Why I use a Linux Computer

I originally built my computer in 2007, using what then were decent reasonably up to date components. However I didn’t want to pay for Microsoft Windows, a platform that I had been working with off an on since Version 3.0 some 27 years ago. As a computer geek, and not wanting to spend several hundred dollars for an operating environment I didn’t particularly like, since it would have been Windows XP anyway….. That would have required several large hardware upgrades along the way.

I remembered using Linux before, when operating systems came on a whole series of diskettes, I at one time had the 10 or so disks for Windows 3.1 and the 20 or so for OS/2 and I think Slackware which came in at 15 or so. So in building my computer I downloaded a couple of new Linux versions, Ubuntu and Fedora. I later settled on Fedora, most likely Fedora 8 (Werewolf), it’s currently running Fedora 27, which is the latest release, and still runs fine on my decade old hardware. Yes it has had a memory upgrade from 2GB to 4GB, the original on-board video chip was updated to a more modern video card, and it’s originally 150GB hard drive, was upgraded to a 512GB and then a 1TB drive. It had some case fans added, and an upgrade to the CPU cooler.

So why not a Mac? There is nothing a Mac can do, that this machine can’t, except maybe run some Microsoft software, where there are just as good, if not better alternatives. For photography there are some heavyweights, like GIMP. There are also for old computer guys like me amazing visual libraries like ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick, for programmers to be able to build software modules, while these modules are often available for Mac and Windows, the software that ties them together is more complex and harder to use. Where Linux which is a variation on the theme of Unix makes these tools much easier to use.

In the early days, there was a lot of hardware that would not work, and many of the installers were horrible, but this has all changed in the 20 years or so, since I first saw Linux. Most hardware works out of the box, even a Microsoft Webcam that I have worked out of the box. Installers are much nicer now, with much of the installation process being automatic, it’s not uncommon for a machine to boot into the installer, then install everything and reboot into the completed OS at the end. If you have an older computer, and Windows will not run on it anymore, try Linux; you might like it.

A4400202A

This weeks image is a cropped version of one from 2014 of a Red Wing Blackbird, this was actually taken in High Park in Toronto, during the Cherry Blossom time, so June. I often save crops, and assign them a letter after the usual number, such as this one.

To quote the words of the mighty Porky Pig:

That's all folks

W.