I’ve written recently about my upgrade to Vista, and i have to say, I’m disappointed. To be honest, I should have expected it given the exposure in the media and the professional press, but I always felt that it was maybe all too critical. Well, I can tell you that from my own experience, Vista is a frustrating OS to have as your main system!
One of the reasons I went to Vista was that I liked the look and feel – it’s a clear improvement over XP – but I get the impression that all this visual wizadry is at the expense of system performance. I have a 512Mb graphics card and 4Gb of main RAM, but my system is at best sluggish! 
This presents me with a dilema:
- Either I revert back to XP and stick with an unsatisfactory Microsoft environment, but which gives me the same, fully compatible office suite as I use at work, as well as my preferred development environment – Visual Studio;
- or I make the move to Linux as my main OS, but sacrifice my office suite (OpenOffice is great, but not 100% compatible – particularly when using graphics) and my development environment!
I’ve been looking more into Linux recently, and found that the UI is way better than Vista, so from this angle, the move would be beneficial, however, I can’t go for looks alone!
So my call goes out to you – my loyal readers. What would you do? How can I overcome my own objections and be free to move to Linux? How can I have my cake and eat it???!?
I look forward to your comments…. 
No related posts.
If you are expecting Windows but free, stop right there. You’ll be disappointed, very disappointed. Now I’m going to reinforce it once more, “Linux is not Windows”. As a matter of fact Linux is not Windows in many, many ways. Have made a point yet? If fierce Linux advocates are Zealots, then fierce Microsoft advocates are Zombies. I would rather be a Zealot than a Zombie.
No, Open Office is not %100 compatible with Microsoft Office, if it was, then it would be Microsoft Office (LINW). I think it’s safe to say that where OO is not compatible with MO is where Microsoft has you “locked in” to their “solution”.
I will say that unless you have special (not part of %95 normal users) needs like AutoCad drafting software or a DOS utility to operate your Linotype 9000 machine, then Linux will work for you.
Here’s what stops some people from using Linux:
They don’t really want to use it in the first place. They just want to see what all the “hype” is about.
They were only looking to trash-talk it in their blog (I’ve seen a lot of it).
They have a Lexmark printer which they tried for 5 hours to get to
work (not knowing that Lexmark printers don’t work with Linux) and gave up declaring Linux, yes that’s right, ALL of Linux, unsuitable for everyone on the planet based on their experience with a Lexmark printer.
They were expecting a free version of Windows.
I really could go on and on but it all boils down to empowerment. Microsoft, it is said, has made computing possible for the masses. I think that point is debatable. From my personal experience and from what I read every day on the Internet, Microsoft accomplished that “ease of use” by usurping the users power. They’ve been taking more and more in little steps with each Service Pack and new release. Linux, on the other hand, is all about empowerment, for the user that is. This usually comes as a shock to new Linux users. Nobody tells you what you can and can’t do. You want something? You go get it. It won’t be on your desktop reminding you everyday to “upgrade to the professional version”. Empowerment also means responsibility. Your machine is yours now (it’s not with Microsoft). And, most important, you need to educate yourself and be willing to be educated by those in the forums. Know the rules or you’ll be gently, or otherwise, reminded how to ask for help. On a side note, in my 3+ years of using Linux I have never asked for help in a forum or chat room (I’ve never even used a chat room). I search in the forums or on Google and have never been disappointed.
Now I’m going to tell you something I don’t ever think I’ve revealed online. Back in the late 60′s and early 70′s I lived in a Commune. After four and a half years I left. It took about another 3 years before I could clearly see what I had been through. That’s what happens when someone is locked-in to an environment to the exclusion of everything else. I think you know where I’m going with this. It’s true. If you switch to Linux and use it exclusively, you will begin to realize just how crappy you had it with Windows. It takes (at least for me) about two years to fully appreciate just how bad it was.
For me, using Windows was like trying to balance jello on the end of a broomstick. I use PCLinuxOS now (but people have similar experiences with all of the top distributions) and my computer is as solid as a rock. No surprises. No malware. I’ve hit those “YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE INFECTED… IT IS INFECTED!!!!” web pages a few times now and I play with them for sport. I like to see if I can get out of their web without closing down Firefox. I usually can. I’ve discovered too that when a community designs and interface it’s better than when a marketing company does. I am way more productive with my computer than I ever was with Windows. My computer doesn’t wear me down either. I can go for hours and hours without fatigue.
Thanks Richard – that’s a considered, valuable response and I appreciate it!
Kind regards,
-John.
John,
I noticed you wrote this blog post in Sept ’08, did you make the switch yet? I have been testing the water for a couple of years.
After trying several distributions of Linux but unable to make up my mind I decided to go one step further and install UNIX instead, OpenSolaris 11, as a dual boot with Windows Vista.
I still use Vista much more than I use OpenSolaris, but what I have found very interesting is that my pc is fast under Vista, yet as so many Linux users say, it’s even faster with Linux (or, in this case, UNIX). It is noticeably faster.
Evenso, I haven’t made the switch. Although I use Google Docs for most of my document creation tasks I still use Office 2007 quite a bit, and, having compared Office 2007 with OpenOffice I still like the Office 2007 interface much better than the OpenOffice interface.
Maybe someday I’ll go all the way but for now I’m still testing the waters. I just wonder if you have made the switch yet? If not, do you think you will?
BTW… thanks for the follow on Twitter, it’s how I found your blog today. (After reading a lot of Seth Godin recently I’m thinking about starting one too, if I can decide what to blog about.)
Next project here, I’m expecting MS is going to have their beta testers download Windows 7 sometime soon. I already got the invite so I’m just waiting now.
Best regards,
Tony
Hi Tony!
Thanks for the comment!
I did make the switch – briefly! Had I categorized the post correctly, you’d have seen it under “Operating Systems” (it’s there now!) or you can read about my experiences directly at http://www.johnlandells.com/completed-upgrade.
Regards,
-John.