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Chances are, you’ve all used a personal computer that runs the Windows operating system,
but how many of you have actually used Linux?
If you look at the market share of operating systems for PCs over the last few years you’ll
see that Windows totally dominates the market.
It’s been that way pretty much since Windows came on the scene in 1985.
The word Microsoft became a household name and synonymous with both home computers and
operating systems.
In January 2019, Windows had just over an 88 percent market share.
Apple’s Mac operating system is next, with just over 9 percent of the share and after
that comes Linux, with just a tiny share.
What might surprise you, though, is perhaps this shouldn’t really be the case.
We are not going to bother explaining to you what the Windows OS is, that would be almost
condescending.
You’ve all used it, and many of you probably loved the XP version, hated Vista and Windows
ME and probably weren’t too fond of Windows 8.
When Microsoft released Windows 10 it said this was the last in the line of totally new
versions, it would be updated forever more.
The point is, we’ve likely all gotten used to Windows.
Using Windows is as familiar to most people as opening a window in your home.
It’s that familiarity, and of course the fact that it comes pre-installed on many PCs
you buy, that prevents some people from crossing over the scary waters of OS change towards
the little-known island of Linux.
For those of you who don’t know what Linux is, you can actually just go to the Linux
official website and the company answers that question for you.
We’ve done the reading, so we’ll paraphrase what the company said.
First of all, Linux tells us you probably do use Linux but just don’t know about it.
This is just one sentence from its grand opening paragraph, “It’s in your phones, in your
cars, in your refrigerators, your Roku devices.
It runs most of the Internet, the supercomputers making scientific breakthroughs, and the world's
stock exchanges.”
It’s also just a regular operating system for your PC.
The operating system, which most people just initialize to OS, is like the brain of the
machine.
Without it the machine is pretty much useless.
We don’t need to tell you that these systems can be very complex and we imagine most of
you wouldn’t be confident enough to say you know exactly everything you can do with
your Windows OS.
That’s one reason people stick with what they know, because moving to a different OS
is like finding yourself in a totally new environment.
You have to learn the laws of a new virtual jungle, which can be exciting but also a bit
frustrating at times.
But get this, you can install Linux on your computer for nothing.
Yes, it is absolutely free.
Installing a Linux server is also free.
This is what you need when you have a network of people that need serving.
It isn’t free if you need Windows server OS though.
Linux makes a big deal about this, and rightly so.
Who doesn’t like “free”?
Linux also says its server is so easy to run that anyone could do it.
Ok, so the next big point when discussing Linux is the fact it is distributed under
an open source license.
Hmm, what does this mean?
Well, basically you can do whatever you want with your OS, which is great for many folks
since they enjoy the fact they can study exactly how it works and make a change.
Imagine you were not into a Windows feature and then thought ok, I can do this better,
I’ll just rewrite the code and add something.
Linux lets you do this.
Linux also notes these two things, that users have “The freedom to redistribute copies
so you can help your neighbour.”
People also have “The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others.”
This is why Linux users like to say they are part of a community.
A common phrase is it is an OS that is run by the people for the people.
The same way you can tinker under the hood of a car, Linux lets you see what’s inside.
Some folks like to get under the hood, that’s just their nature.
Linux really works for these people.
So this is starting to sound too good to be true.
An easy-to-use free OS, that doesn’t break much, and one you can alter and fiddle with
and improve.
Anything else?
Yes, in fact there is.
Linux has a lot of versions to choose from, but the company calls them “distributions.”
So, you have quite a few choices of how you want your OS to work and what your desktop
will look like.
When we say a few, we actually means hundreds if not thousands.
Some are more popular than others, and if you so choose you can opt for a version that
is pretty close to Windows in look and feel.
If you like the Apple Mac OS, there is a Linux distribution that tries to mirror that.
Another major point is that Linux is less vulnerable to attacks than Windows.
Who’s had a virus before?
What about some particularly hard to remove malware?
Who’s been hit so hard they felt like taking a hammer to their blue screen of death?
Now, you might be thinking, wait a minute here, if Linux is basically an open system
surely it must be more vulnerable to attacks?
Well, we are told by the security experts that Linux is actually harder to gain access
to, so fewer files can be corrupted.
It’s a long story, but the way Linux is designed makes it less likely to suffer from
viruses.
It can happen, but it happens a lot less than on the average computer running Windows.
Of course there is also the fact that Windows is way more popular so of course that’s
the system people want to hack.
We are also told that running a Linux OS requires less power, so in other words you could run
the system on an older computer.
So, it’s reliable, easy to run, allows you to choose from many distributions, allow developers
to fiddle around, and is free.
So, c’mon, there must be a downside because hardly anyone in the world uses it compared
to Windows.
Something just doesn’t add up here.
Well, Windows being so huge means it has much more software you can run on it.
There are thousands of programs you can run on Linux for free, and you can even get Windows
software on Linux.
With a bit of effort you can even have your beloved Microsoft Word running on your Linux
machine.
But all in all, Windows offers a much wider variety of software.
What about the hardware supporting the software?
Well, it’s said in the past you might have trouble getting Linux on a machine, but that
is a thing of the past.
Most machines you can buy today should be able to run Linux without issue.
Enough of the expert commentary though, let’s see what the real people who have switched
from Windows to Linux say.
The most popular comment on one Reddit thread was, “At the end of the day, the Linux community
wants to make software, and Microsoft wants to make money.
When those goals are opposed, Linux becomes the better choice.”
In fact, a lot of the people who now use Linux say they are very happy they made the change,
and mostly for the reasons we have talked about today.
Another person wrote: “updates not bugging you, it’s faster, no spyware, runs well
on older machines, tons of variety, and penguins, he likes the penguins.”
Another person wrote, “It is free, as in freedom.
No stupid licenses that tell you that you can use your computer the way you want it.
You're free to use it for any purpose, change it, redistribute it and to distribute the
changes you make.
It is software that is useful for society.”
We didn’t see many negative comments for Linux, but one person said when it comes to
gaming Windows is better as the games are designed to run on Windows.
He also said that as Windows 10 is the entire deal, Microsoft is focused on making it the
perfect environment.
It’s coherent, he said, whereas the Linux world is massive and for some people that
could be confusing.
Actually, when it comes to Linux and gaming you can find many forums with people arguing
about this.
This is what one very popular gaming website said, “Yes, Linux is a decent operating
system for gaming, especially since the number of Linux-compatible games is increasing due
to Valve’s SteamOS being based on Linux.
However, we would still advise anyone who doesn’t need any of the advanced features
that Linux has to offer to stick with Windows due to its ease of use and fewer compatibility
issues with games.”
So, with all this positivity being spoken about Linux why is its market share not even
two percent?
You can read tech websites where the real computer nerds talk about this, and you will
see people saying that Linux really should be ascending faster than it is.
But actually, one developer said what we have just said, in that Linux is just too fragmented.
He also just said the obvious in that it just hasn’t gained momentum yet, and well, Microsoft
has a PR machine that’s virtually unstoppable.
This is not to say, however, that Windows is bad.
Not at all, and Windows 10 has been for the most part very well received.
And as we said at the beginning, Windows has been part of people’s lives for many years.
People know what they are working with, and even though Linux offers similar alternatives
a lot of people don’t want to make the effort to change.
There is also the case that for a long time people haven’t gone over to Linux because
they thought it was only for people who know a lot about computers.
That using it might take some amount of computer savvy.
There is no doubt that people will have do some learning as we said already you are entering
a different jungle, but no, you don’t have to be a computer science major to use a Linux
computer.
That said, some people just don’t want to have to learn something new.
And on top of that, if a computer comes with a pre-installed version of Windows and it
works well enough, why on Earth would they go through the effort to change?
No matter which you choose - Windows, Linux, or even a different OS altogether, one threat
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