The Lagoon TechMy little blog in Cyberspace.

This blog post is a response to the article posted here: http://itsfoss.com/reasons-switch-linux-windows-xp/. I mean no disrespect to the author of this article with my replies.

My responses are in black and direct quotes from the article are in red.

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1. It’s free

Microsoft will force you to upgrade to Windows 8.1 which mean you’ll have to spend around $120 just for the OS.

Linux OS on the other hand is completely free. If you choose to switch to Linux, you save at least hundred bucks. Sounds good enough a reason, ain’t it?

Technically Microsoft is not forcing anyone to upgrade their OS. People can still use Windows XP if they choose to, but it is recommended to upgrade to a supported OS now.

Remember not every OS is going to be supported forever. There will come a time when an OS will be end-of-life.

Also, Linux is not really free to anyone. It still takes time and money to develop it (why do you think Linux organizations ask for donations?).

Plus, if most average computer users switch to Linux, how would the openness of Linux really be a benefit to them, since a lot of them would not know how to program and probably will not want to ever learn?

2. More Secure, no need of any antivirus

In Windows you cannot live without an antivirus. Even with an antivirus product, your system is continuously at risk of catching virus. If you had a premium antivirus, it would keep on alerting you of a possible threat detection.

In Linux you don’t need an antivirus. Virus and malware are alien to Linux world. Linux is known for its security features. Switching to Linux will save you some more as you won’t have to buy an antivirus.

With all due respect, this reason is really silly and gives people a false sense of security. The idea that Linux does not get viruses is a myth. Windows may have more malware, but that does not mean that Windows is guaranteed to get a virus, nor is Windows necessarily easier to infect.

If you open e-mail attachments from people you do not know, run programs without scanning them first, setting insecure root password on your computer, no amount of Windows or Linux can help you there! 

Linux can get viruses just like Windows (http://scalibq.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/hand-of-thief-commercial-linux-malware-kit/).

Remember since most of the world uses Windows, the hackers are going to target the most used OS (Windows). If it were the other way around, Linux would have the same problem, and worse, so many people would be feeling secure “because they use Linux” (a false sense of security), that they start to think they cannot get hacked. That is a dangerous road to go down.

3. Compatible with lower end hardware

A good reason why you have been running Windows XP for such a long time could be hardware constraints. Upgrading to Windows 7 or 8 requires at least 1GB of RAM. Running Windows 7/8 on the minimum configuration will be a real painful experience as it will be extremely slow and almost unusable. And if your system configuration doesn’t meet the minimum criteria you will have no option other than buying a new PC.

Welcome to Linux world. There is a Linux OS for everyone. Most of the Linux OS does not require a heavyweight computer system. But even if your system is one of those of late 90′s or early 2000′s, there are plenty of extreme lightweight Linux distributions. In other words, hardware is no constraint for Linux OS.

Really to do anything effective on Windows XP – other than check e-mail and browse the web – you really need 1 GB of RAM. I can run Windows 7 on a slow netbook (about 4-5 years old) decently. It has 2 GB of RAM.

True, Linux can work well on older computer systems. However I would argue that if somebody was going to do serious work with their computer system, they would already have a fast system, and not be using a 1999 desktop.

4. Ease of use

The one misconception about Linux is that it is “geeks only” and one needs to be computer genius and command line ninja to use Linux. No, it is not true. It is not late 90′s where Linux was a complicated operating system. These days desktop Linux OSes run out of the box, have GUI tools and have all the functionality that you look for in Windows.

True, Linux has become much more user-friendly than it was 10 years ago. However, Linux is still not yet as user-friendly as Windows or MacOS X.

Things in Linux are not uniform and organized (e.g., 50+ Linux distributions available to the public who has no idea of which one to choose, graphics support on Linux is bad when compared to Windows, etc.)

5. Drivers included

As a Windows user, you must have struggled with drivers. Finding the correct driver for your system was a difficult task. I remember, I had several drivers folder in my external backup disk as I did not want to waste time looking for the audio, video or wireless drivers. But with Linux, most of these drivers are supported directly by the Linux kernel. Which means its more like plug and play for Linux, no struggling with drivers, largely.

Not really. All my current desktop hardware works out of the box on Windows 8.1. Windows and Linux are almost the same in regard to “plug and play”.

6. It’s sexy and I know it

When it comes to looks, desktop Linux rules over Windows. Be it Unity, Cinnamon, Gnome 3, KDE or even low end desktop environments like Xfce or Lxde, they are much more good looking than the Windows desktop. So if you think Linux desktop to be a plain boring and dull looking, you are definitely wrong. Best of all, you can choose a desktop flavor according to your choice.

Actually from using a little bit of GNOME, KDE, and Xfce, I really do like Windows’ interface much better (Windows 98’s interface I would prefer over one of these) Of course, that is just my opinion.

7. Software repository

Most of the desktop Linux OS have their own ‘app store’ or ‘software repository’. You can look for any kind of application, libraries at one single place without the need of Googling all over the internet for it. Moreover, the software thus installed will be safe, compatible with your OS and will be getting automatic updates.

The software repositories will not necessarily have all the software that you need. Also, what if you installed something via RPM or DEB manually or compiled a piece of software from its source? How would you get the package manager to automatically update the manually installed software, assuming the software didn’t update itself?

8. Better updating process

Windows updates are real pain. First Windows will notify that you have system updates. When you install them, it will be configured at shutdown time at a pace that even a tortoise can beat. You will be told to “preparing to configure Windows, do not shutdown your system” and the wait is eternal. And that’s not the end. At the next boot, it will again be configuring the updates. Moreover, the software and applications installed in Windows provide their updates separately. Remember Java, Adobe or iTunes updates pop up?

Updates in Linux is a like a cool breeze. You will be regularly notified that updates are available. And these updates include not just system and security updates but available updates for different applications installed. Unlike Windows, you won’t have to wait at shutdown or start time. Updating in desktop Linux is a matter of one click.

Updating Windows is not hard. Windows does not have updates “every single day”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_Tuesday).

Also, a typical Linux install, which has a kernel update, will need to be rebooted anyway.

Switch from Windows to Linux just to save a reboot or two every month, is not worth it in my opinion.

Switching to a different operating system is similar to moving to another house. You don’t just “move”. You have a ton of planning, packing, etc. that goes into moving.

If you move to a different operating system just because you do not want to reboot once a month, then in my opinion you are wasting your time.

9. Gaming on Linux

One of the major constraint one face while switching to Linux is gaming. While Linux had some native games, thanks to Steam, it has now a wide range of games available. GOG.com will also be bringing around 100 games by the year end. Apart from these, we always have PlayOnLinux, which lets you play ‘Windows only’ games on Linux.

Any serious gamer would either use Windows or a game console. All my friends use Windows and/or game consoles. Linux just is not a good OS to build games for (many distributions doing their own thing, video support is not on par with Windows, no native DirectX support, etc.)

10. Community support

Probably the best thing about Linux is the Linux community. You will never feel alone in Linux world. Apart from numerous Linux how-to blogs, just drop by any forum for any kind of problem you are facing with your system, someone will always try to help you out. Such is the support of Linux community.

In my experience, a lot of Linux users feel elite and superior about using Linux. There is nothing wrong with liking (or disliking) an OS, but please do not exaggerate “facts” about Linux just to get people to switch to an OS that has no real support outside of a few companies and community boards that someone may or may not get help on.

I think that if the Linux community came together and built on one distribution, did not come across as elite, and made Linux user-friendly (just like Windows and MacOS X does), people (and companies) will take Linux much more seriously than they do now.

Think these 10 reasons are good enough for you to switch to Linux from Windows? If yes then you might be wondering which Linux OS is best for you. In a previous article I had written about best Linux OS to replace Windows XP, you may take a look at it.

I hope this post makes your decision of switching to Linux easier. Time to ditch Windows and embrace the freedom has come. Welcome to Linux.

Linux is only ‘freedom’ to people who know how to modify it and use it (e.g., computer programmers). If you are a casual computer user, Linux would not really give you any more freedom than Windows would.

There is a lot of misinformation people spread on the Internet about both Windows and Linux! I am not sure why this almost always happens when a discussion comes up about Windows and Linux, but it is annoying.

This blog post is a response to the WebHostingTalk post #16 (located here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=6174761&postcount=16). I mean no disrespect to the author of this forum post on WebHostingTalk with my replies to his post.

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Ok. My responses are in purple and direct quotes from the forum post are in red.

– More efficient

In general Linux as an operating system uses a “lot” less resources to run, has a lot less BG processors running, and doesn’t have a gui.

The bare-minimum of RAM one can really use Linux effectively with (on a workstation/server) is 512 MB. Windows really can’t have any less than 1 GB as its bare-minimum. However in this day and age with cheap RAM for computers, this is not a problem.

Also, there are Linux users (mainly Ubuntu/Linux Mint) who use a GUI for their Linux desktops.

One of windows key faults is that you need to speed up the kernel if you want it to have a steady tickrate as opposed to Linux which will run a steady tickrate without any alterations to the kernel.

You are being very unclear. If you are implying that the Windows kernel is “slower” or “less stable” than the Linux kernel, then you are incorrect.

There is also no need to restart a Linux server like you need to do with windows servers because it doesn’t get memory leaks like windows.

How do you know that the memory leaks are not being caused by faulty/poorly written software? How do you know that Windows is even rebooting because of a memory leak? How do you know that you do not just have bad memory?

The need defrag a Linux hdd doesn’t exist either as opposed to windows. 

Uh…fragmentation happens on any file-system. It is a classic ordering problem. When you delete files (on any file-system, NTFS, ext4, ext3, UFS, FAT32, FAT, ZFS, etc.), you leave gaps in the file-system.

These gaps will be filled with other files, but you will also have files before and after the new file. So when the computer goes to access the data, it has to sift though all of the data to find the bits and pieces it needs to complete the task.

Some will also argue (and I tend to agree) that linux handles running more processes at once than what windows can. You find that reliability decreases when more processors are running. 

Not true. How can Linux handle more processes at once than Windows? A process takes up CPU time, RAM, and hard drive space and I/O. It is the same computer whether it runs Linux or Windows.

– Caches better
AFAIK windows kernel doesn’t cache and most game server programs don’t cache any map or material files which can lead to much larger load time. It Doesn’t affect performance that much however it is nice not waiting half an hour just to join a server :p

Your statement is incorrect. The Windows kernel does cache.

Look here: https://blog.computerlagoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/WindowsKernel-CacheManager-201471311482639.pdf

– Better game play.
This is pure my personal opinion however I personally enjoy playing on a Linux server a lot more than windows. This is mostly due to the fact that I believe that the server runs better on Linux than windows and which leads to better rego.

How does the server run better on Linux than Windows? I have hosted a game server on Windows with no problems that were the fault of Windows.

– More secure (unless you’re an idiot)
Well I believe that Linux is more secure than windows because it’s normally customers who exploit server. 

As long as you have any computer exposed to incoming connections on the Internet, you are at risk of being hacked. This applies to any operating system.

They do this via ftp or some form of access that’s given to them. Most customers run windows on their home computer and are familiar to it (as opposed to Linux which is foreign to them) so they are able to exploit it a lot easier than if it was Linux. Windows is also a lot more prone to getting viruses etc.

How do you know your customers do not know anything about Linux? How would home Windows users be able to exploit Windows faster than Linux? Using Windows (or Linux) does not automatically mean that the user knows all the ins-and-outs of those operating systems.

In addition, while Windows does have more malware available for it, that does not mean Windows is easier to infect, nor that you will be infected when using Windows.

Most viruses today get on computers because the user accidentally got one from somewhere (e.g., shady file download), not that it just happened to get on the system from the Internet without user involvement.

IIRC you could also get plug-ins for windows servers which would exploit the server etc. 

Your statement makes no sense.

– Much much much much more stable
As an operating system Linux is much more stable than windows, I found I got better uptime on linux servers compared to windows. 

How is Linux “more stable” than Windows? Crashes on Windows are almost certainly due to faulty hardware and/or drivers.

Linux server can run for months on end and when updating a linux server there is no need to restart it as opposed to windows which generally needs a reboot when you update it.

Windows requires a reboot after updates to make sure that all the updated files that are used by the system and user-installed programs are using the newly updated files.

Let me explain. When you load a program, all of the required / critical files associated with that program get loaded into memory (e.g., DLL files). Now when you update certain files that are being used by other programs, you have updated those files, but the computer memory still retains the older version of those files you updated. The programs will not re-cache the newer files into memory, until the programs have been restarted.

Microsoft just opted to force the user to reboot, so security, stability, and performance updates are actually applied, and not just lying dormant until the user happens to reboot the computer. Of course, any program that is not currently running, or a program that you manually restart, will then use the updated files automatically.

Also Linux has the same problem. When you update files on Linux (e.g., library files), the processes that are running that make use of those updated files will need to be restarted.

However since it would be difficult to know which processes need to be restarted after a Linux update, it is technically best to just go ahead and reboot the Linux server as well.

You can go here (http://www.howtogeek.com/182817/htg-explains-why-does-windows-want-to-reboot-so-often/) and look under the section entitled “What About Linux and Other Operating Systems?”.

You also find that windows tends to have “random” crashes or its programs stop responding compared to linux which is rarely ever happens.

You will find that in 99% of the cases, this is due to bad hardware and/or drivers. This goes for Linux and Windows.

– Less ram errors.
As someone above posted it might have been due to the hardware, however when I swapped to Linux I no longer had ram errors, so even thou I may not have been using “quality ram” Linux was able to handle it w/o any issues, and when you’re running game servers you want fastest ram possible, and it is very hard to find high speed ECC Ram (well at least it is in Australia. However looking at Newegg they don’t seem to have 1066 ECC ram if it’s even available.) And I would always choose high speed ram over ECC. I also found that windows seemed to get ram leaks which would clogs up the ram.
There are also disadvantages to hosting on linux as some functions do not work, however in overall performance I believe it outperforms 

Since Linux uses less RAM, you are not hitting the bad spots on your RAM sticks. Switching to Linux does not fix bad memory (RAM). You need to test your memory with software such as MemTest86+.

Another guy on WebHostingTalk (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?s=197e5f374bf0d33a54291ae1700e6f1a&p=4307417&postcount=21) switched from Windows to Linux to fix his problem(s) he was having with his machine not being stable. Later on, he admitted that switching to Linux did not solve his problem.

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I really hope people stop spreading misinformation about Windows and Linux on the Internet. I know this will never happen, but this really has to stop. Someone will read bad info on Windows and Linux, and make an ill-informed decision, and this could cause problems that they might have avoided.

If you want to use Linux and can give a valid reason beyond “its more secure” or “more stable” than Windows, then I would say go for it.