A question asked - why I use Linux

This is a long and drawn out answer. It isn't a simple question.

I've been using computer systems for more than twenty years, from micros to mainframes, so I'm no beginner. I was in on Microsoft operating systems from DOS 3.2 and I dabbled with Linux for a number of years. It was only recently that I made the full switch.

The drive towards Linux has been partly because of what Linux offers, but more because of what Microsoft doesn't, or rather how their company works. Apple are the same.

To put you in the frame of mind, we pay money for a DVD. We are forced to sit through adverts and are treated like morons. The pirates have none of that. We have to sit through a couple of minutes of lecture telling us not to copy media; because they've disabled the menu buttons ... the pirates don't ... and we're the ones who have forked over good wonga for the thing.

I want to be treated with a bit of bloody respect, and I find it insulting.

Now ... take the Apple iPhone; or more appropriately, their application store. In order to get an application to run on your iPhone it has to be bought through the Apple store. That has a number of consequences...

1) Apple have a closed market.
2) Apple censor the applications
3) Apple have a history of making very bad calls, including banning applications on their store that are available elsewhere on Apples systems.

... they are just not trustworthy.

Microsoft restrict their software. If you buy a netbook with a new version of Windows 7 on it, you'll find that the software prevents you from changing the background image. Why? They want to force you in to spending more money on a copy of Windows 7 that is further up their product line and that means parting with more money.

Microsoft actually wanted to prevent notebooks from running more than three applications simultaneously, but that had to be ditched because of the backlash.

They have a history of screwing the customer over and they are in cahoots with the hardware industry as well.  Whenever I buy a Dell machine I deliberately turn down the warantee because I know what the consumer rights act (sale of goods act) covers me for. However, that doesn't stop pestering calls from Dell staff asking if I want to take out an extended warantee.

So how does this work? Well, you get the operating system, you get a cut down office suite called, "works," that won't read the documents from anyone else. You get an anti-virus system that runs out after a few months and demands your credit card details. The hardware manufacturer has also cut corners on the hardware build of the machine so you're really getting a piece of under performing junk.

End story is that you spend money buying a full copy of Microsoft Office. You spend money on the anti-virus because you don't feel you've got the technical knowledge to shop around and you don't know when you're paying over the odds. Also, you don't actually know what is under the hood of your machine because you haven't got the technical knowledge to ask the questions that go beyond the headline grabbers ... you're suckered in with nice, appealing processor speeds and large amounts of RAM, but you don't actually know how fast these components work or shift information between each other.

Over the years I've spent good money on software that is not backward compatible. I've got games that cost thirty to fifty quid a shot fifteen years ago and they won't run now. The backwards compatibility history of Microsoft is trash. Heck, I've even got a copy of The Sims and that is giving me grief under Windows XP now ... and XP was first released in 2001; to be fair I think service pack 3 is what stuffed it up. But what should I use the CD for now; an expensive coaster?

I've got a shelf of games and looking through the titles I believe only a third of them run under XP ... and who knows what will happen to that figure with Windows 7.

It is just hassle, hassle, hassle and money, money, money. As a local government IT hack, I just ain't got cash to splash around.

Apple hardware is too expensive and they also suffer backward compatibility issues.

The Pengiun...

Well, there is a saying that Linux is hard to get working, but once it works, it just works. No blue screens or junk like that. I have found that to be true.

When I buy the parts for a computer, I ensure that my graphics card is an Nvidea chip set and that is fairly much about it.  I've even taken a hard drive out of one machine, put it in to another one (both 64 bit processors) and turned it on. It sorted out its own network, sound and video drivers (both were running different Nvidea cards) and it just worked.

You try that with Windows and all you'll get is a blue screen.

It takes a learning curve to get used to Linux. I have, however, formulated a method of getting the thing up and running.

Step 1 is to install Ubuntu.

Step 2 is to open a terminal and run this command ...

sudo apt-get install cairo-dock firefox kasablanca digikam kdenlive audacity gimp ufraw empathy qmmp camorama gnucash wacom-tools gnomescan vlc xmms2 totem-xine xine-console xine-plugin libxine1-dbg libxine1-ffmpeg xinetd gxine xine-dbg deejayd-xine libxineliboutput-fbfe libxine1-plugins libxine1-doc libxine1-all-plugins x11proto-xinerama-dev oxine libxinerama-dev gxineplugin libxcb-xinerama0-dbg libxine-dev ultrastar-ng-xine libxinerama1-dbg libxcb-xinerama0-dev xmms2-plugin-all kdirstat gparted


...the system then goes and gets all my favourite software and installs it for me.  There are a few things that aren't available as packages and I go get those separately.

However, this list contains all I need to enjoy a good computing experience. No serial numbers, no validating installs, no messing around, I can have a computer installed from scratch in a little over an hour.

There are downsides. Principally, if you buy a piece of equipment like a mobile phone, a drawing tablet, a scanner ... it is unlikely to come with drivers for Linux ... some things don't even come with drivers for Apple. That is why I set up this petition on Downing Streets web site. Please ... let it go viral!!!

Some web sites also don't work with Firefox. There are a few odds and sods like that. Some sites don't even work with Firefox on Windows, let alone Firefox on Linux!!!  Time are changing, though. I can even get various TV catch up services on Linux.

Support is a major question for many people, but be honest ... when was the last time you telephoned Microsoft for support?  I know one colleague some years ago, I left the room and came back some time later to find he had gone to sleep. He had been on hold in a queue for Microsoft for three quarters of an hour and was still on hold. I recently tried to get support via e-mail; after an exchange of three or four e-mails I gave up; the person on the other end just did't have a fucking clue as to what I needed help with.

Most people go to the web to get support; either that or call a friend for help. With Microsoft, one of the biggest things is that there is a lack of choice; (not many controls to muck up) few places to look (again a lack of controls) and many people on the web who have likely encountered the same thing before. (many people with the same small view space having the same issues) so by the time you have your issue, it is odds one that someone else has had it before and has been kind enough to post the solution somewhere ... and a search engine has indexed it for you.

With Linux, there are forums and with the increasing use of Linux more information is seeping out of the forum and on to search engines.

It is a downside of Linux that it gives you full control ... and I mean full control. For people who just want to switch on the machine and have it work, this is what I think is probably the main barrier ... too much choice and no easy instructional video to tell them how to do things.

Lately, more and more of my Ubuntu installs have been free from major grief. Minor bits and pieces, yes, but once I've got over them it is sweet as a nut.

There are actually a list of technical reasons why I like Linux. Hold on to your hats for just a selection of them...

*) My personal data is separate from the operating system. If Windows goes down, you've got to get your backgrounds, fonts and other things out of various directories and things. There is no easy way to separate your "profile" from the operating system ... you can move your My Documents folder, but that is it. With Linux, it is all separate as a matter of course.

*) There isn't a slow down. As XP runs over a few months, it gets slow. It doesn't properly clean its temporary directories, the registry gets bloated and full of junk and it just gets sluggish.

*) In the old days, applications kept their settings in what we call .ini files. If you customised your options in an application, it would store it in one of these files.  Linux still does that.  Microsoft decided to invent the registry and stored all the settings in there ... one central database which is ripe for corruption and also low performance when it gets large. Just look at all the cleaning tools out there.

*) Application vendors; the people that write the software; can create quick and dirty applications that work ... sort of ... and haven't got to put quality control in to their software. The net result is a headache for the customer (you) and a raft of never ending updates. Personally, I've had enough of that culture.

Interesting note - Application vendors write software on Windows because it is quick and easy. Customers, including government, choose Windows because that is what the software they want, is written for. Vendors won't write for Linux because their customers are not running Linux. A self-perpetuating cycle of blame and wasted money ensues. This will only be broken by central government dictating all government to use Linux, and then application vendors will have to step up to the mark; but they won't do that because central government are also negotiating with Microsoft to get their software for cheaper (well, central government do, each local authority has to fight its own corner.) so in the mean time, taxpayers money gets wasted. How much? Just send an FOI request in to your local government office and ask how much money has been spent on software and operating systems each year, for the last five years ... you'll have a bit of a shock.

At work, we have systems that deal with the housing benefits and the council tax. We use Sun hardware running Unux. If we attempted to run it on Microsoft databases, the vendor wouldn't support us; because the Microsoft SQL Database is so slow that it just can't play with the big boys; it doesn't perform. That tells you a lot about Microsofts software ... it is put together quickly, thrown out at the customer to get revenue in and will be patched on a regular basis to try and iron out all the bugs.

If you're running anything of any consequence, you don't run it on Microsoft.

So, for work I have to use Unix; makes sense for me to use my knowledge and make the most of it at home as well and reap the benefits.

*) Linux isn't impervious to virus attacks, but there just aren't that many out there. At the moment, if I use my head, I can trust my system to be protected. All those virus attachments that come through on e-mail were written for Windows ... they won't work on Linux!!!

*) I hate Outlook Express with a passion. It looses profiles, prevents some attachment types from opening and is a general pain. At work we went over from an e-mail system called, "Groupwise," to Outlook ... the full blown version of Outlook Express ... and our users are howling about how bad Outlook is and they want Groupwise back.  No, their complaints aren't sour grapes, they have lost features that were in Groupwise and also some things in Outlook just don't work or have restrictions on them.

*) Not much original actually comes out of Microsoft; the idea of using a mouse was actually down to Xerox. If you look at the Active Directory, you'll see an uncanny resemblance to Novell software's NDS. If a small company comes up with a good idea, Microsoft are there to buy it up.

I don't view Microsoft as an innovator, simply a Western version of China ... nick someone elses ideas, make it cheaper and throw it back at them. Is it any wonder why I hate Microsoft?

*) Microsoft has always been bloat-ware. When Windows 95 came out there was a song parody of the Rolling Stones. It kicks in at about 39 seconds in this video...


OS/2 Warp!!! Remember that? Some people are still using it!

If you can't be bothered listening, here are the lyrics...
Well, I bought it up.
Brought Windows home and tried to boot it up.

But when I load it up,
It says my memory is not enough.

I've been running out
I need some extra RAM to fix me up.

I have to cough it up,
Open my wallet up it never stops,
never stops,
never stops,
never stops.

This Windows 95
Is sucking up my drive
It makes a Pentium fly

But my PC
Is Obsolete
I'll have to buy myself a brand new machine.
Ring it up.

There is more to that song, but it hasn't changed. Instead of hard drives these days it is now graphics cards. Microsoft and manufacturers have been caught a few times over the specifications they've put out as being the minimum to run their operating systems and people have been caught out. It isn't funny.

There are a number of different levels of Windows these days, and it seems to be getting worse. If you watch an advert of someone using Windows 7 Ultimate (£200 worth of software) and then walk in to a shop and pay £400 for a complete package ... you can bet your life that you're not going to have Windows 7 Ultimate on it ... and if you just see a sticker that says, Windows 7, how many people actually know that there are different versions of it and then get all disappointed when their computer doesn't do all the fancy stuff.

The long story short is that I don't like the way that Microsoft treats me, the customer. I don't like the way that their changes wipes out my investment in software. They are forever full of promises that are never kept...


Oh, and by the way ... at the heart of Apples operating system ... is actually a Linux kernel...


The final straw was when I wanted to join the Internet video community.  The software that came with Windows XP kept crashing. The software that came with the video camera kept crashing and when it didn't crash, actually wanted me to pay for an upgrade before I could export my videos in a useful way.  A trawl of the Internet for free video editing software came up with a load of junk that kept ... you guessed it ... crashing.

Under Linux I found KDEnlive ... under ... you guessed it ... Linux...



...and as I go up the learning curve, the rewards get greater.

Not only that, I can easily pop in to Windows at any time to do things...


... which allows me to get on with my life and enjoy things like this...