20 reasons to shed the Microsoft yoke and use Linux

By Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 09 September 2008 04:58

Opinion and Analysis

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???