Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

April 20, 2009

Choice. What the ‘Desktop wars’ are all about

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 4:55 AM

I was reading an article on Linux Journal titled “I am switching back to Windows” and my reaction was “ok. So?” I am tired of reading articles about how switching to Linux rocks or how windows is much better/or worse. Personally I think people should use whatever they are most comfortable with and stop bothering the rest of us.

I personally like Linux, have been using it almost constantly since 1999. My sister likes Vista (which I really hate). That’s her choice and I am fine with it. I like the way linux works and if I don’t like something about it or some software on it I can change it or download something new.

But that doesn’t mean that I think Windows is bad. I had to switch back to it for a year when I worked with a company that did .NET development and I liked it. Actually I got used to it, which is pretty much the same thing.

When I switched jobs after that I decided to switch back to Linux and it was a pain, mainly because I had forgotten a lot of Linux and had to search for a lot of stuff (This is where keeping notes/blog entries helped) plus it was the first time I was installing it on a laptop and that caused some issues. (Mainly with the wireless). That’s the main problem with switching to Linux. People are used to of working on Windows and that makes it hard for them to use Linux because the system doesn’t react the way they are used to.

But then again it was my choice to switch and that’s the whole idea behind the Linux philosophy (atleast as I see it) You have the ability to make a choice (And you get free stuff. Which is always good 😉 ). You don’t like Windows fine. Try Linux. You don’t like Redhat, try Debian or Ubuntu or Fedora or Slackware or Linux Mint. If that’s not to your liking try a Mac or try Solaris. The choices are endless and that’s what makes life interesting. Choice. Do I read this book or that? Do I drive to work or work from home? Do I wear formals or casuals? Do I use KDE or Gnome?

You don’t like Linux based software use Windows software on Linux. For example now even though I use Linux I still use some Windows based software like EditPlus. Its one of the best editors I have used: Its fast/simple and does exactly what I want it to. Before you start sprouting off about how I should try Linux based editors and not contaminate Linux with Windows based software, let me tell you. I have used Emacs/Vi/Kate/Keditor/Pico/nano. Vi is awesome for working on the command line to make a quick edit, but I don’t like it for extended work. Emacs is very powerful but is overkill for the stuff I need to do. The rest are too limited. So I use EditPlus. Plus I like having the same set of software on both my Linux and Windows systems. Makes life simpler when I have to switch between the two.

Ah well, this is all for now. BTW, if the above post didn’t make sense then I blame it on the solar radiation and not on my inability to type sense at 4:45 am 😉

Cya.

– Suramya

2 Comments »

  1. Ohh, stop picking up excuses from BOFH!!

    🙂

    Comment by Vinit — April 26, 2009 @ 9:33 PM

  2. Why not when it gives me such a good selection to choose from? 🙂
    Or are you worried that I might use one that you wanted to use? :p

    – Suramya

    PS: For those who are wondering, BOFH stands for Bastard Operator From Hell and you can read more about him here.

    Comment by Suramya — May 1, 2009 @ 1:45 AM

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