You Don’t Need Windows To See The Light
I have a confession to make. My Windows loyalty is wavering. For years I have been a dedicated Windows user but now the line in the sand isn’t as clear as it once was.
Windows has always treated me well and provided me with all (well most) of the tools that I need in my daily computing. Sure the usual shortcomings of the operating system bugged me. I’ve had my fair share of instability issues, incompatibility issues and just plain stupid errors that make no sense (like a rundll error every time I try to delete an mpg file). But the thing that kept me loyal was that the alternatives just weren’t substitutes.
I like Mac OS X and Leopard really interested me. My biggest problem with Macs and the Apple philosophy is that you pay for everything. You pay for the hardware because it’s just too tricky to make the software work on anything other than official hardware (slowly becoming less of an issue because of the Intel revolution). You pay for the software because once you’ve paid $3000-$4000 for your hardware you show you have deep enough pockets to afford another couple of hundred on software. And you pay for support because if you can’t drag and drop you need an expert. Sure Mac OS is a finely tuned, well made operating system. Everything is easy to do and simplicity is the key. There is no clutter that there is with Windows. But you MUST pay. This doesn’t quite work for me because for years and years of computing I have essentially paid nothing.
So the next logical step is to open the door to open source software. I have played with Linux before and each experience has been worse than the one preceding it. Lets face it, most Linux users have a dual boot setup even if the primarily use Linux so the experience can’t be THAT good. Sure, the software is free, readily accessible and can do everything that closed source software can do but it’s just not the same. There is only one Office. There is only one Photoshop. There is only one …
I decided a few weeks back to push the boundaries a little and I have been sweetly surprised. I installed kubuntu (intrepid ibex) on my laptop and I must say that it is fantastic. It runs quickly and with a smoothness my laptop hasn’t seen since a fresh install of XP (stupid Vista!) and the look and feel is comforting. There are still the quirky Linux features which will take a little getting used to but on the whole the experience is great. Open Office shatters all my preconceived ideas on MS Office alternatives - by actually being a viable alternative. And KMail blew my socks off. Despite my initial inklings, I am enjoying the fact that each application I use is a separate application and not an intermingled mess clever marketing men call a ’suite’.
Under Windows, I would use Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) to use my desktop remotely and that was a big feature that I didn’t want to lose. Well to my great surprise, with rdesktop and krdc (which come as standard in kubuntu) I can still use remote desktop without any third party applications on the desktop.
I think the feature of Linux which I am finding so liberating is that it allows me to decide the direction of my computing. I am not restricted by someone else’s ideas or decisions as to how I should compute. I am free to (and encouraged to) change, alter and customise everything. If I don’t like something, I’ll change it - rather than the Windows approach of getting used to it.
Only time will tell how my allegiances will change but watch out Windows - something BIG is coming!
