A view from a very common computer user


"It's all about choice. I have the choice of how my OS works, how it looks and above all, what it does. Windows has failed me on all those counts, and Windows 10 with its telemetry and uncontrollable updates was the final straw."
— a speaker's comment at a recent Linux Users' Group meeting


 

Okay, let's be clear about one thing. Whilst I have a somewhat technical background, having done tech support for Windows and Apple computers, trained phone support personnel and both built and (to a limited degree) supported networks, I still only want my computer to just bloody well work. I don't expect much of my computer, but I want its operating system to get out of my way so I can communicate, write, read or watch silly cat videos.

I'd been an MS/DOS and Windoze guy since I started using computers for myself (though my first computer use was data entry and control on some guv'mint and banking systems, and later playing with a Sinclair Spectrum at home). I was happy with Windows in all its iterations. My first PC build was a glorious(‽) Windows 95 machine, and I supported end-users on that until the release of Windows 98, when I was seconded to my company's training department, and I still loved Windows.


This was the beginning of the end for me. I watched as Microsoft began to limit both choice and control for their users, and began to develop a yearning for a mysterious something other. The opportunity came with a Linux installation cover disk from some computing magazine. My memory is that it was in the late 1990s, and the distro (distribution) was Slackware. I painstakingly installed it on a machine I built from old parts. It was horrid, but it mostly worked. Mostly. I fiddled with it for a few weeks, found it clunky and too reliant on reading the man pages and copious Google searches. I installed Debian and had a similar, if slightly easier, time. I think I ran out of patience a after a couple of months, but I did at least have a Linux server that worked more often than not.

That continued for about a couple of years, every so often I'd return to tweak something or pound a keyboard in frustration. Then along came Ubuntu. This was a game-changer. Installation was easier, the system had a usable and stable graphical interface, it did exactly what it said on the tin.

Finally having a system I could use day-to-day meant that I started to use more open source software, and as Microsoft began to change their Office interface to something I didn't like, found myself using (as I recall) Open Office more and more. This should have marked the beginning of the end for Windows, but there was one fly in the ointment; while everything Just Plain Worked on my desktop, my laptop was another issue altogether. You see, with the advent of WiFi I'd bought myself a laptop. Whilst most everything worked well, getting wifi to work was a pain. It turned out there were at the time no Linux drivers for my wifi chipset, and whilst there was a workaround (which involved using another bit of software widgetry to load a Windows driver) it was kludgy, unreliable and plain ugly to mess with. I tried for a couple of months to love it, but I failed.

Meanwhile, Real Life™ intervened, and I found myself coming to live in the US. The circumstances were such that I didn't fancy messing with Linux a great deal, and so despite my growing loathing of Windows in general and Microsoft Update in particular, I continued to use Windows 98 then Windows 7 (I tried Vista, skipped it and never wanted to move to 8). Increasingly I found myself wanting to wrench control of my system from Microsoft's nannying. I found myself using more and more open-source programs, joined the local Linux Users' Group and did a lot of reading.


After Christine died, I found myself at a loose end and began my experiments again. Distro hopping from Debian to Ubuntu to Mint and back, I would run the live boot images to play with, but lacked the courage to install it as a boot option. Finally the day dawned when the hard drive on my laptop began to fail to the extent that Windows would no longer boot. In desperation (having backed everything up), I installed Xubuntu, and (cue angel voices) the bloody thing worked. The slowly-deteriorating hard drive was replaced (thanks to a donation from a random Redditor) and I was off. Microsoft Windows was no longer on my system, a sort of reverse defenestration.

That was over three years ago. After a couple of distro changes, I'm now running OpenSUSE Leap on my laptop and considering a move to their rolling release, Tumbleweed. Linux is my daily driver now, which is in keeping with an increasing suspicion of mainstream, proprietary software. I'm the vice-president of my local LUG and a strong privacy advocate. Wearing these two hats (both vice-presidential and tinfoil hat) is far more comfortable for me. I'm home.

So, does Linux work? Is it for you?

Well, it does work for me. I write, I play music and video, I browse the Web. I can use email, there's a Signal¹ protocol client on my desktop (that's a tale for another day!). I use it to do presentations and video conferences. It's pretty and I've plenty of tools and toys to play with. I've configured it pretty much exactly the way I want it, it only updates when I'm ready.

Is it for you? Possibly not, but then I've installed it for two older folk who just wanted it for web-browsing and simple tasks and they've been happy for over a year with no support interventions required. A couple of questions will sort this out for you (and I know this is a very blunt tool, but it's all I've time for…)


Ah, the sticky questions… The occasionally sticky answers
Are you a gamer? Specifically are you mostly playing newer AAA games? Probably best stick with what you've got, unless you want to dual-boot. Although watch this space. It seems to get better every week.
Do you like having complete control of your system? Linux does give you more choices in how things work, patricularly in terms of look and feel.
Are you concerned about privacy, and what your computer is sharing about you? Not so much for Apple users, but Microsoft is increasingly having Windows "phone home" to its servers.
Is security important for you? Most operating systems are easy to secure, but Linux (and the BSD Unixen) are potentially easier to keep that way.
Are you happy to do a little work to switch over to a new way of doing things? Linux does require some changes in workflow, and a little understanding of what's under the bonnet. Hood, whatever.
Do you need to use a specific piece of software for work (for example 3D CAD, photo/video manipulation)? This could be problematic. Photoshop, for example, keeps a lot of people from running Linux as a daily driver. There are ways around it using emulation (I know Wine is not an emulator, sue me) or a virtual machine. You can even dual boot, which means installing two operating sytsems and switching between them.
Are you up to a new challenge occasionally? Linux does throw a curve now and again. Especially if you mess with your system a lot. But you will learn lots. Possibly more than you ever wanted.
Would you describe yourself as a patient person? Linux does require some patience and perseverance. But the Linux community is generally pretty forgiving, especially if you've read the man pages.
There's a saying that "the best way to learn about Linux is to break it". Does this fill you with shivering dread? Run. Run away now. RUn as fast as you can. No-one will judge you.
Are you willing to give it a whirl without taking any risk at all? Downloading and installing a bootable Linux image to a thumbdrive will let you boot your system without changing anything on your computer.
My system is broken now, what do I have to lose? Back up your important stuff. Install Linux on your system. Profit‽

  So I'm happy in my little computer world. My three (soon to be four) computers will all run Linux. I am in control, I learn something new every day. I have stopped worrying and learned to embrace the command line, and gladly don my geek hat at ever available opportunity. It's a little more than an operating system, it's a philosophical choice too.




¹ Incidentally, Signal is by far my preferred way of communication these days. Think of it as a secure SMS texting application. In fact you can install the app (hate that word!) instead of whatever you use for texting from your phone, and there's a nice desktop client as well.


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