Adrian Hayter’s Blog

The MyBB IRC channel (#mybb) is prone to a lot of idle banter between it’s members when we are not helping people solve their MyBB problems.

Today was one such day. It all started with a simple argument between MiNT, georgia_tech_swagger, Snake, and myself against Matt. Matt is a Windows Vista user who is basically Microsoft in annoying boy form. He thinks Microsoft is invincible and the best thing since sliced bread. He has little experience with Linux, and the one time he did use it he complained non stop about not being able to use it properly.

So the argument was essentially a load of Linux users (with the exception of Snake, however he does know a lot about it) trying to put the point across that Linux was a better system, and that Microsoft were evil. At one point Matt tried to convince us that the Zune was invincible and that Linux couldn’t be installed on it, but a few quick searches found that to be false as well.

Eventually, he left, and Snake posed an interesting challenge:

(17:31:45) Snake: we should make a list of why linux is better then windows

…and so it began.

1) Linux is free.
2) Linux is faster (another IRC user, tmhai, was astounded earlier today at how his laptop booted in under 30 seconds with Ubuntu, compared to the 30 minutes it took Windows to boot on it).
3) Linux is Open Source (which means bugs and security holes are found and fixed quicker).
4) With Linux, you own your Operating System. With Microsoft Windows, you don’t actually “own” the Operating System, you simply have a license that says you can use it. Every installation of Windows is owned by Microsoft.
5) Linux has better support. This is debatable, but there are a lot of community forums out there, and usually errors in Linux are much more readable than Windows errors, which leads to quicker solutions.
6) Most Linux distros come with some form of package manager, a utility that installs safe and secure programs, and then updates them automatically.
7) Most Linux distros release daily updates of core files, as well as updates for programs.
8) Most Linux distros release their next version every 6 months without fail. So instead of waiting an uncertain amount of time for the next Windows release, you know exactly when the next version of your OS will be out.
9) Linux has a better command line interface. Using the command line can be a bit daunting if coming from a Windows environment, but you will soon learn how to use it, and about the advantages of this way of doing things.
10) Linux has a better interface. It doesn’t matter if you are using Gnome, KDE, or some other desktop environment, it is way better than what Windows has to offer.
11) Linux has programs that can access practically every file type ever invented.
12) With a bit of configuring, it can run programs made intended for Windows. Today I managed to get Max Payne 2 running in wine after I earlier managed to get Direct X running).
13) The only viruses / spyware you get are by installing them yourself.

The only things we came up with that Windows has over Linux is the Driver support, and the support for third party applications.

Hopefully though, these will improve for Linux as it takes a more active role in today’s computing.

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