I tried not to do windows a couple of years ago, and it just didn’t work out. Not the glass kind, the computer kind. I’ve used several other kinds of computer systems in the past, but the only reason I moved over to windows was because they were so popular and most everything one needed was running on them. I’ve never been very fond of Microsoft’s stuff, but the choices were fairly limited. It was either Windows or a Mac. I’d already worked with one cult computer, SGI, so getting on the Mac train wasn’t my idea of fun.
When I say I tried not to do windows before, I loaded one of the open-source Linux operating systems on my computer. I tried Fedora, a spin-off from one of the early Linux innovators, RedHat. Back then, in 2005, it was Fedora 4, and while it was cool, it just didn’t have everything I needed. The iPod support was the most lacking, but several other things just didn’t work like I’d hoped. I gave it a good geek-boy effort to try and get off Windows, but eventually I went back.
This year, I gave Fedora another whirl. Three major Fedora versions have come out since then, while good ol’ Microsoft has barely pumped out one. And the one it did, Vista, turned out to be nothing but a big turd. I had a chance to work on a friend’s new Vista machine here in Korea and I was completely unimpressed. Seeing the writing on the wall that new computers would soon be sporting this ungainly pile of code, hacks, cracks and spyware, I decided that maybe Fedora or another Linux operating system would suffice. The innovation provided by the thousands of developers who write the software because they want to is just too compelling. In addition, free is pretty hard to beat, especially when Micro$oft charges so damn much for their stuff.
I’ve been running Fedora 7 now for just a couple of weeks. I don’t have everything the way I want it, but I’ve been quite impressed so far. It has everything the average user would need. All of the internet stuff, Office products, audio and video applications, and even iPod apps are there. Today I created both a “powerpoint” presentation and “word” document on my Linux system, took them to another Windows computer and it read them just fine. Total interoperability. Same with my iPod – it can see the device, and load to and from it. There’s even a nice “Photoshop”-like tool for image manipulations. There’s just not much else I do these days that makes me think I have to keep my Windows stuff around. I will anyway, at least for a while, to make sure I don’t run into any serious problems. But I think it’s going to be fine. I’m writing this blog entry on it now, just as I wrote the last several.
Obviously, Linux isn’t for everyone. If you have little idea what you’re doing with computers, then it’s definitely not for you (This means you, Dad!) Fedora/Linux takes some know-how and understanding of computers to set up. If you’ve done things like change your browser from Internet Explorer to Firefox and moved all your bookmarks, you could probably set up your own Fedora box. If you ever had to setup your own internet connection, you could probably do it. If you’ve ever moved all your email addresses from one email client to another, you could probably do it. It’s not rocket science, but its not for the timid key pressers who are afraid they’ll do something wrong and lose everything.
However, once in front of a Fedora 7 system, I’d challenge anyone reading this that you could be immediately productive. As a user, its easy, intuitive and you honestly can’t screw it up. Nor could you download something that would harm your system – no viruses, no spyware, or malware.
I didn’t really intend for this blog to be a diatribe on how cool Fedora is. I just have a lot of time on my hands and what money do I have I don’t want to give to Microsoft. Whats more, I think Microsoft had better get their shit together. Why pay them when free stuff that works quite well is out there? A few more major revisions of Fedora and it really will be childs play to set up your own system and be cool – like me!