I’m a pretty avid on-line reader, and I usually set aside a few hours on a weekend day to just surf some of my bookmarked sites, and read up on what is going on in the world of Technology. Just now, I came across a QOTD article on Tom’s Hardware asking “Have you replaced Windows with Linux?”. Right off the bat, I knew there would be some varied and interesting comments, as well as a nice dosage of FUD mixed in.

As I read through some of the comments, I was really quite surprised at some of what I was reading. I expected some negativity, but what really surprised me was a sheer amount of ignorance. I naturally assumed that Tom’s Hardware readers would be somewhat more educated in areas of actually loading an Operating System and getting drivers and such installed – I mean, it *is* a site dedicated to the hardware enthusiast that builds their own computers – but yet this same crowd went on an on about having to load a driver for a piece of hardware in Linux after the OS is installed, and touted that as a reason that Linux isn’t ready?!? Perhaps I was wrong – perhaps that isn’t the demographic of that site at all…or perhaps people are just ignorant and unwilling to try (and I mean actually try) something new. People for some reason tend to think Linux is supposed to be a drop-in replacement for Windows, and should work the same, even though it is a very different Operating System, and requires a different set of skills to admin a box. Oddly, people seem to accept this fact when dealing with  Mac OS X, but just don’t “get it” when it comes to Linux for some reason. The other surprise was the number of positive comments from users who had made the switch, and even offers of help an advice for some who tried and failed. (You’ve got to love the amount of genuinely nice and helpful people in the world of Open Source).

The first rule of being successful in running Linux – accept the fact that Linux is Linux, and not Windows. It is different, and you will have to learn some new skills. Sorry, but that’s a feature, not a bug

I will say firmly that most Linux distributions are neither harder to install (probably easier) nor harder to use (probably equal) to Windows (any version since 2000). I think the biggest problem is that a huge majority of folks who have *only* used Windows are just simply spoiled by the fact that the OEM that built their machine not only loaded the Operating System, but installed all of the needed drivers, and most of the applications. They simply don’t understand that by simply doing a clean install of a major Linux distribution, far more is going to be recognized (hardware) out of the box than with any version of Windows. Heck, with Windows, you are lucky to get working Ethernet without first loading a driver. Even when building a machine, and have to load drivers, there are always CD’s that come with your hardware that contain the (probably outdated) drivers for your hardware, so you just run that one CD, install everything, reboot and your are good. It simply goes back to the fact that Linux is different. Not “better”, not “worse”, just different in this regard.

As a whole most of the major (and popular) Linux distributions do a great job of having everything configured and ready to go right after install. Even in regards to video cards. If you have Intel video, for the most part you are golden – 3D and all, but even if you have Nvidia or ATI, the Open Source drivers are great for 2D (not true in Windows – everything is painful until you load drivers), and you only need the proprietary drivers for 3D and other advanced features. In fact, right now on my Fedora 11 Preview install, I (for the first time ever) haven’t installed the non-free Nvidia drivers – I’m running the Nouveau driver which is loaded by default. Why? I don’t run dual-head on this box, I don’t play games, and I don’t use Compiz (I like Metacity Cheerios, thank you very much). In other words, I don’t need the Nvidia provided drivers, and I’m enjoying the freedom and flexibility of using my distro provided drivers. It makes for a very different experience (no worries about updates or upgrades breaking X for example).

Personally, I don’t believe the FUD about Linux netbooks being returned more than Windows based models either. I have a friend and co-worker that recently purchased an Ubuntu powered Dell Mini 9. He is an “Open Source Virgin” so to speak – in fact, he doesn’t even run Firefox on his Windows machines – he’s IE all the way baby! He does, however love his Mini, and he likes Ubuntu. No, he jumped into it to the extent a “Linux guy” would have, but it plays his music, he can surf the web, load pictures – basically, he can do whatever he wants, and it just works…the Operating System simply didn’t matter. I have another co-worker, who has an older machine. Ironically, even though he is a PC Tech (and yes I gave him a hard time about this), his PC was infected by a good bit of spyware and malware. As a passing joke, I told him, “just load Linux and be done – don’t fuss w/ it any more”… He came back from lunch that day, PC in tow and asked me to help him load Ubuntu. That was 3 weeks ago, and he’s still running it – and even went through the 8.10-9.04 upgrade on his own. He loves it! Why? He had help going through the initial install, basic instructions on how to install applications (such as use the package manger and not surf the web looking for “installers”), and he has built-in support since I told him he could call me if he needed help…he hasn’t called yet though.

Dell has done a great job of supporting Open Source by offering their line of Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux powered machines (Netbooks, Notebooks, Desktops, Workstations and Servers), and now HP has followed suit by offering Novell’s Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop on a new line of business oriented Notebooks. Also, Toshiba is selling Notebooks preloaded with Open Solaris. We need more large hardware OEM’s like these guys to get into the game, and give the average consumer a Linux/Unix experience equal to the Windows experience, and we could easily see more widespread adoption. We also need those same OEM’s to do a little better job of marketing and advertising those Open Source models, and making them more visible in the marketplace.

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them!

There are all kinds of computer users. On one end of the spectrum, there are folks that just want their MySpace and iTunes, and on the other end there are folks like me who really dig computers - they are a hobby, they are (possibly) a career, and most importantly they are a passion.

Even in the latter category there is often division. You will run into “Computer Guys” who define themselves as “Mac Guys”, or “PC/MS/Windows Guys” or “Linux/UNIX Guys” (or Gals in all 3 cases ).

I just enjoy computers. I enjoy interacting with a machine and making it do something, and I enjoy exploring different systems to see what makes them work, and learning how to make different systems interact with each other. I do enjoy the Linux experience more simply because I can be involved in it. I can test new stuff, file bug reports, send the developer of an application an e-mail, communicate with other Linux users on mailing lists, web forums and IRC chat-rooms. I can help a new Linux user get started, or help an experienced user figure out that really weird error they’re getting. This part of it is the “hobby” for me. Recently I’ve also been getting interested in OpenSolaris, running it in a Virtual Machine. It looks really interesting, and like Linux is an open community and I’m very interested to see where it goes in the future. In short, I simply like the Open Source way of doing things. You can see what’s under the hood, and a community of people, who likely have never met in person can collaborate over the Internet and create something that is used and enjoyed by millions of people (apparently the number of Ubuntu users has now risen to 8 million and growing).

I am blessed to be able to use all three major “desktop platforms” every day. I have my “Home-Grown” Ubuntu desktop at home, my Dell Precision Workstation running Vista at work and I have a MacBook Pro that I’m able to use as well. The odd thing is, between all three Operating Systems, as different (or similar) as they may be, I can use many of the same applications. For example, on all three machines I have OpenOffice.org, Firefox, VirtualBox, GIMP, VIM, and probably something obvious I’m forgetting. There is also the aspect of “Cloud Computing”, and I use Gmail.com for my email and Google Reader to manage my RSS feeds and this very blog is hosted on WordPress.com, which in turn uses Amazon S3 to host media. It seems every day we are getting to the point to where it will not matter what Operating System you are using. What will matter most are the applications installed (or better yet, if it has internet access), and many of those applications, thanks to the Open Source community will be the very same Applications across all of the platforms. I haven’t even touched on the mega-smartphone craze! Man the iPhone and T-Mobile G1 “Google Phone” can in effect be computers in themselves!

Yet another open source project, WINE breaks those barriers down even further by allowing Windows applications to run on Linux/UNIX and even the Mac. Also, all three of the major desktop virtualization applications (VMware Workstation/Fusion, Parallels Desktop and VirtualBox) allow some sort of “unity” or “seamless” mode where the applications virutalized in the VM can be integrated directly onto the host machine’s desktop.

At work, I’m in the middle of a new Citrix XenApp deployment which will allow my Mac using remote employee the same access to the same proprietary Windows applications as his Windows using colleague. I could also fire up a Linux desktop, install the Citrix client, and again access the same applications.

Every year someone predicts “This will be the year of Linux on the Desktop”. Well, every year that hasn’t come to be, but since Dell first started offering Ubuntu systems pre-installed on their website, it’s been getting closer. The “netbook” craze has helped expose Linux to many people who have never heard of Linux (and many that still don’t even know they are running Linux). Lenovo was offering Thinkpads with Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop pre-installed, and Dell offers Precision Workstations with Red Hat Enterprise Linux as well. Wal-Mart has even made a couple of attempts at Linux Powered Desktops. Linux on the desktop is going strong, slowly but surely, but what I’m really waiting for is “The year of Open Source on the Desktop”, and the day that the OS no longer matters!