Sam Varghese
Friday, 21 November 2008 04:36
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
I'm not one of those highly vocal GNU/Linux users referred to by my editor Stan Beer a few days back. But then I am definitely one of the "tinority" because I do use the operating system on my desktop - and anywhere else that I need computing power.
So you can call this a tinority view.
One isn't exactly sure
whom Stan was referring to when he spoke of people who perpetuate an idea that the year of the Linux desktop has arrived. I myself have never subscribed to this idea as it simply isn't true.
But then there are fanatics among the users of every operating system, the Taliban among computer users. There are some who even praise Windows - that's how bad it gets.
I don't think Windows users are stupid - but I do think many of them lack the guts to make a change.
However, I don't really think that anyone who is serious about moving to GNU/Linux - for any reason at all, cost among them - should get it installed and then try to start using it whole hog from the next day onwards. That's the best way to set yourself up for failure.
Neither should someone contemplating a switch jump back to the old operating system a day after failing to achieve something with GNU/Linux. That's giving up far too easily and means that the desire to switch has not really taken hold. Or that the change hasn't been properly thought through.
Switching operating systems is a major undertaking. Think of throwing cigarettes away - that's how big a task it is, and I can speak with absolute confidence, having done both, junking a 35-cigarette-a-day habit back in 1990 and moving to Debian GNU/Linux wholesale in the year 2000.
I got both my children to switch from Windows to the Mac successfully, fielding plaints all along the way. Yes, old habits do die hard and nobody likes change.
