A Year In Linux

Today I was talking technical with a colleague and we were discussing everything from web site programming to computer operating systems. We talked about all aspects of software and even computer hardware. Yes. It was one of those "geek sessions". And I say that with pride.

During this conversation, I related the fact that I had been at the company for just over a year. And during my entire year at this company I have used a Linux desktop exclusively the entire time. I had a dual boot machine available to use Windows, but I only booted it into Windows once and that was only a specific task. So for almost 54 weeks straight now, my primary desktop computer has had some flavor of Linux running on it: OpenSuse on my primary desktop machine, and Ubuntu on my secondary desktop machine.

Just to note, I am a software developer and because of this, I often use two (or more) computers at any one time to develop and test software. So a second machine is not a luxury, its a requirement.

About 10 months ago I loaded Xubuntu Linux on an old laptop to breathe life back into it. That old Toshiba laptop had 128 MB of RAM and ran a 650 MHz processor. When Windows ran on it, it was to put it in my favorite way of describing it "pig-dog slow". I don't really know what "pig-dog slow" would really mean, but I mean it as "so slow it would make you want to jump out in front of a bus".

But Xubuntu (with alternate text install) ran very well on that old laptop. And a few months later I upped the RAM to a total of 384 MB and "bam!" it ran even better. I know, I borrowed that quote from some other guy who has nothing to do with computing, but oh well.

The point is, after 54 weeks of primary usage on a Linux desktop I have come to some conclusions and I thought I would record them here. So the next part is called:

Five Things I Learned From Using Linux Exclusively For An Entire Year
or
How To Get Fresh Air Without Opening Windows

1. I did not have to change WHAT I do on the computer, but I did adapt HOW I do things on the computer.

The thing I believe is most important to many people is "do I have to change?". What I found is "yes, you do have to adapt." But what I also found out is that the adaptation was not hard and was not so utterly complex that average people could not manage it. Clearly, average people manage much more complex systems every day in all facets of life. So while some change is needed, you don't have to reinvent your basic processes.

2. I experienced far fewer system lockups and crashes than I ever did running Windows.

I will tell you that yes in fact, I did have system failures. But I will also point out that all of them were related to desktop applications and all failures except for two (yes 2) were resolved with one of single most magnificent features of the Linux desktop: killing the display server with a ctl-alt-backspace three-finger salute. What that does is kill the GUI and leave the OS up and humming. So all I had to do was "login" again. No reboot was necessary except for the 2 times noted. I think I lock up the desktop about once a month.

3. There are software applications for Linux that really are superior to the Microsoft offerings.

I have been a long-time OpenOffice user and really find it to be far superior to MS Office, especially since the most recent update to MS Office which made the entire suite nearly unusable. Additionally, Evolution is just as good (or just as bad depending on your position) as MS Outlook. I personally don't like Outlook at all and hence I am not thrilled with Evolution, but it does integrate with MS Exchange mail servers so there is an advantage there. I think I really prefer Thunderbird email client really. But our company uses Exchange and I need the connection to that... sigh. So far the only thing I can't find an equal or better for is Visio - which was bought by MS, not developed by them.

4. Just because you have a zillion choices on how to do things doesn't mean you have to explore them all.

There are hundreds of Linux distributions (called distros) and there are multiple window managers as well as multiple desktop environments for Linux. However, I stuck with the mainline distros and their default setups. I really don't have the time to experiment with all the combinations of these layers of software so I stuck with Ubuntu/Gnome and OpenSuse/Gnome on my desktops and Xubuntu/Xfce4 on my laptop. I am not a big fan of KDE and I can still run all their applications on Gnome and Xfce4 as long as I have the libraries installed. So sticking with the popular distro choices makes the prospect of choosing much easier. And for a MS Windows user, this should seem quite natural because there is only one choice on MS Windows.

5. I found that most of the time the things I do could be done on any desktop operating system.

Email, word processing, web browsing, listening to music, watching videos, photo editing, and even writing software can be done on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OSX, and MS Windows in very, very, similar ways. And I think that because I stick to cross-platform and open source software, I really think it is the application environment that is much more important to most users. The applications I use are portable and so for me, my environment pretty much stays the same regardless of the underlying host operating system.

So there you have it. Completely useless drivel about how I like using Linux and why I no longer care about the OS wars. All the lemmings can use their MS Windows computers and I don't care. All the uber-geek l33t haxors can use their obscure variant distro of Linux and I don't care. The acolytes of Steve Jobs can sway to the groove of their Mac OSX and I don't care. And the gearheads can run all other flavors of Unix and I don't care.

I know what it is I need to do, and I use the tool that is best for me to do it. So there you have it. Not necessarily all that profound or novel. In fact it has been known by tradesmen for centuries. What is this great philosophical conjuration?

Use the right tool for the job.

Now back to work. I have several open terminal windows with command lines staring at me wanting me to compile software. Never fear the command line. The command line is the doorway to real power on a computer and allows entry behind the pre-school widgets that GUIs limit you to.



Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)