I recently decided to switch from the very annoying Windows 10 operating system on one of my laptops, and replace it with Linux Ubuntu 18.10. I will mainly use that computer as a file server / media server, so I thought it would be an exciting and interesting experiment, and I can't be more than happy that I did, but here is the 7 biggest reasons why I did it:
- Linux actually respects my privacy, and privacy is very important to me. Also no Virus/malware/ransomware attacks. I never actually felt safe on Windows 10. Not even with Anti-virus software. And I got malware and virus even with anti-virus software installed. Windows could also be spying on you without you knowing it, and we don't really have a way to check. With Linux, you can look at the source code and find out exactly what it does. Maybe you don't understand how to do that, but there will always be people that will do, and will make a lot of noise if they find something malicious. Windows 10 is collecting a lot of your personal data, and will continue to do so even when told not to. Linux distributions do not have forced telemetry running in the background that take up system resources and slows down your computer, and send data back to a company. And if they ever want to collect data from you, they will always ask for your consent to do so.
- I get a lot out of old hardware with Linux. It's lighter weight and runs on more hardware. It uses less RAM. After booting, it only uses 1.3GB of RAM on my system! And that is with Ubuntu that is known to use more RAM than other distros. Compare that to my MacBook Air that almost consumes all my 8GB of RAM when running Mac OS... So it doesn't take up too many of my computer's resources, and everything is quite fast. A big difference from Windows 10, which often feels bloated, especially if you are using a computer or laptop from a major OEM. They love to add their own bloatware that makes the computer feel sluggish. After I installed Ubuntu 18.10 on my Acer laptop instead of Windows 10, I was actually shocked by how much faster and smoother everything was! The laptop has a SSD for the boot partition, quad-core Intel i5 processor and 8GB RAM, and I must say that it now feels like a monster machine! It has such excellent performance. And still totally quiet and not so much heat. Linux can definitely do magic with older hardware. My Acer laptop is not so old though, but Linux still made a huge difference.
- I can do a lot of stuff with linux: I can have a web server, file server, Cloud server, NAS, file manager, media server. I can use it for audio and music production with both free and commercial software like Bitwig Studio, Reaper, Ardour, Tracktion, FL Studio, Audacity, and many others. Same thing with video editing and production, there is a lot to choose from, like Lightworks, Kden Live, Blender and much more. Or of course I can use Linux as most user use their computers, surf the web and read emails if I want to. There is a lot of free and open source software out there too. There is also a software manager that you can open and search for software that you want to install with a couple of clicks. And it's all free. The package managers are one main benefit to Linux. It's all geared towards having a free and open source system.
- Customising/Beautification everything about your PC. I am not much for tweaking/tinkering the OS, but I can easily choose how I want my Linux operating system to look. If I want something that looks like a traditional Windows style desktop, I can do that. If I want something that looks like Mac OS, I can do that. If I want something truly unique, I can do that too.
- Linux is completely free. You can go to Ubuntu.com, download the free desktop iso, burn it to a flash drive, then boot from that flash drive and test it out without even installing it. And when you are happy how it works you can decide to install it easily too. As I said, Linux is free (Not just free as in free beer, but free as in free speech), and there are distros that only make use of open source software. That means that when there's a bug, it doesn't go unaddressed by the one company who controls all the code (as it usually does with Microsoft). The community can fix the problem itself.
- Linux powers the internet. Most servers are Linux, and it's extremely stable and functional as a desktop. So the reliability and stability of the OS is very high. You hardly never need to reboot the system. And it handles all application updates at the same time as updating the OS, and only updates when YOU want to.
- Learning Linux is fun and interesting! This is also a very important reason. It can easily be your new hobby. Even your new life. Thats how fun Linux really is.
Comments
Post a Comment