Reasons for Moving to Linux

Cyndi, my yoga teacher and co-author of our book, “Linux for Small Business Owners“, and I both switched to Linux for some similar as well as a few different reasons. We did it for our businesses as well as our personal computing needs.

Most of us who have switched to Linux have done so for one or two of the more common reasons but, like Cyndi and I, end up appreciating it more for the reasons you seldom hear about.

This article is based in part on Chapter 3 of our book, and it looks at the reasons that most businesses and individuals who switch to Linux for the operating system on their computers do so. Most people who switch to Linux do so to have some specific objectives in mind and yours won’t be the same as those of other individuals and small businesses. You are unique and so is the way you use your computer.

Linux has many advantages over other operating systems – specifically Windows. Some of these advantages are quite obvious and others not so much.

Reliability

We both like Linux for its reliability. Although it is not true that Linux never crashes I’ve had few problems over the 30 years I’ve been using it. Those few problems were usually due to my own errors such as misconfiguration of service files.

But the bottom line is that neither of us has ever had a serious crash with Linux.

You might be surprised to know that most of the world’s largest companies use Linux. NASA has installed a Linux supercomputer on the International Space Station and used Linux in interplanetary probes like the mars rover and helicopter. All 500 of the world’s largest supercomputers — the ones on the ground — use Linux. The majority of web sites you access on the Internet use Linux. The major stock exchanges and many banks use Linux in their most critical applications.

Linux is widespread in all types of applications including some of the most critical and important ones. It is telling that the most critical uses for computers on and off the planet Earth use Linux. The reliability of Linux is one of the major reasons for this.

Extensive software choices

There are many application programs available for Linux, including some of the specialized multimedia tools that we use to create podcasts, videos, and to do live-streaming.

All of the tools we use are available as Free Open Source Software (FOSS). In fact Fedora has a number of “Labs” that are designed for specific fields. These labs include Comp Neuro for computational Neuroscience, Astronomy, Design Suite for visual design and multimedia, Jam for audio enthusiasts and musicians, Python Classroom for teaching Python programming, Security Lab for forensic analysis security auditing and system recovery, Robotics Suite for beginning and experienced roboticists, Scientific for scientific and numeric research tools, and — of course — Games for some of the best games available for Fedora; pretty cool, right?

All the tools included in these Labs are also available as individual downloads for any existing Fedora computer. Fedora uses secure public repositories to make thousands of software packages safely available. The software stored in these repositories (repos) is all that most users will ever need and is easy to install with the software installer provided with Fedora.

We searched for a list of other open source software for our book but the ones we found were mostly “top X open source software for doing Y.” Wikipedia has a long list of FOSS but the list is hopelessly out of date. The best thing we can recommend if you are looking for a specific type of software is to search for that type and include the words “open source” in the search. This usually turns up dozens of lists at least some of which pertain to the software being sought. In most cases the software he searched for was already part of one of the Fedora repos.

We recommend that you use software that is available from the repositories for your distribution whenever possible. This ensures that the software is well maintained, has been inspected for malware, tested for functionality and bugs, and has been electronically signed so that you will know if it has been tampered with when you install it.

Security

Most people who have heard about Linux know that one of the most commonly cited reasons for using it is that it is much more secure than Windows. In our experience this is absolutely true.

Security is a critical consideration in these days of constant attacks from the Internet. If you think that they are not after you, too, let me tell you that they are. My computers are under constant attack every hour of every day and so are yours.

Most Linux distributions are very secure right from the initial installation. Many tools are provided to both ensure tight security where it is needed as well as to allow specified access into the computer.

For example, you may wish to allow SSH (Secure SHell for remote access) access from the occasional remote host, access to the web server on your server from anywhere in the world, or to send email from anywhere in the world.

On the other hand you may also want to block, at least temporarily, access attempts by crackers (the bad guys) attempting to force their way in. Other security measures provide your personal files protection from other users on the same host while still allowing mechanisms for you to share files that you choose with others.

Many of the security mechanisms present in Linux were designed and built into Linux right from its inception. The architecture of Linux is designed from the ground up, like Unix, its progenitor, to provide security mechanisms that can protect files and running processes from malicious intervention from both internal and external sources. Linux security is not an add-on feature, it is an integral part of Linux.

I have been using Linux for 30 years as of this writing. For most of that time I have had anywhere from 4 to 12 computers running Linux in my home office and other rooms in my home. I use them for various things including as servers, test-beds for new hardware, software and tools, music and video streaming, and primary workstations for my wife and myself.

Not a single computer of ours has ever been infected with any Trojan, Virus, ransomware, or other malware of any kind. They never slow down or display annoying popups trying to sell us something we don’t need. We never get erroneous warnings one of our computers is infected from sketchy people trying to steal our money….or worse yet…our identity.

SELinux

And if you’re not convinced that Linux is secure, or you deal with highly sensitive information that requires extra protection, there is the SELinux tool which is already installed on all Linux systems right from the start. Security-Enhanced Linux is an open source security enhancement written by the National Security Agency (NSA) to tighten the security of their own Linux computers. This tool is available and already activated in warning mode. If the need is there it just needs to be reconfigured for active protection.

SELinux is open source so there are plenty of eyes on it to ensure that no governmental backdoors have been hidden in the code.

Saving Old Computers

Old computers don’t die. they’re just tossed into the recycling streams — or worse.

–David Both

The fact that many perfectly good and usable computers get tossed aside because Microsoft demands we sacrifice them on the alter of planned obsolescence, makes me damn angry. It’s a huge waste of working computers and the energy expended to build them — and it’s totally unnecessary and preventable.

I have a 20 year old Dell Optiplex GX620 Pentium 4 with 2CPUs and 4GB RAM, that runs quite well on Fedora 43, the most recent version of that distribution. Even though it’s slower than my newer computers, it’s still running at its top performance levels.

Free as in beer

Free (as in beer) is always good, especially for software, right? Yup — it is, no question — because proprietary software can be quite expensive.

This lack of monetary cost is usually perceived by people in a negative way. The reasoning is that “you get what you pay for” which has been drummed into us by companies wanting us to buy exorbitantly priced products — especially software. How can anything that is free be of any value?

The value of any software lies in its usefulness not in its price.

– Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux perfectly describes the value proposition of free open source software (FOSS) and particularly Linux. Expensive software that performs poorly or does not meet the needs of the users can in no way be worth any amount of money. On the other hand, free software that meets the needs of the users has great value to those users.

Most open source software falls in the latter category. It is software that millions of people find extremely useful and that’s what gives it such great value.

Software that does what you need it to do, easily and reliably, is worth a great deal to you regardless of its price. So when powerful, reliable, useful software is available to you for not monetary cost – free as in beer — it makes excellent business sense to use it.

The fact that Linux is free also makes it ideal for installing on older computers to make them last longer. This is important to many non-profits that rebuild old donated computers for underfunded schools and disadvantaged children who would not otherwise have access to computers of any kind. It’s also important for those non-profits that use those old computers themselves.

Yes, Linux is free. We like that as one of many of its attractions. That is one of the least important reasons for us to use Linux but it is a nice bonus.

Free as in speech

The Free Software Definition which was adopted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) defines free software as a matter of liberty not price and defines the Four Essential Freedoms which requires the software’s licensing respect the civil liberties / human rights of what the FSF calls the software user’s “Four Essential Freedoms”. Yes, the numbering does start at zero.

1. The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
2. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
3. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.
4. The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

What this means to us is that I can install any open source software on as many computers as I want without the need to worry about the license police showing up to count how many “valid” licenses I have paid for.

We can also make copies of that software to share with our friends. We normally don’t need to do that these days because — the Internet. But still…

Another advantage of these freedoms is the cases of some large companies attempting to monopolize and monetize open source software. On more than one occasion large software companies have tried to do that. They failed because the source code for the software was freely available and the open source developers simply rebranded their software and kept on going.

Open source software can be monetized as exemplified by companies such as Red Hat. Their Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be downloaded quite freely. To get support, which many of their large customers need and want, paid subscription services are available. For those of us who use releases of Linux based on RHEL, such as Fedora that is supported free of charge by the large base of users and developers.

Cyndi

Using Windows as my OS, not only did I have to purchase virus and malware protection programs on a regular basis, but those programs repeatedly failed to protect me from infection.

I don’t have to tell you how much of an interruption a corruption can be! I’ve lost important data that I had to pay to recover, and sometimes was unable to restore lost files and lists to their original integrity. Not to mention having to hand over my computer or laptop for a number of days to have the fix done. There has not been a single incidence of infection since switching to Linux. I store my clients’ personal information on my computer, and with Windows, I was frequently concerned about that information being compromised. Building a trusting relationship with my clients is fundamental to my work. When I claim to not sell their information to anyone, I want to be able to back that up.

Support

Support is a key consideration for individuals and small business owners.

Support is about more than just having a poorly paid, barely trained person on the phone who merely follows a script that someone else has written. Support is not about paying someone to take the blame. Unlike small business owners, many managers feel compelled to spend lots of money on products that purport support…and then don’t deliver. Support is about more than just rebooting the computer to temporarily circumvent the real problem which remains unresolved.

Support is about having a product with well-tested code before it is released so that it seldom breaks in the first place. Support is about having someone knowledgeable to contact when it does break. Support is about having excellent built-in help facilities that documents how to perform the tasks you need.

Support is also about having a supportable product.

Stability

Stability can have multiple meanings when the term is applied to Linux by different people. My definition of the term as it applies to Linux is that it can run for weeks or months without crashing or causing problems that make me worry I might lose data for any of the critical projects I am working on.

Linux easily meets that requirement. I, always have several computers running Linux at any given time and they are all rock solid in this sense. They run without interruption. I have workstations, a server, a firewall, and some hosts that I use for testing and they all just run.

Another type of stability is that of continuing availability and the ability to use software that I like for decades. I use GnuCash accounting software for my personal finances and I used it for my businesses while I had them. I have used GnuCash since 2003 and still have easy access to all of those old transactions.

The stability of still being able to use old document and spreadsheet files after 20 years is also very important to me.

Conclusion

There are many reasons for moving to Linux. We’ve not even covered many of them here.

Linux keeps old computers running, and that is an absolute truth. Linux also keeps both old and new computers safe from malware and bloatware which is what really causes them to slow down. Linux prevents the planned obsolescence continually enforced by the ongoing requirements for more and faster hardware required to support upgrades to ever more bloated versions of Windows. It means I do not need to add more RAM or hard drive space just to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system.

Hopefully, you now understand a little more of the reasons why Cyndi and I both use Linux, and why many millions of others do, too.

And it’s really not as hard to make the move than you might think.