Jeremy Heslop

I was inspired by a blog post about “Why Do You Use Linux” to post why I use Linux and I wanted to post how I use one of the best operating systems out there as well. First off if you are not familiar of what Linux is you can read up about it at wikipedia, but basically it is an operating system like Windows and Mac OSX that allows you to interface with the hardware and software on your computer system. Each operating system has its pluses and minuses. I’ll give you my take on what those are bust first I’ll give you some background.

I’ve been using Linux since around 1999 for both personal and professional reasons. I’ve always liked to tinker with computers as it is more than just a job for me. It’s fun. What isn’t fun is having to reboot every 10 minutes and having no clue why something like that is happening. It’s like having a car that is sputtering smoke and your not allowed to look under the hood. Fortunately in Linux everything is available under the hood. File locked? check it with lsof, network slow? view all the traffic with wireshark, running out of memory? use free or a large amount of other free and open source software that is at your disposal. So here are the main reasons why I use Linux:

1. Freedom: no vendor lock-in, open source code
2. Stability: I have client servers that have been running for over a year. ’nuff said
3. Security: never have to worry about virus’ again, plus built from the ground up to be a secure OS
4. Efficiency: Can run on small devices (Kindle anyone?) as well as a full desktop PC or server
5. Choice: I’m not forced into candy XP, glassy Vista or keechy OSX I have a multitude of choices from KDE, Gnome, XFCE, e17 and more great desktop environments. Not to mention the thousands of other programs I can use.

And those are just 5 of the reasons of why I use Linux. If you want to try this out you can download a “Live CD” that allows you to boot from a CD to run Linux and not touch mess with the system you are on right now, but I must warn you you might be tempted to click on the install now button because it is nice!

I’ll write another post on How I use Linux, but this should get anyone who has not heard of Linux interested.

Until next time. Linux on!