Everybody knows that I believe in free software, the recent flamewar on my post about the Desktop espoused that clearly. With this post however, I wish to answer another factor – the apparent belief that GNU/linux doesn’t “work”. I can’t say it will work for everybody, though each day there is some app on freshmeat that allows some new group of people who could not previously do their job with GNU/Linux to make the switch.
But using GNU/Linux was never for me about hating microsoft. Although indeed I believe in free software from an ethical perspective, I want to highlight the practical advantages it offers to me as an end-user (I may be a developer, but I also use my computer – and so does everybody else) – advantages which I have come to consider crucial.
1) Security:
It is just not good enough to have your system constantly plagued by the latest virus threat, constantly bogged down by a lot of spyware. These are not fundamental weaknesses in the essence of computers, they are fundamental weaknesses in the design of some operating systems. The lack of viruses for Linux isn’t just because the market is smaller – it’s because the system is better designed, and updated constantly, this just raises the bar for writing virusses far beyond the capabilities of all but the most skilled of programmers – and highly skilled programmers do not write virusses. I do my banking on my computer, it knows my credit card details, it knows my paypal password – I’m sorry, but I simply refuse to trust this information to a program I cannot verify and audit to ensure that this information is safe.
2) Privacy:
Beyond spyware – I value my privacy as a person. My computer knows a lot of things I do not want to be known to others. It knows my tax returns, my medical history, my bank details – even my outstanding traffic fines. There was just way too many proprietory licenses that claim for themselves the right to collect and send data from my computer to companies. Sorry, I don’t want those companies to know that information – so I refuse to use software unless I can know what it may collect and what it does with it and (importantly) stop it if I want to.
3) Reliability:
The simple truth is, I run a business with my computers. Every minute of downtime costs me cold-hard cash. I, quite frankly, cannot afford a system that bluescreens … well ever. I cannot afford for my systems to lose my data. I cannot afford preventable faillures. Thanks to GNU/Linux, I don’t need to.
4) Power:
A lot of my business is to modify how operating systems work to meet the requirements of a specific customer (usually – this is desktop-level). I need a system that allows me to do that. I need a system where this is both possible and legal with minimal hassle, and in fact, the assistance of the creators. Only free software offers this, GNU/Linux meets this need particularly well. Moreover, I need features which closed operating systems not only do not have, but cannot obtain without massively dirty application level hacks. The good news is, GNU/Linux already has them, and if there is ever one it doesn’t have – I can add it. One example of this is complete and powerful remote access to my systems.
5) Ease of use:
Just because I know how to set up a wifi network by hand, doesn’t mean I want to – or have time to. GNU/Linux does a wonderful job of just working for me. The simple reality is that despite it’s wrong reputation, myself and most newbies whom I’ve introduced have found desktop oriented distro’s like pclinuxos to be easier to install and use than proprietory operating systems. Sure there are differences, and without guidance some people may get lost looking for something in the wrong place – for this there is a community – but overall, most things just work, they work better than under other OS’s, and they are easier to do.
6) Time:
Time as the adage goes, is money. Mine most especially so. GNU/Linux is resource friendly and fast, this means that when I give it a big task to do – it does it faster than the competition. This translates into me getting more done – and ipso facto into me getting more money. By saving me time and hassles, by working faster (at least in part achieved because it isn’t busy wasting resources treating me like a criminal) GNU/Linux ultimately increases my bottom line.
7) Mutual respect:
No man is an island. We all need a sense of belonging and a sense of respect from our peers. In the proprietory world we are treated like servants, existing only to make the corporations money. In the free software world, we become equals. Our views matter. If I report a bug, it gets serious and genuine attention. If I request a feature the developers prioritize it and makes it happen (if I want to spend money, I can make it happen faster). How many times has a software company added a feature to their program because you thought it would be nice ? In the GNU/Linux world it happens every day. Developers consider user-feedback their most valuable resource and work hard to meet the needs that users share with them. Proprietory companies sell you a one-size-fits-nobody solution and tells you to be content. Free software developers care about your needs as much as your rights. Proprietory companies only care about making it as hard as possible for you to ever buy anything made by anybody else.
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