Let me begin by saying that I am not a Microsoft Fan. If I was I wouldn't have used Linux but I did and still do.
Not so long ago I was searching for the same answers that probably brought you to this blog.
Why should I use LINUX?
Why switch from Windows?
What are the advantages?
What about the Installation?
What about the support?
Which distribution to use?
How to use it?
What about the applications such as Word,PowerPoint,Excel,Outlook,etc...?
If you are just looking for the answer to these questions then Scroll down but if you are looking for a detailed explanation for the answers then you should read the whole article.
These were the basic questions I had in mind. I was very much attracted to Linux because of the fact that it costs NOTHING!!!.
Well let me make it easy for people who are still looking for these answers and want to get a head start in their search.
First, Know why do you want to switch? Windows is a very good operating system. If your answer is that it costs then you have to ask yourself a question that "ISN'T THE COST INCLUDED WHEN YOU BUY THE COMPUTER?". When ever you buy a PC its preloaded with an Operating System and that is almost always WINDOWS(There are few companies selling a few computer with Linux as well).
Second, Switching to Linux could be a catastrophe for people used to Windows. There are so many things you cannot do in Linux. Let me give you a few examples here.
- Everything in Linux is not as easy as Windows like you click on a file and the wizard walks you through the installation process and VOILA your new program or application is installed and ready to be used. Contrary to that in Linux you have to use the Terminal to install a lot of the programs and applications you want. Even though a lot of the Applications can be installed through a built in installer there are tons of applications you'd have to manually install like JAVA to play games online.
- Installation of Linux and Windows both are quite simple. Both of them are pretty straight forward. Actually, you can install UBUNTU Linux from within Windows. It would actually shrink your current windows partition to make space for Ubuntu Linux. You can use their Wubi installer. For starters I recommend using Ubuntu.
- As of this writing you CANNOT setup synchronization of phones in Linux (There are people who have tweaked and gotten some feature to work but majority of people have not been successful and that includes me I have tried HTC and Blackberry). This goes for iPhone and a lot of other phones if not most of them.
- There are application that I have for windows and cannot be run on Linux. There is no alternative to that. I have a few course books with software CDs. I cannot install or run any of those software in Linux or Mac for that matter. So, there is still a wide variety of applications that are specific to Windows. Google's g-talk is not available for Linux or Mac for that matter (Although, some other chat clients can be used to chat through g-talk).
- Community support is said to be great for Linux. I think so is Windows support. I mean for Linux support you have to search online for the problem that you are having and you can search in Linux forums. The same you can do for Windows.
- Applications like Word, Power Point, Excel, Outlook all are available for free in the OpenOffice package in Linux and Windows. Also, it is compatible with MS-Office.
- VIRUS. The biggest of them all. Linux is not as vulnerable to viruses as Windows but you can have viruses in linux as well and being in the impression that you are immune to viruses while using Linux could be a road to disaster. In fact there have been a noticeable increase in Linux viruses over the years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware). According to this wikipedia link the number of viruses written for Linux in 2005 were doubled to 863 from 422. If you are using windows however can stop virus from running or installing by using Real Time Anti Virus Scanners like Avast.
- Also, there are Websites that are only compatible with Internet Explorer. This was a big reason for me. I use a few sites frequently and they are Not-Compatible with any other Browser but Internet Explorer. I heard somewhere that Internet Explorer is the first browser used to test the website by the developers. (http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/09/5278.ars) Check out this article for an example.
- Using Linux is not hard. If you can use Windows you can use Linux. No Magic here. It might take a little getting use to. After that its easy as long as you don't have to configure anything. Let me give you an example here. I think a lot of people use Skype as their preferred VOIP program. SKYPE has done an awful job with their applications. Atleast since I have started using it. I have been using Ubuntu Linux and downloaded Skype 2.0. The video doesn't work. You have to execute a few commands for that to work. It took me months to find out the solution. Skype just came out with an Upgrade to older application. Guess what!! Video doesn't work!!! and the solution that we have for the previous version doesn't take care of the problem. I spent another week and finally found out the solution. Again a few terminal commands. Let me add here that this doesn't seem to be a problem with Linux. Because I had older version of Skype and that works with no problem whatsoever. That was until I lost that version and now I cannot find the older version of it. Same is the case with Avast Anti Virus. I don't know if this is a problem with Avast of Linux but you have to run a few terminal commands to it to work. If you use Windows Live then you have aMSN that you can use to chat but so far my experience has not been a good one. The program is still buggy. You have to configure firewalls and ports for it to work properly.
- Device drivers. Linux does a phenomenal job when it comes to compatibility of devices but here are still a lot of products that you won't be able to find drivers for in Linux. I have a few devices that don't work in Linux because there are no drivers available for those devices. One of them is a TV-Tuner and the other is a Web Cam both fairly new.
- There is a conception that Linux is light on resources than Windows. Which I don't agree with. If you are using Windows XP and you are using Ubuntu Linux there is not much of a difference if you are monitoring the basic RAM and CPU utilization. If you are using Firefox in Linux or in Windows than there is not going to be a big difference in the system resources being used.
So, If you are interested in the following then I recommend Linux for you otherwise I suggest you stick to Windows.
- Use of Command line and execution of complex commands using Terminal.
- Have hours and hours of time to find the solution to buggy applications and or tweak applications to get them to work. Check this link out.(http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=408821)
- Have a specific need of computer system that doesn't include using wide variety of applications that run only in Windows.
- Have devices that work under Linux as well. (Please do your due diligence before installing Linux to find out answer to this question.)
- Want to learn a new Operating System.
- Don't have a need to sync your mobile devices. (please note you CAN sync you mp3 players. Synchronizing mobile phones, contacts and emails is the probelm here.)
- Don't browse/use services from websites not compatible with Internet Explorer. (Note:- there is an alternative to install Internet Explorer in Linux and its called IE4Linux but again it would need configuration and use of Terminal which is equivalent to Command Prompt in Windows.)
- Want to be more computer savvy than just a simple computer user.
- The Distribution I would recommend to start with is Ubuntu/Fedora.
Let me know what you think about this article.
