By Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 09 September 2008
Ten reasons to run Vista? There are far more reasons than that to run GNU/Linux. And it doesn't take as long to enumerate them because the reasons are simple and you do not need ten paragraphs to outline each argument. When it comes to GNU/Linux, the KISS principle applies.
This isn't a matter of belief - just one of pragmatism. I have been running Debian GNU/Linux for the last eight years and some - six years on 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 updates with Windows, there is a good chance that you are going to hose your system sooner or later. That doesn't happen with any distribution of GNU/Linux. So when you factor in costs, please add the amount you, the average user, would pay to have your Windows re-installed. You can also calculate how much valuable time you spend getting all your applications/utilities reinstalled and customising them as you had done initially.
(Windows XP service pack 3 is sitting on the desktop of a PC next to me, one I'm building for a friend. I'm scared to install it after seeing all the negative reports about it. Yes, a 300mb-plus update released to the public by the biggest software company in the world cannot be installed on a system put out by the same company. Did someone say automatic updates???)
Remember, reinstallation every year, two years or three years, is NOT a normal feature of computer usage - not unless you are buying dodgy hardware. Neither is constant rebooting - at times, after moving your mouse a few centimetres to the right. These practices have been normalised by Windows.
My first Debian update - from Potato to Woody - took 44 hours on a 56k modem - the internet connection cut out twice but nothing happened to 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. In those nine years, I have cleaned dozens of Windows PCs for payment, and also free - for friends, and members of my family. In half these cases, there was so much muck that reformatting and reinstallation were the only solutions.
And don't forget spyware, adware, worms, viruses... what delight is next 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 security reasons. Only big organisations like the tax office can get this kind of feature in Windows - smaller bodies have to live with the security threat posed by these USB sticks. With GNU/Linux, anyone can turn off USB support. A number of remand homes have GNU/Linux systems precisely because this is possible.
3. Hardware integrity: unless you buy dodgy hardware. you have no need to bother about your PC while running GNU/Linux. But when you run Windows, the poor quality of the operating system does not stress test the hardware - you can be using bad RAM for years until you install 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 in freedom. When you run Windows, you need dozens of additional programs that cost an arm and a leg. You get very little with the operating system.
As to the number of applications available for GNU/Linux, the Debian GNU/Linux archive has something in the region of 15,000 packages. Would that do for the average user? Oh, and lest I forget, there are dozens of other archives from which software can be downloaded as well.
5. Constant settings: Of course, you can buy a laptop and take your Windows settings with you. Incidentally, laptops aren't free. And you would have spent twice the time customising - once on your PC and once on your laptop. Or you can buy an USB stick - which isn't free either. So what are you - some kind of millionaire? What about poor Joe Bloggs who has just one PC that is five years old and has to share it with his wife, three kids and two cousins? Do they all share the same settings? That would be the best way to disrupt domestic harmony.
With GNU/Linux, that problem doesn't arise. Your settings are all in your home directory. No user can snoop on another -
6. Hardware support: If truth be told, Linux supports a much bigger range of hardware than Windows. Support for wireless is spotty but it is not an impossible hurdle to surmount. It is certainly a minor irritant in the bigger scheme of things - and I'm speaking as one who has used Vista with, and without, service pack 1. There is certainly enough hardware in the market to use with a GNU/Linux system.
But when it comes to wireless speeds, GNU/Linux beats Windows hands down. Once again, this is from personal experience - I had all three operating systems in the house. The Macs run fastest, GNU/Linux is a close second and Windows is a dog, despite hours of tweaking.
7. Support: One of the major irritants with GNU/Linux systems is faced by people with itchy fingers who have grown used to fiddling with Windows just to keep the system as it is - something like running in 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 (I just picked that one out of the air) has installed some malware on your PC which is slowing down your internet connection and you have to fiddle 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 the familiarity factor? Just how much pain would you put up with? How many irritants are you willing to put up with from Windows before you go over the top? You would probably become familiar with something else pretty soon if you really wanted to.
10. Microsoft: If one says that this company continues to change, evolve and improve, then I can't argue. The changes are generally for the worse. The evolution is in the direction of more mediocrity. And the improvements are in snooping on customers - Vista is a super snoop in finding out everything you are doing on your PC and reporting it back to Redmond. If your argument is that you have nothing to fear unless you are not breaking the law, then why don't you keep your bedroom windows open when you sleep with your partner??? That's not a criminal activity, now, is it?
11. Simplicity: Has anyone seen anything more complex than the Windows registry? This single point of failure on a Windows system is a mystery to even seasoned Windows admins. GNU/Linux has all its configuration settings in text files. Easy to change and reload without rebooting.
unless the administrator has given specific permission.
12. Openness: When there is a security scare with GNU/Linux, you always get to know all the details. Even with the biggest GNU/Linux company, Red Hat, it only took eight days, for a full account of a security breach to be provided. With Microsoft, you never know until something leaks to the media. (When I reported about the theft of Windows 2000 code in 2004, the Microsoft PR people in the US suddenly rook an inordinate amount of interest in me. And mine 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 one single entity to keep it going. You can do it yourself. You can hire people to do it for you. Or you can contribute to a project along with others 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 huge number of architectures. I am a non-technical user - and I run Debian on the AMD64 (desktop), x86 (laptop) and the MIPS (server) architectures. Imagine what it would have cost me to buy operating systems for all these architectures.
15. Community: Windows user groups - ever heard of them? I haven't. I have heard of plenty of Linux user groups, though. I'm a quiet member of two. Nice folk, good discussions on the mailing lists and plenty of cheap services, not limited to GNU/Linux, through the contacts.
16. Solutions vs workarounds: With Windows there are always workarounds which have to be constantly reimplemented; with GNU/Linux there are solutions which, once implemented, make the problem go away for good. No need to elaborate on that one.
17. Hardware longevity: With every version of Windows, you need more expensive hardware and more of it to achieve acceptable performance. Vista, for example, needs 4 GB of memory to run at a speed acceptable to me on a dual-core 64-bit AMD processor - but then I've been spoiled by using GNU/Linux all these years. Oh, my desktop is a single-core AMD64 system with 2 GB of RAM and I do a lot of video encoding and processing for burning to DVD while I'm using the box for my regular work. My last PC was used for seven years, six of them running Debian.It's now being used as a server in an university.
18. Peaceful co-existence: How many times have you tried to use a product that competes with some application or the other from Microsoft and found that its features are blocked or disabled? The latest 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 of activity goes down to the level of drivers - unless a company has paid the Microsoft tax, the drivers are often replaced by drivers from Microsoft. Or else the hardware in question starts playing up.
Try installing a second operating system on the drive in your beautiful $2000 Vista PC - but don't hold me liable for the damage.You can 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 faceless entity every time you change to a new PC and want to re-use the same copy. You are your own boss. Even with commercial distributions like Red Hat, you can always opt for CentOS - which is Red Hat minus the trademarks. With Windows, they don't sell freedom.
20. Education: GNU/Linux encourages you to learn. And the more you learn, you find that you can extract more and more from that grey box which you bought for a few hundred dollars. It does not serve mashed food - it encourages you to masticate food yourself. I know of one individual who learnt to program in C after he had retired - and then promptly became a Debian developer. The man was 70 when he joined the project.
What Windows does in this respect is best left unsaid.
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