By Ean McDonald
First off, Windows is a great operating system for many people.
So in sharing why I really appreciate Linux, I want to be fair when I state things that I don’t like as much, about Windows.
Before I get into why Linux is amazing, I’ll cover a bit of what I don’t like in order to keep Linux humble so it doesn’t get a big head.
Linux is very segmented and partitioned. There are hundreds, if not thousands of projects, and some are thriving but many fall to the wayside. Unless a Linux operating system has a passionate group of developers that make progress as a labour of love, the Linux Distro (distribution) has to have a wide and thriving audience for it to be a stable option to use. Thankfully there are multiple large projects exactly like this to choose from.
Software compatibility isn’t guaranteed and if you’re looking in retail stores, there aren’t many programs that are listed as compatible. It makes sense that Microsoft doesn’t go out of its way to include Linux compatibility since they have Windows as their native environment to build in, but popular software suites like Adobe also don’t give Linux any attention. So there are programs that will tie people to Windows or Mac OS, or it means they’ll be looking at a whole new learning curve to figure out alternative software and workflow.
Now on to why I lean toward Linux.
Recently I downloaded my Windows updates, and Microsoft popped up a notification on the taskbar saying essentially, “Hey, check it out! We’ve re-enabled the search bar on your taskbar!”
It’s not a new feature. I had disabled it because I don’t use it, or want it taking up space, and they re-activated it as if it’s a new and amazing feature.
When you choose to make an alternate web browser like Firefox the default instead of Microsoft Edge, Windows pleads with you to give Edge another chance.
So one of my main annoyances with Windows is that it increasingly feels like the software is not mine to use as I wish. It’s a tiny, virtual embassy of Microsoft within my home, instead of the software I use to communicate with my computer to tell it what I need accomplished.
When using Linux it feels like choices are available and respected once made. There’s options in some software to send usage data to the developer of the program, but in most cases this can be turned off easily if that’s your preference. Windows, Mac OS, and many of our cell phones increasingly collect more data about us to sell to advertisers, and I’m really happy when one of my systems is more private.
Now to be fair to Windows, the main security flaw is merely how much market share Windows has. So Mac OS and Windows are targets because of how popular they are. For home computing, Linux only has around 3% of the market share and Windows and Mac essentially share the balance of the rest.
So there’s an argument to be made about how Linux would be more of a target for malware if it gains popularity, but even still one of the strengths of the Linux immune system is how many operating systems there are and the diversity of differences between them. If there’s a hooligan who develops malware to attack Linux, there’s a good chance that it would only affect a few operating systems, and because of how many people are observing development in these projects, the problem can usually be patched fairly quickly.
For people who don’t have as strong computer skills, Linux is fantastic because they can accidentally download malware while surfing online and in the vast majority of cases the software won’t be capable of installing on Linux since it’s designed for Windows. So if you know someone who just needs to access email, and some internet entertainment, Linux is going to be far superior in protecting them as they explore.
I mentioned before how Linux only holds 3% of the market-share (or less) for home computing. For enterprise use, Linux takes much of the market-share. Linux is appreciated on web servers and storage servers because it has amazing uptime thanks to how the updates can mostly be applied without shutting the system down to reboot.
Linux also runs very light and is easy on system resources, so servers have more power to devote to what they’re supposed to be doing.
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