Thread: Linux mythbusting

There are a lot of Linux myths floating around, and by and large, it is one of the most misunderstood operating systems around. Linux is not better than Windows. No one can claim that Linux is faster or Windows is faster. There is a threshold speed at which computer users can operate a system, to start offwith and you real¬ly cannot go beyond that. Though it is true that Windows uses far more system resources than a Linux distribution, Linux simply does not do everything that a Windows system does. Games are just a starting point, although KDE or XFCE are elegant desktop environments, they really is no free desktop environment that comes close to what Windows Vista's Aero or OS X's Aqua'have to offer. It is true that Linux can be used to effectively salvage an old computer, you wont be able to do too much with it. For example, advanced operations on Gimp will be much slower on an old com¬puter, and many desktop environments and distros simply'will not run on anything less than 256 MB of RAM, which is supposedly one of the greatest plus points of Linux. The transition from Windows to Linux is not smooth at all, no matter what you might have heard. OpenOffice.org has as much feature bloat as' Microsoft Office, and there are many subtle changes in the behavior of these office suites that will definitely reduce productivity after taking the plunge. Moreover, it is simply not true that Gimp or OpenOffice.org come anywhere close to the functionality of the latest releases of Photoshop and MS Office.

Another big myth is that Linux is free. There are a lot of Free distributions available, but many of them charge for support (even popular ones like Ubuntu, Mandriva and SUSE have commercial interests), and the more functional and feature rich distros have to be purchased. Because of the way the Linux kernel itself is licensed, the source code will always be provided with such distros, and you can do what you want with them. While taking a corporate decision to switch to Linux, considerations such as the time taken to adjust to Linux, train employees, and the reduction in productivity in the interim period have to be considered.



Linux is not for geeks only anymore, and the lay man can use it, but all the good things abo~t Linux are beyond the scope of the lay user. The best example of this is the open source code, most users of Linux will not know what to do with it, and will never want to know either. InstalliJ;lg, using and finding applications are no longer difficult in Linux, but they are not as easy as doing the same for Windows either.
Linux is not entirely bug free, and there are as many obscure pop-ups and system error messages as Windows. Linux also crashes pretty frequently, and such moments can be extremely frustrating and stop a beginner from sticking at it.

A Linux installation, when inexdpertly handled, can mess up your hard drive. Even if your data is ~acked up, you might see a portion of your hard drive mysteriously disappear after you have installed Linux and then go back to Windows. On a day to day basis, your computer technician will begin to hate you if you install Linux then call him for help. More true for your ISP provider, who might be as confused as you are in case you run into connectivity problems. Installing codecs on your Linux distribution is notoriously difficult, and although a lot of support is available on forums across the Internet, they are so tech¬nical in appearance, that it is enough to scare a new user away. You absolutely need an Internet connection for installing most software, because of the way the dependencies have to be resolved in almost every distro available. Most importantly, don't expect to work on Linux without getting down and dirty with it, that is going into the command line, tweaking around with root access (which can really mess up your system) or basically being ready to learn a bit and get deeper into the heart of computing.

There needs to be at least a small techie in your heart for you to flirt with Linux, despite what anyone claims. Linux still has a long way to go before it can be at par with the latest releases of Windows or Mac as, and Trovalds is taking his own sweet time making everyone wait for Linux 3.0. That said, it is not that difficult a thing to handle, and at times can be a very rewarding experience. So, lets start getting down and dirty.