Hello there! Many of us have been using the Windows OS (considering it's many versions), for a very long time. For some regions on the planet (especially where this post was written), Windows is the stereotypical OS for a computer. However, today we're going to see something which has been known to be the OS of servers and supercomputers, and can also be used in a PC like yours, Linux!
To be honest, I've been using windows for a very long time myself, and it is no doubt, a great OS. But there are many places where Windows sucks (bad)! On this post, I shall describe why I chose Linux over Windows, and how you, a Windows user, can move to Linux easily!
First, let's discuss the 7 reasons why I gave up Windows:-
1. Paying for almost everything... Even the office suite!
Windows is a proprietary software and is not freely available. You must have a product key (purchased) to run windows on any computer. Linux distros, on the other hand, are free to download and install.
It doesn't end at that. Now, you have to pay more to Microsoft in order to purchase a license to use MS Office! Any Office bundle is one of the most fundamental needs of a computer. It is, for a few users, the only need in a computer. Putting a hefty price tag on something like that, is kind of inhumane! Free office softwares, like OpenOffice and LibreOffice, which is the default office bundle on many of the Linux distros, serve nearly the same purpose and as already mentioned, you don't have to pay a dime!
2. Windows Updates
Yes, they do take eternity to install, they are huge (Gigabytes of them), they do not improve upon the system much (as claimed by Microsoft) and you cannot use you computer while an update it going on! This is probably the most important reason I had to move to Linux. And an update on Windows doesn't always mean, "A better computer", sometimes they completely f##k your systems up. The same cannot be held for an update in a Linux distro. All the updates are well measured, are properly scheduled and they fix certain bugs all the time. You can sometimes notice significant changes like, reduced memory usage, removal of bugs, etc., after an update. Ah, and you can work on the priceless spreadsheet or project while your system gets updated! :)
3. Viruses, Trojans, worms, spy-wares,... And Anti-Viruses!
You have faced this issue at least once in the time you have been using Windows. In fact, every user with a brand new Windows machine uses his/her computer with the everlasting fear of getting the system infected by a malware. Thus, we purchased an Anti-virus to fight such stuff, because Defender is super-incompetent in doing it's job? You must be able to operate a computer with freedom, not with fear. A Linux system is not susceptible to such vulnerabilities. It is the way Linux is designed, that makes it more secure. Thus, you save on anti-virus also.
4. Blue Screen of Death
BSoD is something you can face if you use Windows. Faulty drivers, incompatible DLL files, faulty memory, buggy softwares and incompatible hardware, can cause this error to occur. BSoD is point beyond which your computer can no longer operate safely. There are multiple solutions to this error, but the worst is a factory reset. This, however, is not the case with Linux systems. Errors can be manually handled and fixed without putting the system into a complete crash.
5. Slowing down over time
Many Windows computers tend to slow down over time. This can occur due to malwares, or faulty softwares on system. Also, the NTFS file systems Windows formats the hard drives into, need to be defragmented occasionally, in order to keep up the performance. Linux, formats the hard drives in ext4 which does not require defragmentation, and with less vulnerability to malwares, Linux systems do not tend to slow down over time.
6. New Windows require a better system
With every new windows version, you must be equipped with the best hardware available in date. Every new version comes in with new system requirements and for many, changing the system is not a super-feasible option due to various reasons. The issue magnifies with the removal of support for older versions. In case of Linux, your hardware shall never go obsolete. If the new version of the distro you were using is not compatible with your system, you can always switch to a lighter distro, and they arrive in packages requiring a memory as small as 250MB.
7. The same Windows, all the time
When you are on Windows, you do not have much of a choice when it comes to customization, and variety. You use the same interface, till a completely new version arrives, and there are not many options on selecting the UI. However, as a Linux user, you can choose amongst thousands of different distributions. If you are bored of one, you can always try another. You can customize each distro to the way you want and enjoy computing. If you are good at coding, you can always automate a few regular actions to be performed on a Linux computer.
One cannot say Linux is better because of the 7 reasons given above. These were the places where Windows could not satisfy my needs of a computer. However, there are multiple reasons why I choose Linux, and one of them is programming.
The Programmer's Paradise
Linux is the programmers' paradise. It comes in with a bundle of tools like Gedit and Vim for text editing, and a set of compilers which are extremely useful for programmers. These tools, were to be installed separately in Windows. I shall not say this was a shortcoming of Windows, as the OS was built to be used by a wide variety of users, many of whom are not programmers. The power of the BASH, and other tools, provide a perfect environment for programming.
We shall discuss more about Switching to Linux on the following posts on this blog. Please put your views about the post in the comments section below!
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