osmosys8
May 29th, 2010, 11:39 AM
I used to be a die hard Windows guy. For years I loved playing all my favorite games, and I was totally into all the different applications I ran, and my very first computer I ever bought myself ran windows 98.
A little bit after that some of my friends started talking to me about this "Linux" thing. I had no idea what it was but it sounded neat so I gave it a try. I forget what distro I tried first, but it was probably Debian or Redhat. Now this was probably ten years ago, and Linux back then was very difficult for a novice to deal with.
I remember spending hours dealing with the command prompt (I rarely used it in windows), and learning all kinds of things that I never had to know before. What's a repository? Why do I have to install these module things? Why do I have to put a password in before I install something? Etc etc etc.
Eventually I gave up. At the time I was a Windows repair technician (laugh) and I figured Linux was just some overly difficult die hard operating system that only super dorks liked to used (at the time this was partially true).
Anyway the years passed, and Linux got a lot better. I mean a LOT better, and needing to branch my skill set out I went and filled in all the gaps in my knowledge of Linux and got my RHCT. It was right around the time that I finished this cert off that I really started to enjoy the operating system far far more than Windows.
I liked Redhat, but it seemed just like a server centric distro, so I opted for Fedora, but when I learned about Ubuntu I never looked back.
I was running a killer installation of Ubuntu on my laptop and applying my new skills - computing like never before. If I had a problem I just Googled it, and 95% of the time the solution was on a forum with a handful of steps. WOW. Talk about easy. There were a few quirks (ones that in my opinion block it from really becoming mainstream), but I was good enough to get past these without too much hassle.
Sadly my Ubuntu laptop died, and unemployed I couldn't afford a replacement. I had to keep XP on my other laptop because I was studying active directory (ugh), and it was more convenient. Eventually, I got a spyware infection my XP laptop browsing a fairly benign looking site. It was incredibly annoying, and even with all the stupid fixit tools I knew about I couldn't get my system quite right.
AND WHY DID I GET SPYWARE? Because *doze lets any stupid executable run without permission! There's brain damage in the windows API. I don't know the specifics but I knew enough about Linux to be outraged at this poorly designed piece of ****.
UGH
I decided if I wanted to learn anything else about Active Directory I would do so in vmware in Linux (lol), and I backed up all my data and WIPED XP for the the last time! (knock on wood)
I don't care if windows 7 might be better than XP I don't feel like spending tons of money on an upgrade that might be **** also. They owe me! I should get it for free!
I used to hate entering a password in to run software. Now I feel re-assured every time I do it because it means that the system is aware that something is changing (it beats UAC lol). I used to hate putting weird repos into the repo file, but now I love it because it's so easy to update all my software with a single command (lol). I used to hate the odd names of the directory structure in Linux, but once I learned that this structure is semi constant through Unix, OSX, and Linux, I grew to love the consistency. Unlike Windows which changes the basic structure over and over for no real reason (other than they keep doing it wrong). I used to hate using the command line until I learned that it's incredibly useful, and if you put the time in you can do almost anything way faster than using a gui. I used to hate setting networking things up manually, but Linux challenged me to actually learn how basic networking works, and how this can be done via command line instead of clicking some dumb thing and hoping it works. I used to hate having to understand what a kernel was, and that I had to update it, and compile it, but now I think it's awesome and convenient to get an instant kernel update when a flaw comes out, and easily roll back in the grub boot loader if there's a problem.
Overall the things I hated about Linux became the very reasons I would love Linux, and it taught me that Microsoft really stunted my inquisitiveness and made me complacent.
However, Ubuntu Linux still isn't perfect. I'm worried they are releasing updates too fast, and not paying attention to quality assurance. I've this odd issue lately where my left click on my mouse dies, and I have to restart X windows to get it back - despite all keyboard commands working. Game support ain't great (but now that consoles dominate gaming this is becoming more and more a moot point. That and I have a windows desktop for that anyway).
I've learned to deal with wine, and gotten even the bitchiest programs to run (and contributed to the wine community with QA reports yay I'm a wannabee developer now). It's better than nothing, but I wish all these programs were native. Although the list of wine apps I run is shrinking more and more.
I love Open Office. It beats *cough* getting *cough* Microsoft Office somehow. I also love all the other cool free tools. Not all work well, but for the price they can't be beat.
The real thing I like is the feeling of security using Linux. In windows I always felt like it was just waiting to get owned somehow (and I did), but in Ubuntu I feel that while I can still get owned the odds are much much lower. Maybe one of the big reasons is because most people that hack into windows are Linux users themselves, so they leave Linux alone as a professional courtesy (lol).
Some of the Linux nerds still come off as arrogant, and annoying (god been to defcon? ack!) but I've made my peace with them.
I see Linux as being what computing could be. It's like a whisper flowing through the tech world. A promise that computing can be better than what most people experience every day. In some ways OS X is already this, but I like my Linux more.
In a perfect world all the big players would give native Linux binaries for their applications. All the hardware people would have Linux drivers available, and all the cool new gadgets would just work with Linux.
This probably will never happen though. If there's no money in it for them they have little reason to care. Although the silver lining is that a lot of big players hate Microsoft so much that they give stuff out anyway (that and there are some real business reasons to have an alternative going). Also, I imagine there are a lot of Linux nerds at all the rival Microsoft companies that love porting stuff in their spare time (god bless them).
I hope that my writeup didn't sound overly dogmatic, or anti-windows. Microsoft has some great products, and for years I loved using them, and I will still do so at work, but they have lost me in my private life. I'm getting older, and gaming just isn't interesting anymore. Now all my tasks revolve around being creative or learning.
I'll end it on this note. The final thing that made me leave Windows was the fact that I felt no sense of community from it. It's incredibly ironic that an operating system with 90% or so market cap left me with no feeling that I was connected to anything. For all the time I spent using their operating system I always felt like I was missing something. I felt that it insulted my intelligence, and that everything was decided for me by some arrogant policeman in Redmond. I got no sense of satisfaction learning anything from it. Everything I learned was just to get short term gratification, and was subject to some major overhaul with each subsequent release of Windows. I was renting their operating system, and subject to eviction for remodeling every three years.
It's totally different in Linux. When I learn something I really learn something. Not just a new way to shift an ever changing gui around. And when I ask the community something I get an answer that makes sense, not some weird childish misinformed, "I really know nothing but neither does anyone here", kind of answer.
Sure there's a bunch of jerk Linux nerds on the forums and IRC, but this has changed a lot since the 90's. I bet a lot of them wish they could bring it back to the old days when they were in on Linux before it was cool. Back when they would freeze 95 boxes with a single command, and compile every little piece of the operating system by hand, and brag about it. But to hell with them! Linux is slowly going mainstream whether they like it or not. And this is a good thing!
I'm not a typical computer nerd. Sure I'm a big giant dork in a lot of ways, but me becoming a convert may represent a huge symbolic shift for Linux. I'm on the cusp of nerdyness in many ways, and my entry marks what I see as a larger conversion for many (one that's been going on slowly for years now).
So bring more driver support! More native applications! More quality assurance! And to hell with gaming anyway, leave games to the consoles they belong on!
// A linux convert... cheers!
:guitar:
A little bit after that some of my friends started talking to me about this "Linux" thing. I had no idea what it was but it sounded neat so I gave it a try. I forget what distro I tried first, but it was probably Debian or Redhat. Now this was probably ten years ago, and Linux back then was very difficult for a novice to deal with.
I remember spending hours dealing with the command prompt (I rarely used it in windows), and learning all kinds of things that I never had to know before. What's a repository? Why do I have to install these module things? Why do I have to put a password in before I install something? Etc etc etc.
Eventually I gave up. At the time I was a Windows repair technician (laugh) and I figured Linux was just some overly difficult die hard operating system that only super dorks liked to used (at the time this was partially true).
Anyway the years passed, and Linux got a lot better. I mean a LOT better, and needing to branch my skill set out I went and filled in all the gaps in my knowledge of Linux and got my RHCT. It was right around the time that I finished this cert off that I really started to enjoy the operating system far far more than Windows.
I liked Redhat, but it seemed just like a server centric distro, so I opted for Fedora, but when I learned about Ubuntu I never looked back.
I was running a killer installation of Ubuntu on my laptop and applying my new skills - computing like never before. If I had a problem I just Googled it, and 95% of the time the solution was on a forum with a handful of steps. WOW. Talk about easy. There were a few quirks (ones that in my opinion block it from really becoming mainstream), but I was good enough to get past these without too much hassle.
Sadly my Ubuntu laptop died, and unemployed I couldn't afford a replacement. I had to keep XP on my other laptop because I was studying active directory (ugh), and it was more convenient. Eventually, I got a spyware infection my XP laptop browsing a fairly benign looking site. It was incredibly annoying, and even with all the stupid fixit tools I knew about I couldn't get my system quite right.
AND WHY DID I GET SPYWARE? Because *doze lets any stupid executable run without permission! There's brain damage in the windows API. I don't know the specifics but I knew enough about Linux to be outraged at this poorly designed piece of ****.
UGH
I decided if I wanted to learn anything else about Active Directory I would do so in vmware in Linux (lol), and I backed up all my data and WIPED XP for the the last time! (knock on wood)
I don't care if windows 7 might be better than XP I don't feel like spending tons of money on an upgrade that might be **** also. They owe me! I should get it for free!
I used to hate entering a password in to run software. Now I feel re-assured every time I do it because it means that the system is aware that something is changing (it beats UAC lol). I used to hate putting weird repos into the repo file, but now I love it because it's so easy to update all my software with a single command (lol). I used to hate the odd names of the directory structure in Linux, but once I learned that this structure is semi constant through Unix, OSX, and Linux, I grew to love the consistency. Unlike Windows which changes the basic structure over and over for no real reason (other than they keep doing it wrong). I used to hate using the command line until I learned that it's incredibly useful, and if you put the time in you can do almost anything way faster than using a gui. I used to hate setting networking things up manually, but Linux challenged me to actually learn how basic networking works, and how this can be done via command line instead of clicking some dumb thing and hoping it works. I used to hate having to understand what a kernel was, and that I had to update it, and compile it, but now I think it's awesome and convenient to get an instant kernel update when a flaw comes out, and easily roll back in the grub boot loader if there's a problem.
Overall the things I hated about Linux became the very reasons I would love Linux, and it taught me that Microsoft really stunted my inquisitiveness and made me complacent.
However, Ubuntu Linux still isn't perfect. I'm worried they are releasing updates too fast, and not paying attention to quality assurance. I've this odd issue lately where my left click on my mouse dies, and I have to restart X windows to get it back - despite all keyboard commands working. Game support ain't great (but now that consoles dominate gaming this is becoming more and more a moot point. That and I have a windows desktop for that anyway).
I've learned to deal with wine, and gotten even the bitchiest programs to run (and contributed to the wine community with QA reports yay I'm a wannabee developer now). It's better than nothing, but I wish all these programs were native. Although the list of wine apps I run is shrinking more and more.
I love Open Office. It beats *cough* getting *cough* Microsoft Office somehow. I also love all the other cool free tools. Not all work well, but for the price they can't be beat.
The real thing I like is the feeling of security using Linux. In windows I always felt like it was just waiting to get owned somehow (and I did), but in Ubuntu I feel that while I can still get owned the odds are much much lower. Maybe one of the big reasons is because most people that hack into windows are Linux users themselves, so they leave Linux alone as a professional courtesy (lol).
Some of the Linux nerds still come off as arrogant, and annoying (god been to defcon? ack!) but I've made my peace with them.
I see Linux as being what computing could be. It's like a whisper flowing through the tech world. A promise that computing can be better than what most people experience every day. In some ways OS X is already this, but I like my Linux more.
In a perfect world all the big players would give native Linux binaries for their applications. All the hardware people would have Linux drivers available, and all the cool new gadgets would just work with Linux.
This probably will never happen though. If there's no money in it for them they have little reason to care. Although the silver lining is that a lot of big players hate Microsoft so much that they give stuff out anyway (that and there are some real business reasons to have an alternative going). Also, I imagine there are a lot of Linux nerds at all the rival Microsoft companies that love porting stuff in their spare time (god bless them).
I hope that my writeup didn't sound overly dogmatic, or anti-windows. Microsoft has some great products, and for years I loved using them, and I will still do so at work, but they have lost me in my private life. I'm getting older, and gaming just isn't interesting anymore. Now all my tasks revolve around being creative or learning.
I'll end it on this note. The final thing that made me leave Windows was the fact that I felt no sense of community from it. It's incredibly ironic that an operating system with 90% or so market cap left me with no feeling that I was connected to anything. For all the time I spent using their operating system I always felt like I was missing something. I felt that it insulted my intelligence, and that everything was decided for me by some arrogant policeman in Redmond. I got no sense of satisfaction learning anything from it. Everything I learned was just to get short term gratification, and was subject to some major overhaul with each subsequent release of Windows. I was renting their operating system, and subject to eviction for remodeling every three years.
It's totally different in Linux. When I learn something I really learn something. Not just a new way to shift an ever changing gui around. And when I ask the community something I get an answer that makes sense, not some weird childish misinformed, "I really know nothing but neither does anyone here", kind of answer.
Sure there's a bunch of jerk Linux nerds on the forums and IRC, but this has changed a lot since the 90's. I bet a lot of them wish they could bring it back to the old days when they were in on Linux before it was cool. Back when they would freeze 95 boxes with a single command, and compile every little piece of the operating system by hand, and brag about it. But to hell with them! Linux is slowly going mainstream whether they like it or not. And this is a good thing!
I'm not a typical computer nerd. Sure I'm a big giant dork in a lot of ways, but me becoming a convert may represent a huge symbolic shift for Linux. I'm on the cusp of nerdyness in many ways, and my entry marks what I see as a larger conversion for many (one that's been going on slowly for years now).
So bring more driver support! More native applications! More quality assurance! And to hell with gaming anyway, leave games to the consoles they belong on!
// A linux convert... cheers!
:guitar: