Goodbye Microsoft
Welcome Linux.
This weekend I finally went ahead and did something that I've been wanting to do for years but have been largely afraid of - switch away from Windows and move to Linux as my operating system.
I chose Ubuntu 8.04, also named "Hardy Heron".
My experience thus far has been interesting, for sure. First of all, I went entirely cold turkey; I backed up all my stuff from my Windows installation, then rebooted with the Ubuntu CD, and did a fresh install on the entire disk, completely wiping Windows in the process.
I've played with linux quite a bit in my past, as a server administrator too. But I hadn't in years and I'd forgotten the vast majority of everything about it. I felt a sense of loss; over the years I've developed a healthy amount of intimate knowledge of Windows, and my understanding of Linux is quite limited in comparison. I was nervous and anxious the entire time Linux was reformatting my drive and preparing the OS.
First of all, I want to say this: for a typical "internet/office" user, this works perfectly out of the box. In fact, I'd say it is noticeably easier to install Ubuntu than it is Windows, takes less time, and the OS comes up much more "ready to play" than Windows does. The folks at Canonical have done a pretty good job at hiding much of the behind the scenes, and my laptop came up in a completely functional state in terms of the ability to browse, use office apps, run media files etc. No, actually; the latter did require that I use "add/remove programs" to install the restricted extras, but that was about it. A typical Windows installation requires you to add office, an anti-virus program, a decent browser (assuming you don't want to use IE, and I presume you don't), and a whole slew of updates.
But then I screwed it up. Badly. And I'm not entirely sure if what I've been encountering is that unusual.
The first major culprit was Ximeta's Netdisk, of which I have two at home. These were designed for the home user, with the assumption of Windows. Unfortunately, they also had all my backups, and I had to access those backups to get all my documents and files. I poked around and finally managed to piece together a working plan based on some information available online.
It was the first sign of things to come; what Linux hobbyists consider "perfectly easy to follow instructions" are terribly confusing to a Windows person. The reason is simple; Windows stuff generally does a really good job of taking care of the details. Canonical did this well with the installtion of Ubuntu itself, but this still leaves the rest of the open-source world at large. The instructions I found, while seemingly perfectly reasonable, made a huge amount of hidden assumptions (i.e. that folks will actually read all of them instead of, say, cut&pasting the proposed code), required the command line, and had no troubleshooting in case something went wrong. Which it did.
I ended up hosing the kernel a bit, because in my frustration I used the "-o force" switch to get the NetDisk stuff to compile. This worked fine, except that now every time I tried to do anything else there were these irrecoverable errors. Now, in Windows I know how to fix this sort of thing, but not in Linux; it became so frustrating that I was almost in tears (and about to reinstall the OS from scratch) before I remembered that Linux is different in that you can always rebuild portions of the kernel if you need to. So I used "add/remove programs" again, which took out the offending kernel piece, then recompiled, and all started working well again. But it was jarring. And it still isn't working as well. For example, I can't see the disks over wireless. I have no idea how to go about fixing this problem, but in my old Windows box, this sort of issue never came up.
KVM - the virtual machine manager - hosed me for another couple of hours. I tried building a VM based on some other instructions I found, and lost my network connectivity. I tried remembering how I used to troubleshoot these sorts of things when I managed Linux boxen, and good ol netstat and route and all those came back up, but I knew I was getting lost. Finally I managed to collect enough information to suggest that the bridged interface black-holed my routing table (I enjoyed saying that), and removed it from fstab, and restarted networking, and all was well. Now, with full honesty, can anyone really imagine a typical Windows user even making sense of the last paragraph? Oh, and thank god for Virtualbox.
Getting my fingerprint reader to work was easier, but it's still not functioning as I would like it to. That is, in the logon screen it still requires me to enter my username. I'll figure it out. Also, battery management is gone, and the laptop won't suspend when I close the screen. There are in fact a host of small issues like these that I still need to resolve. But it's obviously a question of OEM makers; if Lenovo sold my X61s with Ubuntu pre-installed, I'd have all of this stuff running out of the box.
Evolution will take getting used to, coming from Eudora. But it works just fine, and in fact was a lot easier to configure than Eudora, with built-in POP3 and SMTP SSL support to access gmail. It works well enough and for an Outlook user, it will be instantly and completely familiar. Compiz desktop cube is cute. I can't wait to spring this on my Windows friends, just for kicks. Fonts are too big for me right now, and I am trying to find out how to tweak this and a bunch of other look-and-feel issues, but I know they are tweakable. In other words, there's that dreaded learning curve, and I'm learning.
Oh, Open Office has sure come a long way. Last time I tried it - when v2 just came out - it was simply not up to par with MS Office. Let me tell you something. I've used Office 2007 for a few months now, and I just had to create a new work document on Open Office. The latter is simply better. It makes more sense, it doesn't try to tell you how to do things, it's significantly faster, and provides a more enjoyable work environment. I applaud Sun for getting it to this stage.
And regardless of what anybody says, command line is still necessary. You can't avoid it, really. Now, I know lots of folks look at this as the "big bad negative" as far as Linux goes, but it really isn't; there is nothing more challenging in using the command line than in typing a URL into a browser.
No, the main difference is in the general approach. Windows has always been a "single user" OS - you buy the PC, you're the only one using it (more or less). Linux has always assumed multiple users. So while in Windows you consider everything on the same plane - if something is messed up, it can be the OS or the program or the user input or the format of the file - in Linux the OS is generally completely separate, a program can function entirely fine for one user and not for another, and things operate much more strictly within their boundaries. It's a mindset. But it has a very subtle but very strong impact on your behavior; I find myself repeatedly having to chant to myself "the OS is fine, it's just something stupid I did" and "I don't need to fix the registry" as I try to troubleshoot problems.
In other words, Windows lets you believe everything's great trying its best to compensate for your shenanigans, inevitably compromising its own integrity in the process. It works great and makes life easy for you, until it melts down. Linux, on the other hand, holds you accountable all the time; it won't allow you to mess yourself up unless you are truly determined (and knowledgeble). But it means you will constantly have to watch your behavior, and we all know how much we all enjoy that.
So should you switch? yes, if you are willing to adopt a learning curve. I'm not sure about whether it will save you much money*, but it will - eventually - make life easier (no wasted disk space, no critical failures, no defragmentation needed, no constant deterioratio in performance, no anti-virus/anti-malware sucking up your CPU time, quick reboots... the list goes on). Ubuntu Hardy Heron is sufficiently evolved for a regular, GUI-trained, desktop user. But a learning curve is there, and you will have to say hi to the command line occasionally.
* I say this because most folks don't pay for their Windows software. It's true. Cracks and stuff are quite rampant. Then again, think about this: all the software you ever wanted for free - legitimately. No more worrying about the software police. No more having to find suspicous cracks through even more suspicious bittorrents. Makes you think, doesn't it?
This weekend I finally went ahead and did something that I've been wanting to do for years but have been largely afraid of - switch away from Windows and move to Linux as my operating system.
I chose Ubuntu 8.04, also named "Hardy Heron".
My experience thus far has been interesting, for sure. First of all, I went entirely cold turkey; I backed up all my stuff from my Windows installation, then rebooted with the Ubuntu CD, and did a fresh install on the entire disk, completely wiping Windows in the process.
I've played with linux quite a bit in my past, as a server administrator too. But I hadn't in years and I'd forgotten the vast majority of everything about it. I felt a sense of loss; over the years I've developed a healthy amount of intimate knowledge of Windows, and my understanding of Linux is quite limited in comparison. I was nervous and anxious the entire time Linux was reformatting my drive and preparing the OS.
First of all, I want to say this: for a typical "internet/office" user, this works perfectly out of the box. In fact, I'd say it is noticeably easier to install Ubuntu than it is Windows, takes less time, and the OS comes up much more "ready to play" than Windows does. The folks at Canonical have done a pretty good job at hiding much of the behind the scenes, and my laptop came up in a completely functional state in terms of the ability to browse, use office apps, run media files etc. No, actually; the latter did require that I use "add/remove programs" to install the restricted extras, but that was about it. A typical Windows installation requires you to add office, an anti-virus program, a decent browser (assuming you don't want to use IE, and I presume you don't), and a whole slew of updates.
But then I screwed it up. Badly. And I'm not entirely sure if what I've been encountering is that unusual.
The first major culprit was Ximeta's Netdisk, of which I have two at home. These were designed for the home user, with the assumption of Windows. Unfortunately, they also had all my backups, and I had to access those backups to get all my documents and files. I poked around and finally managed to piece together a working plan based on some information available online.
It was the first sign of things to come; what Linux hobbyists consider "perfectly easy to follow instructions" are terribly confusing to a Windows person. The reason is simple; Windows stuff generally does a really good job of taking care of the details. Canonical did this well with the installtion of Ubuntu itself, but this still leaves the rest of the open-source world at large. The instructions I found, while seemingly perfectly reasonable, made a huge amount of hidden assumptions (i.e. that folks will actually read all of them instead of, say, cut&pasting the proposed code), required the command line, and had no troubleshooting in case something went wrong. Which it did.
I ended up hosing the kernel a bit, because in my frustration I used the "-o force" switch to get the NetDisk stuff to compile. This worked fine, except that now every time I tried to do anything else there were these irrecoverable errors. Now, in Windows I know how to fix this sort of thing, but not in Linux; it became so frustrating that I was almost in tears (and about to reinstall the OS from scratch) before I remembered that Linux is different in that you can always rebuild portions of the kernel if you need to. So I used "add/remove programs" again, which took out the offending kernel piece, then recompiled, and all started working well again. But it was jarring. And it still isn't working as well. For example, I can't see the disks over wireless. I have no idea how to go about fixing this problem, but in my old Windows box, this sort of issue never came up.
KVM - the virtual machine manager - hosed me for another couple of hours. I tried building a VM based on some other instructions I found, and lost my network connectivity. I tried remembering how I used to troubleshoot these sorts of things when I managed Linux boxen, and good ol netstat and route and all those came back up, but I knew I was getting lost. Finally I managed to collect enough information to suggest that the bridged interface black-holed my routing table (I enjoyed saying that), and removed it from fstab, and restarted networking, and all was well. Now, with full honesty, can anyone really imagine a typical Windows user even making sense of the last paragraph? Oh, and thank god for Virtualbox.
Getting my fingerprint reader to work was easier, but it's still not functioning as I would like it to. That is, in the logon screen it still requires me to enter my username. I'll figure it out. Also, battery management is gone, and the laptop won't suspend when I close the screen. There are in fact a host of small issues like these that I still need to resolve. But it's obviously a question of OEM makers; if Lenovo sold my X61s with Ubuntu pre-installed, I'd have all of this stuff running out of the box.
Evolution will take getting used to, coming from Eudora. But it works just fine, and in fact was a lot easier to configure than Eudora, with built-in POP3 and SMTP SSL support to access gmail. It works well enough and for an Outlook user, it will be instantly and completely familiar. Compiz desktop cube is cute. I can't wait to spring this on my Windows friends, just for kicks. Fonts are too big for me right now, and I am trying to find out how to tweak this and a bunch of other look-and-feel issues, but I know they are tweakable. In other words, there's that dreaded learning curve, and I'm learning.
Oh, Open Office has sure come a long way. Last time I tried it - when v2 just came out - it was simply not up to par with MS Office. Let me tell you something. I've used Office 2007 for a few months now, and I just had to create a new work document on Open Office. The latter is simply better. It makes more sense, it doesn't try to tell you how to do things, it's significantly faster, and provides a more enjoyable work environment. I applaud Sun for getting it to this stage.
And regardless of what anybody says, command line is still necessary. You can't avoid it, really. Now, I know lots of folks look at this as the "big bad negative" as far as Linux goes, but it really isn't; there is nothing more challenging in using the command line than in typing a URL into a browser.
No, the main difference is in the general approach. Windows has always been a "single user" OS - you buy the PC, you're the only one using it (more or less). Linux has always assumed multiple users. So while in Windows you consider everything on the same plane - if something is messed up, it can be the OS or the program or the user input or the format of the file - in Linux the OS is generally completely separate, a program can function entirely fine for one user and not for another, and things operate much more strictly within their boundaries. It's a mindset. But it has a very subtle but very strong impact on your behavior; I find myself repeatedly having to chant to myself "the OS is fine, it's just something stupid I did" and "I don't need to fix the registry" as I try to troubleshoot problems.
In other words, Windows lets you believe everything's great trying its best to compensate for your shenanigans, inevitably compromising its own integrity in the process. It works great and makes life easy for you, until it melts down. Linux, on the other hand, holds you accountable all the time; it won't allow you to mess yourself up unless you are truly determined (and knowledgeble). But it means you will constantly have to watch your behavior, and we all know how much we all enjoy that.
So should you switch? yes, if you are willing to adopt a learning curve. I'm not sure about whether it will save you much money*, but it will - eventually - make life easier (no wasted disk space, no critical failures, no defragmentation needed, no constant deterioratio in performance, no anti-virus/anti-malware sucking up your CPU time, quick reboots... the list goes on). Ubuntu Hardy Heron is sufficiently evolved for a regular, GUI-trained, desktop user. But a learning curve is there, and you will have to say hi to the command line occasionally.
* I say this because most folks don't pay for their Windows software. It's true. Cracks and stuff are quite rampant. Then again, think about this: all the software you ever wanted for free - legitimately. No more worrying about the software police. No more having to find suspicous cracks through even more suspicious bittorrents. Makes you think, doesn't it?
posted by Blinkered at 5:56 PM
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