Friday, September 19, 2008

Why Linux?

The next big question that you would ask me is why Linux is for all? And why all should be for Linux? For one answer, the combined effort of several million similarly thinking people cannot be for a wrong reason. The number of developers who are today working on Linux based development is too high to ignore. The vision with which these people are working is quite clear, stop paying for something which you can use for free. Just look at the number of Linux distributions that are available today, totally free of cost.

Well, the free and freedom of Linux comes at a cost of relearning a few things. For one, the Linux desktop would be a puzzle to anyone who has used a Win**** based desktop for even a week. But then who ever said that free things are as good as the ones you pay for? Trade off convenience for relearning and pretty soon you should be sailing smoothly with Linux. Yes, even now the amount of support that Linux provides for the peripherals that you connect to the PC is low. But that is because the manufacturers of the peripherals are not willing to invest in writing software/drivers for Linux also along with Win**** drivers. In fact most manufacturers do not even provide information to the open source developers so that the Linux equivalent can be developed without adding cost to the manufacturer. Till this changes, using Linux as a simple plug-and-play desktop would be little difficult.

So this is where the more experienced and mature Linux users have to pitch in to spread the word about Linux and also teach as many people as possible on how to use Linux without fear. Yes, fear is the key that keeps away people from several things like sky-diving, bungee-jumping and Linux. But once the initial fears are gone, you enjoy to the core. Reminds me of a old rock song by the group Queen, "I want to break free...". But not while bungee-jumping!

So, face your fears and take the initial steps. I'm sure you would walk and talk Linux sooner than later.