 having to regain all my expertise on a new OS.
Sure, to that point I had looked at Linux, and would certainly have chosen it if starting new, but with a pile of expertise already acquired on the MS platform, I was a bit reluctant to make the jump and dump it all. I really don’t know if I ever would have made that jump on my own, but as in that quoted sentence above, MS really left me little choice, and looking back, for me at least, I’m /so/ glad they didn’t, giving me that last little push I needed to actually make the jump.
To someone in the tech field, it doesn’t generally take that long using Linux to realize that in the long run using Windows involves a bunch of trouble that you don’t need.
To explain, if you are the type of person that buys a new computer every three years and just uses that (be it desktop or laptop), then you may not notice the trouble that Windows entails, that is, if you are savvy enough to avoid malware. However, if you are the type that likes to have multiple systems running, and you want to take full advantage of any older hardware you might have, Windows becomes a liability. Dealing with license issues and planned obsolescence is simply more trouble than it’s worth. Running a lot of proprietary software on multiple systems becomes prohibitively expensive rather quickly, and if you switch to open source software there’s very little reason left to run Windows.
Of course, if you really need (or perhaps are much more comfortable with) certain proprietary applications, it can make sense to keep one Windows installation (or perhaps two) around. Generally, though, additional computers will still be less trouble with Linux on them.
Of course people who want to set up a gaming LAN for Windows only titles may find a reason to have multiple Windows machines on a home network, but generally those are temporary and supplied by multiple people anyway.
When it comes down to it, using Windows makes me feel boxed in, while using Linux makes me feel free to do what I want.
I read with interest about the personal stories in the switch to Linux. I too, took the leap around 2005 and have not looked back. I still use Microsoft at work, but I am always amazed at the lack of options, the quirky process, the hidden menus and icons (#@%! ribbon), and the removal of functionality between versions (particularly in Office — eg. Ctrl + Shift + V no longer brings up ‘paste special’ dialogue, however this combination still works fine in Libreoffice). In fact, I often find myself creating documents and spreadsheets in Libreoffice then saving as MS file to send to my colleagues — it’s that much faster for me.
My reasons for switching all of my home computers are similar to those already listed, but in 2005 Internet Explorer had massive security flaws that just bogged down my computer systems. As I discovered a system called ‘Linux’ I was intrigued and tried-out many distros over the years — each had it’s good and bad points, but viruses were never an issue again. Later-on, my practical reasons for using Linux turned more to an ideology of freedom; With Linux I can try-out what I like; choose to upgrade or not, run a bare bones OS or one with bells and whistles — all without a nag screen telling me to reboot. Choice matters and freedom makes a difference. Long live linux.
🙂 Excellent work, congratulations.
I think we’re beginning to see the adoption of FOSS, if not Linux, in governments’ departments around the world. It would be a paradigm shift if schools were to upgrade their IT departments to non-proprietary systems (and not an inconsiderable saving for them either). That would mark the start of the end for both Microsoft and Apple, at least in their present form.
– They think it’s for techies, and not for the average user.
If using Linux in school was the norm, all those barriers would cease to exist.
Juan, thanks for asking. In 2013 we suffered a nasty series of lightning strikes and those strikes caused catastrophic damage to our office and home electrical devices. Unfortunately, while we did have our data on three different computers, they were all damaged in the storm. To the best of our ability, we’ve painstakingly tried to rebuild that data base.
With a cautious look back through our few existing records, we can say with confidence that we’ve helped somewhere just a bit over 1600 kids in Central Texas. We will begin in 2016 to recreate that data base.
In at least two ways, this story from Ken Sparks reveals a sad reality about Microsoft Windows users, particularly here in US where the Operating System (OS) and MS applications are so prevalent and revered.
Several years ago IBM did a study which showed that a Windows (business) PC that initially cost $500.00 actually came out to cost approximately $830.00 or more after first year, due to malware protection costs in protection software and OS re-installs and re-configurations. Any comparisons to an equivalent Apple desktop were therefore shown at about similar cost outlay, with primary difference being “lost productivity” from Windows PC downtime and frustration levels.
The other significant revelation came in the retirement speech of Richard Clark, appointed Cyber Czar by George Bush and kept on for about a year in the the Obama Administration, serving a ‘Cabinet Level’ position to co-ordinate and manage all technology security issues of USA between the Defense Dept, National Security Agency, research Universities and Silicon Valley technology corporations.
He stated quite clearly and unambiguously that one of the greatest threats to the USA in Cyber Security was in Microsoft software that is so pervasive and popular here, which was never designed for advanced and sophisticated Internet/Networking, and very weak in robust reliability and particularly critical security requirements and capabilities.
This reality has come to pass, and unfortunately most Windows users, even texperienced echnologists have very little understanding and knowledge of the technology base and history behind Windows, and possess little or no technical knowledge or experience in the NIX (UNIX/Linux) environment.
Unless and until a significant proportion of individuals, organizations, business and even municipal, state and federal government agencies acknowledge and act on this serious Windows threat, Cyber attacks through Windows (software) mainly and severe national productivity breakdowns will continue unabated.
Much of Europe, Central and South America, Asia – particularly China, Taiwan and Vietnam, even parts of Africa, long cinsidered a complete technology backwater, have already and/or are starting to move elsewhere – primarily to Linux, BSD UNIX-like and other more stable and robust OS and applications solutions.
Yep, I hear that “in the REAL world” business, too. That’s what I call “the MCSE drumbeat”. It’s scared MCSE’s afraid of losing their jobs that say this. 
How do I know about that? I used to be an MCSE, and I was scared of anything UNIX-y, too. That changed quite a few years ago.
Folks, at work, I have to use Microsoft Windows; that’s the company’s decision and their right to make that decision. But at home, I’ve been “Microsoft Free Since 2003” and intend to remain so.
GNU/Linux, *BSD, and other F/OSS are the way of the future. Get with the program, or get left behind.
That may have been true before the iPhone, but it’s not true anymore. Windows is no longer 90%. Frankly nowadays, it’s similar to the argument that you learn to fix only one brand of cars & not the others. No car company controls enough of the market that you can ignore the others.
Bill Gates (and his Microsoft) feared Netscape and Java applets and tried to destroy them because they could replace the need for a windows desktop. He succeeded with Netscape and got slapped by the DOJ for a monopoly. The last threat MS successfully killed was netbooks running Linux instead of Windows.
Google was able to create AJAX and do everything in the browser while MS let Internet Explorer become irrelevant.
Later, when consumers were able to do everything on a smartphone and it wasn’t running an x86, MS couldn’t replace the OS on it for $0 to keep iOS and Android out. Android is Linux based and iOS is MacOSX based (really!) and that is based on a Mach microkernel with FreeBSD, another Unix.
Microsoft is now playing catchup to the consumer market (phones & tablets that run web browsers and apps). They’re trying to build a table interface with Win 8 and 10 and don’t care about the office environment that wants a Windows 7 desktop with Outlook and Exchange.
My son’s school has gone Chromebook. Everything runs on a chrome browser with Google Docs. I can see that working for many office workers too. CAD users and developers will switch back to a Unix (Linux) desktop like they had in the 90s and a Chrome browser will cover Office + email for everyone else.
Linux will be running all the servers. >90% of the top 500 supercomputer run Linux. None run windows. Google, Amazon and Facebook run Linux for their cloud infrastructure and the VMs they run on that cloud. The other large cloud provider is Azure running Microsoft and they support Linux VMs in their cloud.
OpenStack is used by many ISPs for their cloud offering. It’s used for private cloud as well. And it’s all Linux though it will support running Windows as VMs if you want to pay licenses for your VMs.
There have been several points made, that I no longer need to touch on