)” and see a regex for html. In general a user wont want to invest large amounts of time in learning how to scan text files in a directory tree for patterns, or care that they have a journaled file system. They want to open mail, view porn and torrent for movies. If anything mass generalizing and ingnoring other ways of doing things based on religion is lame. I thought linux was about freedom and choice, yet if we chose something else we are the devil? Im glad certain governments dont work that wa…. never mind. (we all know vista is feeble, so no, I wasnt talking about that, but seeing as we are grouping all MS OS’s into one glob then it would be brash to assume i meant only vista, I personally was thinking about OS/2…)
[...] each benefit of Linux, so I decided to share it here. The article is a PCMech piece titled “Why Use Linux?” (I have no relation to the site or the [...]
The only reason that Windows is easier to install than Linux is that someone else does it for you. I have spent hours in the past installing versions of Windows on various machines, having problems with certain driver disks, it’s a big job.
I installed PCLinuxOS Mini-Me on my main computer in about 20 minutes. By the time I had clicked icons (note: not used the command line, clicked icons) to install the internet connection, and nVidia drivers, and then gone into the PCLOS Control Centre (note: icon-driven control centre, not command line!) to correct the screen resolution, then left it copying files, there was barely time to make and drink a coffee.
Then I used Synaptic to update the installed packages and to download and install loads of programs that I needed (no tar.gz files, no command line).
I have learnt to use the command line, but I don’t have to!
I’m not a gamer. I have excellent programs for surfing the web, an office suite, everyone knows about Firefox and OpenOffice. But there are loads of others too. Scribus (DTP), Amarok (Music player), Digikam (Simple camera utility), GIMP (more complex image manipulation program), Inkscape (advanced vector graphics editor), KMyMoney (personal finance manager), Kino (Movie editor with firewire support), K3B (CD-burner), NVU/Kompozer (WYSIWYG HTML editors), and that’s for starters. They are all easily installed with a couple of mouse clicks from the internet.
Linux isn’t for everyone, I’ll concede that. But if you choose your distribution wisely (not just the most hyped up ones), you can get a smooth quick install with few problems.
A particular strength of PCLinuxOS is that it has a simplified “ndiswrapper” graphical interface whereby you can get a number of wireless cards without linux drivers set up by wrapping around the Windows driver. Once you get on the internet, it’s easier to install fixes for your other problems!
But if Linux is not right for you, use Windows (or Mac). Or join the Dual-booters. But don’t have a go at Linux users (and Linux users you behave too!). It’s right for me, in that it does what I need it to do, which includes a lot of things I didn’t realise I needed to do at first. All that free software is just too tempting and you find uses for it, that’s for sure!
@Peter Short.
“Jim, you are 10% of the population of computer users.”
OK, then who are the other nine people?
Royal you Jim, royal you…
I really, really wanted to like and use Linux. Within the last year, I’ve tried Ubuntu, Mint, Mandriva, PC Linux, and Fedora (best one so far) but for some reason I’ve found them to be rather unstable. I’ve actually been reminded of the Windows 95 days, with frequent hang ups and so-so performance (except for download speeds, very impressed with that). It’s getting better though with every release, so I’ll give it another try in the future.
@phxsun
I’m truly surprised with your stability issues; especially with the quality distros you have tried. Sometimes with Linux you need to seek little help to get past the occasional issue; the forums are usually quite friendly. Linux does have some hardware compatibility issues because some of the hardware manufacturers don’t bother to support Linux due to market share (or lack thereof). One of the compromises you sometimes have to make with Linux is ditching a piece of hardware that isn’t supported (wireless cards can be a problem as can entire notebooks). I use OpenSuse 10.3 for my desktop with great success (Novell controls this major distro) on an Intel quad-core MB/CPU combo. I also have three servers running CentOS 5 (repackaged Red Hat Enterprise Linux) that are boringly stable.
my experience with linux has been that every common task has a non-command line way of doing it, its only when you start moving into the realms of specialist tasks such as internet connection sharing or driver configuration that the shell becomes important.
as for ease of use the distro i use (Sabayon (a gentoo based flavor)) only gives me trouble when i’m doing something new and then i just RTFM which in all cases has fixed my problems except for my still lacking understanding of how to use the shell properly.
Linux is a great concept, rich with unrealized potential. The statement that if your hardware is six months old your ok is bull. I have a two year old laptop with an intel prowirelss card that Ubuntu and Suse and now Mandriva powerpack will not recognize or allow me to use. Actually it recognises it but will not allow me to actually get online with it. I have been to these three distros help sites and received countless remedies which do not work. Its a great diversion, a lot of fun to tinker with, and a fine waste of time.
PC gamers think they’re a bunch of elitists, but the fact is, consoles are far better for playing games on. They’re designed to play games on, therefore they will be better. End of story. I’ve heard every argument. None of them stack up. Microsoft did one thing right: the XBox 360. For all its minor faults, it’s a great console.
But my point is this. Computers are for running Linux. Consoles are for running games.
Hi
I’ve changed to linux because i got tired of reinstalling windows, and all those bloated aplications that come full of crap that you dont really need. Virus too. That were the main reasons.
For more than a year now im using Debian, and am pretty happy with it. I had no previously knowledge of linux whatsoever, but the same happened to me when i began with Windows 95.
Yes Windows is good for games, and also for defragmenting your disk, making anti-virus scans, whatever.
If i reinstall windows i have to reinstall all aplications i want… always sticked to win2000, never liked too much of winXP, and Vista sucks a lot. Vista is good for a modern machine with graphic capabilities, loads of ram, etc, and the last thing i wanted was to upgrade my cpu, motherboard, graphics card, and all that comes with it, so i installed Debian and by default i had already a LOT of aplications installed. Well not all that i wanted, but if you want something you find your way, like installing amsn, google earth, skype, and maybe other more.
Yes Linux is not perfect, the games are not the same as in Windows, had problems trying to configure an ATI radeon 9250 graphics card, tried i a lot to make it work with 3d accellaration but no way. So pluged my Nvidia Geforce FX 5200, downloaded the drivers, installed it, installed compiz-fusion and hey !! Who needs vista ??
Want to run every latest Microsoft OS ?? upgrade your hardware or buy a new box or laptop.
Anti-virus ? Whats that ?
Disk Defragmenter ? Disk What ????
Reboot after install ?? hmmmm…
Reinstall Windows and after that reinstall tens of Service Packs ??
Well i use Windows, once in while, like when i want to play a game i have for windows or so…. other apps i have their equivalent in Debian, so as for that goodbye !
And thanks to Linux my pc reboots faster, thats for sure !!!
You got the light friend… but some may say better hardware and nothing changes. Hell, no. I got a high end machine and Linux rocks. I mean it, opens applications in no time (not kidding), with stunning effects; compiz is far better than aero. I have 1.5 GB of RAM and if needed Linux uses all. It uses the unused RAM as disk cache. Linux comes with EXT3, when electricity goes FAT corrupts, files over NTFS gets lost and on EXT3 they are all recovered. Anyway Linux is
1- Fun to use
2- Its like a garage (unlike windowz is a teahouse), you have everything in it
3- Easy to use
4- Cost free
Well, I had linux on my laptop for a few months and hated every second of it. Sure, it was fun learning a new operating system, but people on UbuntuForums just assume that you already know how to “unpackage” a file, or whatever. There were so many different commands I never learned or got used to.
And about the drivers, holy shit that sucked. It took me a week to get my wireless operational, a couple days for my webcam, and my ethernet port and memory card reader NEVER worked.
“Vista is pretty. Vista is fast. Vista is stable. ”
Sorry – this made me crack up! Dude you are priceless!
[...] week, Jason authored an article on reasons why to use Linux. Jason is a real fan of Linux and I was part of the “heated discussion” he refers to at [...]
This discussion, and all Linux vs Win discussions, are pretty pointless… It’s like the debate between creation vs atheism or religion vs evolution. You can argue ’till the cows come home, it most probably won’t convince the other side to see your point of view. That’s the mistake most Win and Linux users make…
The point is, people use their OS’es for whatever purposes they require. WinXp was a good system when it came out in 2001, but it has been superseded by technology… people want more functionality, stability, security and special fx on their new machines. Vista is an alternative for some, but not everyone. It was the final blow that forced me to try linux permanently, and I never looked back!
Of course, Linux is not for everyone, and I’ve had my fair share of ridicule trying to demonstrate my new-found enthusiasm to others. Essentially, it’s great for me and others like me, who will naturally gravitate to Linux for all its benefits (apps, no cost, stability, functionality etc). As for people like my parents, friends etc, they are needed to run the global economies! They buy software, which stimulates the economy, provides jobs in programming, support (not to mention call centres in India, the Philippines etc)… if everyone instantly switched to open source, I’m pretty sure we’d be facing another IT bubble burst like in 2000!
I love linux though I still (after 3 years) don’t know enough to stay there. You guys complain about things like games which is understandable. Windows is a hog in the market and other than them, no one will ever have directx. And don’t tell me that cedega or wine are alternatives. Wine and cedega might run alot of games but all the games I have seen it support are popular games. Try running Maple Story with wine or cedega. You might not like the game but if you did, it will not run in linux. Sorry but this has been true for many years even though wine has it on their website.
as far as hardware goes I can also understand your pain.Even in ubuntu I have had problems. That is why I present to you ubuntu 8.04 which is the most stable ubuntu version since dapper. ubuntu never used to let my graphics card run games even with restricted drivers. Today I ran a game without those drivers. Ubuntu is your best choice since they are being shipped with dell computers now. Version 8.04 is the first version after the dell partnership. This means the ubuntu team has been working hard to supply drivers that work for dell hardware. There are tons of things that work now with 8.04. Like I said it is stable and yet to crash on me. I have had certain programs freeze the system though not ubuntu it’s self.
It’s set to release in 3 days although the beta version is still really stable. the more people who understand and play with linux, the more chance linux has to grow in marketshare.