| I finally switched and boy, am I glad! |
A guest column by 'Anonymous' (Nov. 20, 2001) . . .
I wrote this to some friends once I migrated, and thought some others in the community might find it useful . . .
Hi all!
Well folks, I finally made the switch from Windows to Linux . . . and boy am I glad I have. I still dual boot (run both Windows and Linux) so that I can flick back to Windows for just 4 programs: Dreamweaver, Photoshop 6, Morpheus (mp3/software search and download client), and my CD burning software. Once these are ported to Linux, I'll be off Windows for good. In fact, there are alternatives for all of these in Linux already, I'm just too lazy to learn them right now. And I have to admit, I haven't run Windows for days now.
First, let me say that the move was relatively painless, thanks to my father who is a Linux genius!! (Thanks Dad =) I am running Netscape 6.2 for email/browsing and using a myriad of other (free) software for everything else.
Now, most of you may be wondering why you should switch to Linux. The question these days is more why not than why. With Microsoft's growing monopoly and subsequent stranglehold on the desktop PC market most people are searching for alternatives to a substandard, closed source, insecure, and costly operating system like Windows (ANY variant but especially XP).
Yes, but you say I don't pay for MS software anyway. This may be true but let's assume you did, would you feel you were getting quality products at a fair price? I dare say you wouldn't. And, would you have all that nifty software on your system if you had to pay for it all (like you usually should for any Windows software)?
This begs the question, if there was not the MASS, and I do mean MASS (lest you don't believe me, simply search Morpheus for any Microsoft/Windows software you might want) piracy of Windows based software out there, would anyone still be running Windows??
Or, ask yourself this: would you be running Windows if it didn't come pre-installed on your machine, or if it had come pre-installed with an alternative to Windows as well? Now that the antitrust case against MS has been completed, the way has been paved for PC makers to pre-load multiple operating systems on the their new machines, without the threat of competitive backlash from MS. This will only accelerate the growth of this free OS.
You see, Linux is a community composed of software developers worldwide who largely offer their services for free because they want the furtherance of technology and because they simply enjoy programming. Besides, they usually just develop software they like to use and make that available to others as well.
It all started with Linus Torvalds, a feisty Finn who developed Linux from Unix, one of the most stable/powerful OS's of all time. He did it for free and that concept endures to this day. MS is finding it increasingly difficult to compete with free software (read this article).
I say offer them no support. You too can move to Linux, but I do suggest you liaise with someone who can give you a bit of help as there are differences between it and Windows (thank heaven!).
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