Linux vs Windows

This subject comes up every now and again. Nearly all the Linux detractors have no experience with Linux. On the other hand, nearly all Linux users, people who prefer Linux, once used Windows. That says something, doesn't it?

So, which is the best operating system? When the chips are down and the demands are high, undoubtedly Linux. How can I say that, you ask. There is a category of computers called super computers. They can often just be a great many computers working in parallel. Be that as it may, these computers can really compute, and fast, too. You can find the Top 500 of these computers on a site called, Top 500. The ten present top ones are on the front page. They've got names like Kraken, Jaguar and Roadrunner and are often used for research. Wikipedia also has a Top 500 entry. Now guess which operating system the top ten ones run? All Linux. In fact,supercomputers use Linux nearly exclusively. See the wikipedia supercomputer entry. Windows is like a flea on an elephant on the graph. Surely, this must mean something.

And, oh yes, most of the servers on the Internet run Linux. Netcraft just told me Google's servers run Linux. I know Yahoo runs FreeBSD - the cousin of Linux, just like the Mac OS. Why, I wonder?

I can see the Windows monkeys foaming around the mouth. They go on about software applications and hardware support and ease of use. Clearly, they are talking through their necks. I find both KDE and Gnome better desktop environments and easier to use than the Windows at work. Yes, you can choose one or more of several desktop environments for Linux. In Windows you are stuck with the default one. Updates on my Debian Lenny system are far preferable to what happens on this Windows machine. The Synaptic package manager is a dream. The ease of use thing is about ten years out of date. How Windows presents their file system hierarchy in Windows Explorer is just dreadful. It's so simple and elegant in the Linux file managers - again, you have a wide choice.

I'm sure there are a few applications one can't find for Linux, but they will be specialized, expensive packages. Most likely more than 80% of people now using Windows will be able to get along very well with what Linux has. I can download about 23,000 free packages from Synaptic. If Debian doesn't have it, I can compile it from free source code, like I did the other day for DropBox. DropBox is now on this Windows computer and my Linux machine at home, sharing files between the two as if the files were on the same machine.

I found installing Debian faster and easier than installing Windows. It picked up all my hardware and loaded the drivers into the kernel. Debian is not the first Linux distribution I've used. I've been on Linux for many years.

And then the killer: Linux is free. Windows costs big bucks. Add Office and an anti virus and a few other applications and the bucks stack up. Open Office for Linux is also free. And it reads Windows Office format files.

However, most people are still with Windows. That won't change until people in general become smarter. Don't hold your breath.

For anyone curious about Linux, give Mepis a go. You can download the image (.iso file), burn it to a CD as an image (not a picture image) and run it from the disk without upsetting anything on your computer. It will run slowly from the disk as your DVD/CD is much slower than your hard drive. If you have broadband it will immediately pick that up and you'll be on the Net.

Till next time.