muddysmind.com

Isn't Now the Time to Try a Linux Desktop?

Many of you know I'm a huge Open Source advocate. If not you know now. For me personally the reason I stopped using Windoze was due to cost. I'm a lower middle class working stiff supporting a family, mortgage, car, credit cards, and other debts with no room to spare for 199$ software that is total junk and chalk full of security holes. So I wanted to stop wasting money and use something else, something better, something free.
Yes, free is a good thing. A very good thing when we're talking Open Source software. For those that don't know what Open Source is, it's software created by a person or persons made for the "community" and free for anyone to use and edit pending that those who edit it include the original source code for others to also tweak and make better.

Sound confusing?

It's not really. Take this story/example.

"You hear about this new car with this fancy new engine from a company called Microengine. This engine puts out mind blowing horse power, has ultra smooth shifting and blah, blah, blah... so you go buy this car.
You get the car and when you get home to pop the hood to check out this awesome new engine, you can't. The hood is sealed and your not allowed to look at it, you can't even work on it. If you need the oil changed or the air filter you have to call Microengine, for everything.
Then you drive it for a while and find it's got some problems, so you call the dealership, they tell you to call Microengine. They tell you there is a team working on that fix but it won't be ready for six months, or you can purchase the new version to fix your problems.
You also find out the new version is no different from the old, plus it costs half as much as the car did.
You find that sometimes while driving the engine stops, for no reason.
Pulling over and restarting the car is all you can do, you call Microengine who built the engine and they tell you to restart the car when that happens.
Then you get bills from Microengine who made the engine telling you that the license you agreed to when you bought the car has run out and now you must renew your right to use their engine.

You think, there must be something better.

Your friend tells you about this group of mechanics who work on engines in their spare time and make engines for free.
Free? Yea he says the engine is faster, cleaner and has far more torque than your old engine that came with your car. Plus it never just stops with no reason. You can also change your own oil, or even upgrade the engine with the tools the mechanics gave you to make it faster and powerful to tow that new boat you bought now that you don't have to pay Microengine

Plus a local group of these engine owners meet at a local community center every night of the week so if you ever need help you can talk to a real person instead of a phone directory."

This may not be the best example, but I think it gets the point across. :-)

Now Isn't Now the Time to Try a Linux Desktop?

Posted by Muddy at July 11, 2004 01:06 PM | TrackBack