Are Linux Users Shooting Themselves In
The Foot?
Written by 1roxtar
In April of 2009, my Windows XP
computer crashed for the umpteenth time and this time around I lost a
lot of valuable data. I was so angry because I didn't even have a cd
copy to reinstall my OS. Neither did I have the cash to shell out
for a new cd so I did what most broke people do in my situation, (don't tell anyone) is use a bootleg cd of TinyXP. Even though I hated
going this route and I never feel confident about the security of any cracked versions, I
felt it was a necessary evil that got me to the point I am now.
Nevertheless, as soon as I was up and
running again, I began to Google for alternative computer operating
systems. “There had to be something out there”, I thought to
myself. I searched and read about BSD, and Solaris, but the one that
kept sticking out was Linux. I quickly came to understand what a
Linux distribution or “distro” was. I further researched as to
which distro would be the easiest to install and use. What blew me away
was that, for one, it was free. Secondly, I could install it on all
my computers from the same cd without activation keys. Thirdly, I
could even test drive it right from the cd itself.
I asked myself, “Is this even
LEGAL???” I still laugh to myself that such a thought entered my
head, but it was justified. My previous experience was that if it
was free it had to be a bootleg or that it just wasn't any good
because I never heard of anybody using it. Nevertheless, I tried
several LiveCD's before I made the attempt to install it on my own
computer, I tried out Fedora, Debian, Freespire, and ultimately,
Ubuntu. Everything I read about Ubuntu told me that that was the
distro of choice for Linux newcomers, so I ran with it.
I ran an Ubuntu 8.10 LiveCD and
surprisingly it was pretty easy to navigate through and even though
it was different than the Windows I was using, a lot of its features
functioned in a very familiar way. I was quite impressed and
completely intrigued. Ubuntu came with my favorite internet browser,
Firefox, installed by default. It had a movie player, a music
player, it's very own office suite, a bittorent client and a
universal instant messenger client, right out of the box. I was one
week away from the release of 9.04, so I waited and after its release I
downloaded and installed it to my computer. I never looked back
again. I was “sold” on this free Linux.
Of course, I still had lots of
questions. My only experience was with Windows up to this point. I
needed to know which Linux programs could replace the ones I used
before and which ones worked well. I joined some forums and with the
help of the community, I was getting more familiar and more adept at
using a linux based operating system with success. They even helped
me make friends with the command line terminal, something I rarely
used on Windows. My question now is why isn't everyone in the whole
world not using it? We should be giving Microsoft the middle finger
and laughing our butts off at the absurdity of paying $100 - $300 to
an “evil” company, while we can do the same things on our
computers and that it can be done at no additional monetary cost.
I know that Redmond is acting like
Linux isn't a big threat, but it is doing everything in it's power
(and deeeep pockets) to keep vendors from preinstalling any kind of
distro on their machines. But thats not where the deeper problem
lies. In my opinion, Linux users are more responsible for spreading
far more FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) about themselves than even
what Microsoft has thrown against it. As I read through various
forums and blog sites, it is our very own who cry out, "We are
NOT ready!" From my perspective, it even seems like old
linux power users don't even want for Linux to go mainstream. They
don't want anyone messing with their niche. Other users say we won't
be ready until we get Linux versions of MS Office or Outlook or
Adobe's Photoshop or mainstream games. These may be what many are
used to, but Linux also possesses awesome feature rich programs that
can stand on their own two feet.
Too often the attention is focused on
what we don't have rather than what we do have that makes our
computing lives more complete. The forums are filled with folks who
have abandoned Windows and Mac on their personal computers.
Governments, schools and businesses are starting to adopt Linux on
the desktop and open source, in general. Largely, as a community, we
don't play to our strengths and that is what I believe is hurting
mass adoption. In essence, we are shooting ourselves in the foot
with all the negative talk and attitudes.
When I started looking into ubuntu and
linux forums a couple of years ago, I found it to be very, very
helpful. I learned so much about Linux that I completely removed
Windows from all my own computers. Nowadays, it's become a constant
flamewar battleground against Ubuntu, Unity and Gnome 3 Shell.
Sometimes I feel a sense of embarrassment as I read through new
user's threads in the testimonials and experiences sections. Many
newbies post that Ubuntu is the next best thing since sliced bread,
only to be sliced and diced themselves by “power users” who hate
Unity.
But I don't want that to take away from
the fact we do have excellent examples of quality programs that could
keep you from ever having to go back. For starters, LibreOffice is
becoming a truly solid and fully featured suite. Gimp is also a
powerful tool for photo editing. Firefox and Chrome are faster and
more secure replacements for Internet Explorer. OpenShot has much
better features than Windows Movie Maker. K3B is a disk burning
tool that rivals and surpasses Nero, in my opinion. Arista
Transcoder does all my video conversions effortlessly, Sound Juicer
rips my cd's like a ninja and VLC plays every video format I can
throw at it. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg, folks. There
are tons more and many distros are making it easier and easier to
install apps from their repositories and software centers. In fact, both
Linux Mint and Ubuntu offer customer ratings and reviews, thus making
it easier to pick the best ones out there.
For gamers, I understand that we don't
have a lot of commercial games ported to Linux just yet, but we are
starting to hit big with beautiful and fun indie games. Thanks to
the likes of the Humble Indie Bundle, the Ubuntu Software Center and
Desura (an online digital distribution service for gamers), we are
getting more games coming at a rapidly increasing rate to wet our
appetites. In fact Linux gamers have consistently payed more than
both Windows and Mac users combined during the Humble Indie Bundle
pay-what-you-want campaigns. There is a lot of optimism on that
front now, much more than even two years ago.
Herein lies our path to success on the
desktop. We have to stop the flamewars and bickering. There has to
be a unified consensus that Linux is ready. Pave the road for
adoption. Remember why you came to linux. Show your immediate world
what we truly have. Additionally, we need to dig into our pockets
and help FUND our favorite Linux and open source programs. We have
many great programs and distros already and if we promote their
strengths rather than their shortcomings, we could start pulling
ahead and gain some much needed market share.
