Hey there. It's my first time on #dev.to community.
The reason why I wrote this blog is to let you all get a glimpse of why using a free and open source operating system is always better for people in the tech domain and also to break some myths about Linux. I have changed as a full-time Linux user a year ago and haven't looked back since.
Operating Systems have always been a fascination to me and I've tried a variety of the same from Macintosh System 1 through MS-DOS to latest version of BSD Unix.The following are some genuine reasons why I switched to Linux as my fulltime operating system.
Reason 1: Updates
Updates are a way of getting the brightest and greatest features and tools to stands out from the crowd. But if we have no control over it, it can break and disrupt your workflow.
Linux stands out in delivering timely stable updates and gives users a choice of either to download it or not so that you can have total control of your updates.
In Linux what's good to see is you could always select what to update and what not. This is very useful when we have limited memory and we only need to update security patches.
Linux selective update
Now when we compare with other operating systems it's not the same. There is little flexibility with updates. Another plus point of Linux is that you can change and swap any new feature and integrate it into your existing configuration. It may not be a single click but you always have that option as well.
Reason 2: Resource Usage
Most proprietary operating systems have their core designed in such a way that the OS can be used only if you have a decent system specification.
Since the internals like the kernel is so lite some (thousand LOC), you could bake up your customized Linux version which only uses RAM of around 400Mb....great right! Think about it, even your smartphone uses around 1.5Gb of ram on average.
Memory Usage
This ultimately translates to the fact that you could run more apps and scripts with the limited specification.
Reason 3: Best for Developers
Linux is and will remain the best ecosystem without debate for developers of the fact that it comes prebuilt with a plethora of suites and apps for the sole purpose of software development and because of the FOSS community that it is backed up by.
Another thing to consider for developers is because sources can be compiled and executed on Linux much faster.
Package management also plays a key role in making the TUX special for hardcore devs. One could selectively add or remove any packages at will. This is a more flexible way of getting things done much faster and be more productive at work.
😎 Cool Fact : The above statements can be backed up by the fact that the top 500 supercomputers run on Linux and most cloud servers are powered by the TUX.
Reason 4: Get to solve real problems
It is greatly accepted that Linux is much harder for a newbie, it has changed to some extent but deep down it is the same. Linux was intentionally designed so that one can know the ins and outs of the computer system whether it's the software or the kernel interacting with the hardware.
To use Linux full-time or as your primary OS especially for a newbie is tough due to various reasons. For example, in some distribution,you need to write hardware-specific drivers for WiFi, Audio and such basic things. This might look very complex but once you get the hang of it you could solve bigger problems.
Linux is a great way of gaining some troubleshooting experience. It may give up on you but you have the power to always bring it back up if you are willing to do so!.
Reason 5: You have the ultimate control
It's not Apple or Microsoft or even Canonical that are controlling you. You are your 😎 Boss when it comes to Linux even if it's backed up by any MNC.
You have the supreme authority to have all permissions to edit any files as per your liking. File permissions are an entirely humongous topic when it comes to Linux. You can practice, understand and benefit a lot by knowing file permissions.
Know more about Linux file permissions: WikiArchlinux
The whole firewall, VPN, SSH and every other aspect of the network can also be controlled at will.
Reason 6: Endless Customization
Back in the days when Linux was young and tender, one might look at it and say: "An unfriendly dirty command-line O.S!".
Mind you!..those days are long gone.You can have pre-built beautifull linux distributions like Deepin, Elementary, Endless OS etc.. which are very much 21st century and a visual treat.Moreover since you are your own boss here,you could try out different desktop environments(layouts) or a window manager in th same system and select the best that suites you for different moods.You could have:
- Gnome
- KDE
- Unity
- Cinnamon
- XFCE
- LXDE
- Mate
- Budgie
- LxQt
- Enlightment
- Deepin
- Pantheon and many many more...
Tried all and don't like any? - Build your own desktop environemt
Customization of UI doesn't mean that you can only change the theme, fonts, icons, lock screen only. You could change the window buttons, you don't like the taskbar, you could change that as well. You could even change the boot-loader background or logo to say your dog's picture. The options are endless as long as your imaginations don't.
Note: You could emulate the looks of MacOS or Windows if you are that sort of person.
Windows 10 Theme for Linux: Original Soucrce
Mac Theme for Linux: Original Post
Reason 7: Free, Open Source and Privacy oriented
Other than a minute percentage of apps and OS vendors, the whole Linux operating systems and apps are open source and free to use and distribute. This makes it a joy for people like me to test out the best apps and OSs out there and to get inspired.
With the non-open source nature of other OS, it's not clear what's under the hood. The level of transparency even though is documented, but we can't see it. We don't know what all data are being collected but with Linux we know what are dealing with if we are willing to dig deep.
See source code of linux: Linux Repo
You might argue that then why I am using Google. For that my reply is: " Prepare for the worst! and Expect the best!."
Reason 8: Better immunity to viruses
" Virus?.......I don't know you well!" -🐧 TUX says
It's a myth that Linux is immune to viruses. Any computer which is attached to a network is prone to threads and so does Linux. But the risk here is much less when we compare it with the likes of other operating systems because of Linux's Permissions.
The best thing about Linux is that you could always open a virus infected USB from other operating systems and even Linux binaries with malicious code can be copied to your file-system as long as you don't execute or give it necessary permissions, you're OK.
Trade-Offs
Even though Linux is great for many things, it falls short when it comes to the following things.
- Support
- Since Linux is open sourced, not every distribution will get customer support like a Windows or Mac. This is true and will remain so for years to come until and unless Microsoft or Apple make their own Linux distros. Hey..why bother when you are your Boss..the responsibility is on you!
- Drivers
- Linux won't automatically install all drivers for you. For instance, my laptop the Acer Swift 3 comes with a fingerprint sensor (vendor- EgisTec). Windows has the driver for the sensor but EgisTec doesn't provide any Linux drivers or source. So now I have to figure out a way to build a driver for the sensor without any source.It seems tough going! and It is.... but I love it.
-
Games
- Gaming is an area of heated debates between Linux and Windows fans. One might say Linux supports games through Wine Emulation or you could always use Steam. But it is not practical everywhere.
- Even though ProtonDB , Lutris and PlayOnLinux are worth a try, but it’s felt quite buggy and unstable for the long run and even the setup is pretty tiresome. Trust me I’ve gone through the chaotic crashes.
- But things will change since cloud gaming is the future where we don’t rely much on hardware or software but the network only.
- Windows and Mac-specific application
- One of the main reasons why every professional cannot switch into Linux is due to the proprietary application suites like MS Office, Adobe etc..they use for their work which is not available on Linux. Even though alternatives are available for Office productivity, image manipulation, and video editing. The Windows and Mac counterparts are much better.
Folks that's the end of this blog. I hope you like it and feel free to contact me.
Oldest comments (57)
I love Linux, but in work I need stable affinity studio apps, and I really don't have time to even test how it works, maybe someone tested it?
Yah true. As I mentioned studio apps and work specific apps are situations were #Linux is a no-go.
This is one of the best articles I've read here on Dev, in the last few months. Thank you!
Thank you @sm0ke . Appreciate it.
Nice article!
I've been working with Ubuntu since 16.04 (I only use LTS versions) and it is my main OS. Before Linux, I used Windows 7 and macOS and can agree with you about performance. We have a monolith system and the startup is 50% faster than macOS. And building an android app on Linux is really fast too.
Cheers to Linux. Appreciate your feedback @jchrisos
Ever since I ditched Windows, I have so fallen in love with Linux.
To be honest, it makes me feel cool 😎 as a coder. But the best part is whenever I step into my terminal, I feel like I have superpowers, cause I could do a whole lot there.
That's the real fun.
I don't know when you made the move, but Powershell is incredibly powerful and Object Oriented. The only drawback is the fact that it's more verbose than bash (which is imho better for writing scripts, but less convenients for short one liners) but it's a really good shell.
The new windows terminal is also shaping up to be pretty good.
So really you can have superpowers with the terminal in windows, it's just that most windows users don't bother to learn Powershell.
It's not about the shell at all. Window in simple term frozen with B.O.D several times, forced updates and all those chaos. True, Powershell is so powerful and even PowerPoint from Microsoft is so powerful that you could literally do programming URL with it. I love some Microsoft stuffs but not Windows 10. That's all.
Sure, I was specifically replying to John's comment about his favorite part of Linux being his terminal (I edited my comment to make it clearer).
I'm not trying to start a "Linux vs Windows" argument ;-)
You have a point. Cheers.
It make sense in every way to develop most types of softwares using Linux because, it's the bleeding edge for programming.
Though you could use Windows or Mac OS too. But learning a platform like Linux will help you good in the long run.
😄, Nice, But
Windowsis very user friendly. The UI is very easy to use. Many enterprise usesWindowsfor development. Does anyone useLinuxin work ?This question depends on several things, like the type of firm you work in, the projects you work on and also the region. Most system administrators, networking engineers, devops guyz and cool startups prefers to use Linux as their main OS since it make real sense to develop stuff in a system [local linux] to deploy in the server [server linux].
Do checkout OS like Pop!_OS , Zorin or Linux-mint and tell me how the UI feels.
Says who? As someone said earlier, you would probably benefit a lot from not making as many assumptions about others.
Stack overflow's annual developer survey, which probably is as close as we'll get to the truth, tells a different story:
They might use windows ...I don't know but more often than not they are SSH into a linux shell. So in some sense they use linux for work more than Windows even though in reality they are stuck in Windows. Do note stackoverflow is not the entirety. And by the way things are turning around.
Thanks for the feedback.
Putty is not Linux Shell. Also Powershell does allow SSH support through WSL if that's what you meant. Windows may not be useful for many reasons but a lot of reasons explained here mostly reiterated or rehashed by recent convertee being sold on typical benefits. In reality the customer to which we are selling the products can't even use Google Spreadsheet properly selling them anything outside Microsoft Office is pain.
It's the way the society is built. That they can't leave without it. By the way I didn't meant putty as such rather all the other services like GCP,HEROKU and everything. You have a point though. But in the start of the article I wrote why it's best for people in the tech domain.
I'm no R programming expert, but just try to run a R script with 10000 print statements in Windows and the same thing in Linux and let me know.
Thanks for you comments
I already have run R and other data science tools on Linux. In fact I am one of the Ubuntu nerds you may find me in comment section. Why ubuntu? Because I find it easy to train Clients to use it compared to say KaliLinux or ArchLinux to a slow Windows user who asks me how to press Print button on New version of Office 2019.
I am in no way anti-linux camp. It's just that lately I have been seeing the "anti windows" articles and the toning has been such that Microsoft is out to get you. That dinosaur age is long gone, Bill gates is retired, all the aged Tech giants who were strong capitalists have been put down by the Communists in tech. Windows has made ammends with Linux and UNIX and hence the WSL birth. The toxic vibe from the Linux to Windows needs to low down is what I feel. That's why I feel the migration from Windows towards Linux should be done on case by case basis and not to put every tom.dick and harry to Linux who will literally struggle in some cases.
My 2 cents.
Hmmm... in some way that is the true. I agree.
No Rob. It's not about talent here. I would rate me as an average guy in the tech world. But the important thing here is that you all are so fixated on either Mac or on Windows from your childhood that your mind refuses to learn something entirely different. In-fact the Mac OS terminal is as useful as the Linux terminal because, Mac is Unix based.
In a real world scenario, it would be like taking 100 push-ups a day. Everybody could do this if they practice for a month but only few do it sincerely for the long run and they get all the benefits.
It's no nice to hear a genuine feedback from user like you.
Yah..I know preferences and all. Different people like different things. But I don't find myself sitting on Windows anyone. I'm fed up that's all. I like Mac OS very much. It's user-friendly as well as productive.
In the past, using i3 on Arch Linux, I had a fast booting system with complete GUI support in under 150 MB of RAM used :) 400 is already a lot here.
Most user don't like to use a window manger like i3. The screenshot was from Bodhi liunx/ Openbox I guess...I don't remember. Though true in every sense we can even create an alpine build with tiling wm which uses about 80mb ram. Yes even 400mb is a lot in Linux terms.
The possibilities are endless.
That what I love about it and sometimes hate it also. Which one is better i3 or awesome?(interm of performance). Curious why you use i3.
I have no experience with Awesome, but I had a friend that used it. i3 seems simpler to set up and Awesome seems more powerful to tweak. After that. both would use sub-1% of CPU at most, and everything feels instant.
Cool.
A gread read 🔥
I love how Lenovo recently decided to ship all their PC/Laptops with Ubuntu 20 LTS, it will be a major push if people start adopting it.
Great. Is that so? I love to own a better Linux supporting laptop. Currently I use an Acer Swift-3.
I think this may take time, you can read it here
Cool. Great new. Fingers crossed.