The Lagoon TechMy little blog in Cyberspace.

While I was browsing the Internet, I ran across a website that gives an introduction to the basics of Linux to computer users who do not know what Linux is all about.

One of the web pages of the presentation gives typical misinformation about Windows that you normally would probably read elsewhere.

Link to webpage:  http://www.lugod.org/presentations/intro2linux/page10.html

Please note that I mean no disrespect to the author of the presentation in anything that I say.

The author’s text (direct quotes) are in red and my responses are in black.  Please note that I am only responding to the areas that are in fact misinformation. Everything else, I am not responding to.

Especially when it is compared to Microsoft Windows, Linux has many advantages:

• Crashes (breaks) less often 

How do you know that Linux breaks “less often” than Windows?  I have administered both Windows and Linux computers, and have found neither to be unstable when properly setup with good hardware and drivers. No technical arguments to explain how you know that Windows is not as stable as Linux.

•  More customizable

I agree that the “sky is the limit” when it comes to modifying Linux. However you must understand that a lot of Linux users are not programmers, and hence they will not know how to modify Linux if needed. Hence they really cannot “customize” Linux the way they want to anyway (not at least, without hiring a programmer)!

Also, Microsoft has allowed Windows users to modify a lot of settings (mainly in the registry) to make changes in the Windows operating system.

Basically without the user being a programmer, Linux (for the non-programmer) is not “more customizable” than Windows would be.  It is all in the way you look at it! 🙂

•  Faster

How is Linux “faster” than Windows?  If I dual-booted both Windows and Linux, how would one be “faster” than the other?  It is the same hardware being used for both operating systems!  No technical arguments to explain how you know that Linux is faster than Windows.

•  Access to many useful, and free, applications

Windows has “access to many useful, and free, applications” too!

Just Google several open source software programs such as:

• VLC Player
• Gimp (a Photoshop-like image editor)
• Blender (a 3D modeling and animation software)
• Open Office
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Mozilla Firefox
• Inkscape
• MPlayer
• LibreOffice
• Audacity (a free audio editor)
• GnuCash (financial-accounting software)
• Notepad++ (a very powerful text editor)
• 7-Zip (a very good file compressor)
• VirtualBox (a virtual machine hypervisor)

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I hope these blog posts help people understand that not everything they hear about Windows is necessarily true. Over the past three years, I have spent literally hours reading misinformation about Windows from person after person on the Internet. It seems like there is no end to the misinformation problem!

Please remember to always check the “facts” you receive from someone online, before blindly believing what they say! Otherwise, you may end up believing something that is in fact not true, and you may even accidentally lead other people astray!