switching to linux, part three

switching, part one
switching, part two

part three - the upside

Once you get your bearings [a substantial qualifier, admittedly, for many users] Linux is wonderful. The biggest upside, I'd say, is freedom. Most of Linux is open source, which means it's source code is open to public viewing and editing. In many cases, in fact, a person can take open source software, repackage it, maybe improve upon it, and sell it to others; it's more complicated than that, of course, and would depend on the type of license by which it's covered. [see the Creative Commons website for more info on the creative commons licenses available]

Along with this freedom, another upside is that most open source software is also free as in no cost to download and use. This is not always the case, but more often than not. So on one side you could spend thousands on software, and on the other you could pay nothing and have just about the same experience and tools [and then some] at your fingertips. Sound too good to be true? But wait there's more! Alright, I'm getting carried away now, but all this freedom just makes me happy.

Besides all this freedom and free-dom, there is also an immense, albeit subjective, amount of fun to be had using, configuring, and learning Linux. This part, like I said, is subjective: if there is no inner-geek within you, no willingness to learn a bit about the underpinnings of the operating system, you will probably have an opposite opinion about this potential of Linux. Don't get me wrong, Linux works just fine for the non-geek computer user as well. The default install of Ubuntu, for instance, provides an office suite comparable to MS Office [but free], a web browser better than Internet Explorer [wink], a Photoshop-like application [nearly as good, if a little awkward to navigate initially], an email client and personal information manager much like MS Outlook, lots of little games, and much more. All very familiar, I think, for anyone coming from Windows or Macintosh. [I'm tellin' you though, under the hood is where the fun is!]

I could go on. Especially on the subject of configuring Linux. But I'll save some of that for another day. In wrapping up this series, I'll attempt to answer a tough but potentially telling question: could/would I recommend Linux to my mom? Here's my answer: "yes......" Those trailing dots, once again, represent a few qualifiers. If my mom had hardware or software that was not made to run on Linux, we would have to first find replacements or workarounds. This would be true, I think, switching from any operating system to another. I am one hundred percent certain that there is a solution that would work, however. Case in point: my scanner was not going to work in Linux - no driver for it for Linux - so my solution was going to be to purchase another scanner [there are plenty that work fine under Linux], but a new, and more elegant, solution has shown itself. I now have Windows XP running in a virtual machine within Ubuntu [using Virtual Box]. Sounds creepy, I know, but Windows doesn't know the difference. This means, for hardware or software that needs Windows to run, I can just fire up Windows XP in a little window within Ubuntu. Very cool (and using open source software).

Admittedly, researching and setting up such workarounds, and then testing the stability of the workarounds would require a geek. So if Mom lived a little closer or if I get a chance for an extended visit, I could and would install it for her if she wanted. And ongoing tech support could be done over the phone [as I presently do from time to time for her Windows' woes].

Bottom line, Linux is a great Desktop environment. Everyone should at least give Ubuntu's live cd a try - it allows you to boot from the cd and experience Ubuntu without installing it on your hard drive. Here's the link.

switching to linux, part two

switching, part one

part two - the transition

Cold turkey has it's benefits, I suppose. Cut the cord and make it work. My brother, Joshua, did just that at the end of last year. I think, more than anything, he was just ready for a change. After telling him some of the benefits of Linux and letting him play with the live cd for a bit he said something to the effect of, "okay, how do we do this? What's next?" It was so sudden I found myself backpedaling a little, asking him, "are you sure you want to switch?", and going through a mental checklist, looking for any reason he should not go through with it. Finding very little, I relented, and we installed Ubuntu. We did have a small transitional step in there: we had to create a separate partition for all his music files before wiping out the Windows partition and installing Ubuntu. Unfortunately, his Sirius satellite player program was Windows only, and we could find no workaround for this - we ended up reinstalling Windows in a dual-boot with Ubuntu so he could access this one program to transfer music to and from his portable player.

Let me explain the live cd: Ubuntu, like many other Linux distributions these days, comes on a cd that you can boot from to test out the system before installing it to your hard drive. It's quite remarkable (just keep in mind it will run a little slower than it will once installed permanently to the hard drive). I was very impressed recently with the Mandriva 2007 live cd which included the option of activating the new 3D desktop effects - it worked flawlessly, even on my five year old computer with 512 MB of ram.

Back to my transition story. I had installed Ubuntu on my computer well before we installed it on Joshua's system. But I had it dual-booting with - and subordinate to - my Windows installation. Dual booting, I should mention, is the method of installing two (or more) operating systems on a single computer, choosing which to use each time the computer boots. I would occasionally reboot into Ubuntu simply to play its included games and tinker with its configuration, learning about Linux as I went along, but I was always tethered to Windows as my primary operating system. The one thing holding me back from using Linux while I had Windows installed was the simple fact that all my information resided on my Windows partition. Though Linux was able to read NTFS partitions natively, it could not write information back to NTFS - in other words, I was able to see all my Windows files from Linux but could not save anything back to Windows (and Windows cannot see Linux partitions at all). This most directly affected things like checking email and browsing the internet - emails, bookmarks, browsing history and extensions and themes could only be saved in whichever operating system I was in at the time. The first solution I found was creating a separate FAT32 partition that both Windows and Linux could read and write to and then configuring my email client and browser to use this "third-party" partition. This worked okay but every now and then my browser would inexplicably forget where it was supposed to be looking for it's information and would lose all its bookmarks and so forth (until I directed it back to the FAT32 partition). By the time I started using Ubuntu as my primary operating system, I discovered a much better solution that allowed Linux to read and write directly to NTFS (so everything could be kept up with my Windows partition).

In some sense I am still in transition from Windows to Linux. Until I purchase a new Linux-compatible scanner, and until a software tweak in my audio setup or a distribution update to correct my mic-always-on problem (or perhaps a purchase of a new usb microphone would do the trick?) - until these two issues are corrected, I guess I am still transitioning. But 98% of the time these days, I'm in Ubuntu and happier for it. More to come -

switching to linux, part one

part one - the downside

I started using Linux as my primary operating system about two months ago, installing Ubuntu in a dual boot configuration with Windows XP. I had actually set that up several months before when I was still toying with the idea of switching, wanting first to test the waters a bit. There came a time, though, when I decided to make the switch. I had started booting into Linux during the day while my wife was at work, and I honestly felt much more creative and much more productive during that time. Part of this was probably the novelty of it. A totally free operating system with open software and plenty of things to configure (actually, everything to configure). But mostly, it was the freedom of it, I think.

I'll start with the three things I still "need" Windows for (and these glitches apply mainly to my own present setup and could be overcome if I didn't already have Windows installed), in other words, the downside:

1) Scanning - my present scanner has no driver for Linux, so until I'm ready to purchase a new scanner, I'll keep Windows around for that. Incidentally, a little bit of online research will reveal plenty of choices of scanners that work fine under Linux.

2) Recording in Audacity - actually Audacity is working fine, it's just that my microphone, when plugged in, refuses to mute, so I get feedback from the speakers . . . and the only time I need the microphone is when recording in Audacity, so I just reboot into Windows for the time being. This is a problem with a definite solution . . . that I have yet to find. Grrr.

3) Gaming - Linux would play these games just fine if they were only written for linux. Grrr. There are several big 3d games available for linux, of course, but I've got a handful of Windows games already installed that I may still want to play (not that I've wanted to play them since switching, I'm just not ready to part with them yet).

Linux on the desktop is not for everyone, I'll be the first to admit. But it is definitely on par with Windows and Mac machines on most fronts [managing even to outpace Windows and Mac on many other fronts]. This is the only other downside I can think of: it isn't for everyone. If you are not a geek at heart and don't have a geek-on-call to "tend" to your Linux box from time to time, you might want to stick with another operating system. For the most part, Linux doesn't do hand-holding. [On this point, I should stress "For the most part," because there are several Linux distributions that do focus on the new Linux user] Oh, I just thought of another minor downside, and that is the negative press it seems to often get in the media (if it gets any press at all).

That's it. That's all the downsides I can think of. If you have used Linux or have an opinion or a question about Linux, go ahead and leave a comment. Maybe you can help me remember another downside? More to come -