Computer operating systems such as Windows and Mac are familiar to most computer users, dominating the market. Over the course of time, they have become household names. However, there is a free operating system (OS) that has been left underappreciated in the incessant rush to commercialize computer systems and software.
Have you heard about Linux? Linux is free, which in theory acts to benefit Linux and its reputation. The downside of this lack of a price tag, however, is that it contributes to Linux being dismissed—whether explicitly or not—as pointless, hard to use, buggy, lacking commercial software, and impractical. Nothing could be further from the truth. Linux is an excellent personal OS, and I’d like to tell you why.
So what is Linux? The “Li-” in Linux comes from the inventor’s name, Linus Torvalds, while the “-nux” refers to a Unix-like operating system, the grandfather of the Linux system that Linux modernizes and borrows fairly heavily from. Linux was almost entirely developed as a free and generous open-source project, and it remains so to this day. An open-source project is one that shows its inner workings in the form of code to the public rather than milking customers for cold hard cash, as is done with a proprietary system.
Mac and Windows are heavily-advertised products manufactured by big corporations that over time have given them not just market share, but name-brand power. They are, in a practical sense, ubiquitous in the general-consumer market. If we consider them default operating systems (as they often come wrapped in new computers) it is because of their immense advertising, corporate connections, and promotion budgets. After all, who hasn’t seen ads created by these mega-corporations at some point, whether on television or browsing the Internet? Take a second to ponder whether or not you may have viewed a professionally done Linux commercial. The end result of Linux not charging money for the operating system, and thus not having money to advertise with, is that two omnipotent behemoths dominate the market and push aside the ignored third player, which also happens to make a high-quality product. Keep in mind that there are more than three systems if you wish to include OSes—such as the “BSDs”—which have an even lower market share than Linux. The immense market shares (partially owing to the fat advertising budgets) of Windows and Mac is a large contributing factor that further perpetuates the widespread awareness of the existence of the giant two corporations.
Linux could actually be ideal for many users because it has many perks, even for everyday usage. One of the largest upsides of Linux is being able to customize nearly any aspect of your system as you wish, with the user both being able to download many alternatives and being able to extensively customize most of what they currently have installed. Want to display myriad statistical information on the performance of your computer and the temperature of its components, the weather forecast, the temperature, your current wifi speed, and more all on your home desktop? Just get the application “Conky” or one of its alternatives. Or perhaps you want to drastically modify your desktop and its layout—much more than you could on Windows? Just change up your window manager—in a basic sense, the desktop that you operate in, which is not to be mistaken for a desktop wallpaper.
For example, if you want to be more efficient with your screen space and your multitasking—and are willing to take the initiative—you can just go ahead and swap your window manager out with a “tiling one” like i3 or Awesome, one designed to minimize wasted screen space!
Linux has a plethora of separate editions—called “distros” (shorthand for distributions) or “flavors” by the community. Distributions of Linux tend to be maintained and updated by independent teams of freelancers, though there are some corporate teams as well. Popular distributions include Ubuntu, a user-friendly and beginner-friendly distribution that is maintained and created by the company Canonical. Ubuntu works well out-of-the-box and has a multitude of graphical programs for those who don’t want to rely on the command line. For those who want a less novice-friendly experience but are willing to take the trade-off to gain access to a stable system that many Linux systems are based on, try Debian’s stable branch.
Or perhaps you’re sick and tired of your current desktop as a whole, including your text editor and file browser? Why not download an entirely new desktop environment (a window manager prepackaged with more to create a fully-working environment right off the bat)? And the cherry on top? You can download all of the above applications straight from your command line! The sourcing and approval of most of these applications from trusted servers and databases means a much lower chance of contracting a computer virus. One good thing about the low market share of Linux is that it makes an antivirus all but unnecessary. Not only this, but the ability to extensively customize Linux, and the free updates that come with Linux, allow you to jumpstart a formerly slow and outdated computer back to life.
Although the degree to which you can customize your environment is easily one of the largest pluses of a Linux system, Linux also allows for computer scientists, productivity buffs, tinkerers, and average people who just want to customize their computers to create ideal working environments for themselves. This versatility of Linux owes to its customizability and its power. Linux is, at its core, a command-line- or shell- based system. This command line allows you to download, install, and update applications straight from it, along with being able to delete files, move files, copy files, and more, all in an efficient, versatile, and powerful manner.
New users shouldn’t be too intimidated by working with the terminal in Linux. It’s an excellent tool worth learning if you wish to unlock the “true potential” of Linux. But there are workarounds. If you would prefer not to use the command line, you may resort to graphical applications.
The primary point is that, in Linux, you can customize nearly everything to your heart’s content and find, or create, something that you are comfortable with. Although plagued with widespread false rumors and a lack of publicity, Linux provides an antivirus-independent, powerful, efficient, and effective system without lugging all of the dreaded “bloatware” alongside it. There is something in Linux for everybody.