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The Linux distillery 5 reasons to upgrade from Windows Vista to Linux
The Linux distillery 5 reasons to upgrade from Windows Vista to Linux | 5 reasons to upgrade from Windows Vista to Linux |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Monday, 08 September 2008 | |
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Page 3 of 3 Run an entire computer for free, without breaking the lawYou expect to pay money for a computer; you’re receiving something you can touch and which physically depletes the stock of the vendor. Featured Whitepaper
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Yet, most all proprietary software costs money. This isn’t an unreasonable thing; the developers deserve compensation for their efforts. Yet, let’s face it, people want computer programs and games to use and aren’t always willing to pay for it. Without an actual physical item being removed from stock there are many arguments that attempt to legitimise software piracy. Under Linux this isn’t the case. You can make as many copies of Linux as you like. You can install it on as many computers as you want. Your friends can all take a copy and at no time are you violating the licensing agreement. It is expressly permitted to be free for use for whoever wishes to use it. The same is true for the bulk of Linux software. Nearly all applications are licensed under a similar permissive license. You can download all the games and productivity applications you like without at any time being a software pirate. No matter if you cannot afford it, you can still work on spreadsheets and word processing documents using OpenOffice, you can layout complex publications with Scribus, you can manipulate images and photographs using The GIMP. You do not have to sacrifice on quality (by compromising using a less appropriate program) or resort to using the program without purchasing it. Take all your settings with you wherever you go If you buy a new computer or you have more than one computer (a desktop and a laptop, say) it’s not easy to set up things exactly the way they were, under Microsoft Windows. First you have to reinstall all your programs, that’s to be expected, and is true for any operating system. However, all your preferences and customisations are lost, things are back to the default. Again, this is true for any operating system. Under Windows there is no consistent way of storing settings. Some programs save them in configuration files within the application directory and some within the Windows directory. Other settings are saved into the Windows registry which is not easily duplicated. By contrast, because the Linux tradition is always for users to log in to ordinary everyday unprivileged accounts there is no such thing as saving settings to the directory where a program is installed, or to a central operating system folder, or even to a single central registry. Instead, programs invariably save all their settings into your private directory, under /home, in files or folders with names beginning with the full stop symbol, like .VirtualBox or .gimp-2.4, or .elmrc. Linux prohibits these files from being shown when calling up a directory listing (unless explicitly requested) but they allow your entire workplace and environment to be duplicated by simply copying your private /home folder. So that’s but five reasons why you ought to upgrade from Windows Vista to a version of Linux. What do you think? The choice and freedom is yours. |
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