Full FeedThe top 5 Linux myths: Why you shouldn’t fear the penguin
As Christmas approaches and Hanukkah comes along to the later days, there’s a chance you might be expecting a new computer, or perhaps even a netbook.
Now, what to the do with the old computer, or even with the netbook? Why not give your old computer a new life by running Linux on it? It may seem like a scary thought, but chances are you have a few misconceptions about Linux and that’s keeping you from making the jump.
Here is a list of five of the biggest Linux myths out there and how you can make Linux your friend.
5. It won’t connect to an iPod or MP3 player.
This might not apply to everyone, but to some people who only have one computer it could be a big deal. Most people now have some sort of MP3 player, and need a computer to put music on it, with special software on top of that, especially with the iPod.
Now, of course, you can’t use the App Store without iTunes (which has some problems installing with WINE), but you can easily buy songs from Amazon MP3 store, or rip them from CDs. Most music players for Linux support MP3 players, and even iPods, some like Songbird even look like iTunes if you’re almost too comfortable with the program.
4. Linux is not compatible with Mac/Windows files.
This seems to be a general misconception about computers in general. A lot of people seem to think that files from one operating system won’t work on any other one. This is true about applications, but not for the files they use or create.
If you’re working with a word processor, chance are it can export files to .doc files, which just about any program can use. Music is usually stored in MP3, AAC or FLAC files, all of which are easily usable on any platform. Having compatible files is easily avoided if you use cross-platform applications such as OpenOffice, that way you dont have to worry about exporting to other file types
3. Linux can’t play games.
This might not be important to everyone, but to some people games are the main reason why they stick with Windows. Even if all they play is World of Warcraft, they don’t want to give up their games just because thy switch to another OS.
There’s actually a lot of games that are native to Linux, though most aren’t as pretty as the newest games. There are ways to play those new games on Linux, however. There’s Codeweaver’s Crossover and Crossover Games, Cedega, and WINE (Crossover is essentially a more stable, paid version of WINE). Between these three, most popular games are easily played. I run WarCraft III on Ubuntu Eee using WINE, and it can easily handle WoW or even games liek Team Fortress 2, assuming your computer can handle it, of course.
2. Apps are hard to find.
Most Linux distros come with a lot of useful software, but sometimes you might want to replace them with something else or find something else you might want ot need. Unlike Windows, and to a lesser extent Mac, there aren’t many retail box copies of Linux software. However, with a quick Google search for “Linux apps” I was able to find Linux Online’s application page. Or, if you’re running Ubuntu, there’s Get Deb, which not only lists Ubuntu software, but also makes it really simple to install them.
1. You have to learn command line/terminal
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told people that I’m running Linux, and they immediately cringe at the idea of the terminal. Somewhere along the line, Linux got the reputation that it’s only usable by coders, or those who know a decent bit of code.
The same people that cringe are the same people that are surprised when I show them Ubuntu Eee. It’s possibly even more simple than Windows with the netbook remix UI, but Linux is easy even without that.
Some distributions such as openSUSE have a Windows-like start menu, some, like Ubuntu, have an applications drop menu that lists all your applications, making for an environment that should be easy for anyone. Most also use GNOME or KDE file browsers which are just as easy to navigate as Windows Explorer.
If you can possibly get past these scary ideas, I would recommend Ubuntu, or Ubuntu Eee for your Eee PC (soon to be Easy Peasy, with more netbooks supported). Also look for my article on useful applications for Linux that can replace your Windows or Mac Apps.
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I just love that little penguin guy!
Jess
on December 24, 2008 at 07:25 PM - LINKhttp://www.privacy.de.tc
Good article, but I disagree with number one. Most of the time when you want to install applications in Linux you have to install from the command line. Like in Ubuntu apt get is a command i use in the terminal all the time.
Yes you can run a Linux Distro without the the command line, but you wont be getting the full experience
on December 24, 2008 at 07:51 PM - LINKI’ve used Macs and Linux for years. I’ll especially endorse 4, 2, & 1. I have no problems sharing files between my little EEE PC running Xandros and my OS X Mac. I even share Google docs online. No problems at all.
There are _tons_ of apps for Linux. With my EEE and it’s particular version of LInux, I go to the EEE users forum, and there are lots of discussions not about where to find software but which versions of the many apps are better.
I also do not need the command line for my EEE, but I prefer the command line for some tasks on both my Mac and EEE. As usual, there are several different ‘terminal’ apps available for my EEE, so I picked one and went with it. However, all my apps run from the Start menu - just select and click. No need to see a command line if you don’t want to - not any different from my Mac.
I don’t play any computer games, so I have no clue about availability on Macs and Linux. I have iTunes on my Mac, but I rarely buy from the store. I have too many CDs already, and I have copied the ones I like to my Mac for playing. If I want to play them on my EEE, I just drag and drop. Since they’re mine, there are no DRM issues. The EEE will play any MP3 file I’ve got on the software that was included when I bought it.
Which brings up another factor: The EEE came _loaded_ with free (as in beer) software. I suspect most installations of Linux also include pretty much all the software you’ll need for general use. The issue becomes whether the software you get on the computer works better for you than something else. If you’re comfortable with what you’ve got, you’re good to go. If you want something else, you can get it, generally for free.
on December 24, 2008 at 08:03 PM - LINKErm, reccomending getdeb for ubuntu is not a great idea, we are not a huge fan of that on the ubuntu side of things. suggesting people just goto applications -> add/remove programs and look for applications in that is much more sane.
on December 24, 2008 at 08:19 PM - LINKAdd/remove programs is somewhat easy for those running on standard Ubuntu. I’m working mainly with Ubuntu Eee (which, granted isn’t an official version of Ubuntu), and add/remove programs doesn’t work all that well for me for some reason. For that reason I like Get Deb, also because it reminds me a bit of MacUpdate.
on December 24, 2008 at 08:44 PM - LINK@Kyle Potts: I disagree about your “number 1 disagreement”. What about Synaptic Package Manager ? To install an app you does not even need to touch the command line if you dont want. Just some search, clicks and apply.
Anyway i agree about the “wont be getting the full experience” part.
Nice article.
on December 24, 2008 at 09:28 PM - LINK5. It’s not nearly the same, the linux solution is terribly crippled. Better stick with itunes for now.
4. yep, just try to write ntfs or hfs+ and the average user will be in a world of pain. experimental at best.
3. linux can’t play windows games, and wine is still incompatible with most games or windows apps. configuration is also a pain.
2. get some permanent betas from people with no idea of designing a gui
1. wut? that’s the most powerful tool. to get thinks running you’ll need it…
on December 24, 2008 at 09:38 PM - LINKAs much as linux is easier now than in the past I completely disagree with number 1. I installed the latest version of ubuntu (8.10 or so) and i couldnt get either my graphics card to run or my network card. To even have a chance of getting either to work (and for my pc usage they are damn near essential) I had to go into terminal. I still couldnt get it to work due to the oldness of my network card.
on December 24, 2008 at 10:30 PM - LINKWhile the basic premise of Linux is no more difficult than any other operating system, in practice you’d better know how to use the command line, don’t expect many of your Windows programs to work under Wine or any other Windowsish library and be prepared to spend a lot of time just getting the thing to cooperate with you. Linux has virtually no native wireless drivers—you will be an seasoned computer geek in no time trying to locate your Win32 drivers and getting them to work with ndiswrapper (which might or might not be included in your distribution and might or might not be compiled—yeah, and you might have been foolish enough to install Linux on your ONLY computer, so you can’t even connect to the Internet to GET your wireless drivers). That has been the biggest problem I have had with it. Also, for some reason, a lot of browser plug-ins don’t seem to like Linux—I have run Firefox under Ubuntu and have tried over and over again to get simple things like FLASH to work correctly.
Bottom line, I’ve been playing with Linux since around 1995 and have yet to see anything that would really replace Windows. Dear God, I wish Linux would mature to that point, and I don’t blame you guys one bit for singing its praises, but maybe spend a little less time on PR and a little more time on contributing code that will solve some of these nightmares. Try negotiating some agreements with major wireless chip manufacturers to allow Linux to distribute their chipset drivers along with base distributions and pre-configure wireless for people, please! Also, WPA2 has been out for a while—why doesn’t Ubuntu support it out-of-the-box?!
By the way, Linux is FINE for Netbooks!!!!!! That’s about the point to which it has evolved.
on December 25, 2008 at 12:05 AM - LINKI’ve thought about it for about a year now, and come to the realization that I don’t WANT people who don’t know how to use a computer-I mean really know how to use it (Windows and especially Mac users)-to switch. Before you know it, I won’t even have a terminal emulator standard with my distro. They will destrroy everything it means to BE linux, and all we’ll be left with is another sub par operating system.
on December 25, 2008 at 01:04 AM - LINKAlso, I anticipate a whole bunch of comments about me being elitist. Don’t worry, just remember I already called it. If that’s what it takes to keep linux the way it is,so be it.
Keep your Windows, n00bs.
Ryan, I completely agree. I liked Linux 5 years ago when I could select my own applications to install using the main install menu, not some hidden “advanced” menu. It would be nice if people went down the same path to LEARN their OS. However, obviously things are changing. I constantly wonder if it for the better. I’m still undecided. I’m also tired of people comparing Linux to Windows and OS X. There is no comparison that I can see. You wouldn’t use a hammer when you need a screwdriver. Or maybe you would, and that’s the type of Linux user I like. Stop trying to convince people to switch OS’s. People should use whatever works BEST for them. Not always what’s installed out of the box.
on December 25, 2008 at 01:58 AM - LINKI’m surprised by dingdong’s comment about NTFS. See http://www.ntfs-3g.org/ for details.
on December 25, 2008 at 06:27 AM - LINKThe 2 main problemsw with Linux are :-
1) useability - still a major problem .
2) presentation - it still looks gawky - needs a good dose of a digital graphics artist .
Windows may be very unreliable but it is very useable and it is organised and presented well . Don’t expect the customers to adjust to you - you must adjust to the customers .
on December 25, 2008 at 07:54 AM - LINKNo matter how much you fans keep telling us that Linux is easy to use, that Linux is a real desktop contender and the sun always shines bright in Linuxland. It just doesn’t magically come true. And after reading similar things for the last decade, it is really getting old.
on December 25, 2008 at 08:11 AM - LINKRyan, don’t worry. You can always create your own Crappix From Scratch distribution and still have that warm feeling of having something unique not suitable for mere mortals.
I wouldn’t worry too much though, since Linux will always remain a toy for geeks.
on December 25, 2008 at 09:12 AM - LINK@Kim, I find both points Miths, unless you are comparing Linux to OSX, and even then I find KDE4 more “pretty” than OSX.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Tours/Fedora10/Screenshots
or
http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.1/index.php
on December 25, 2008 at 09:37 AM - LINKThe inovation pace of Linux is very high, but it is not for everyone. I find Linux to be especially good for two kinds of people:
1) The regular users, who have someone they know that takes care of their system.. (The type of Windows users that need someone to install their OS, programs, run anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc.. once in while)
2) Power users who like to invest time on learning new stuff.
@Dingdong
5. The Linux solution is only crippled if you have to work with already crippled proprietary systems like the iPod and the Apple iTunes store. Apple is perhaps the one manufacturer that produces MORE crippled hardware than most other manufacturers combined. Furthermore, iTunes and Windows Media Player both rip into CRIPPLED DRM’d music formats. If you work with companies that like their hardware to be used (ANY other mp3 player or MOST other online music services, for example), then programs like Amarok blow most other media players away.
4. I agree that Linux support for HFS+ is experimental at best, but that’s because few people outside of the Mac OS X world use HFS+ and because Apple refuses to give back to the open source community after using an open source OS as the basis for Mac OS X. I disagree with your point about NTFS support. I can do things with NTFS partitions in Linux that Microsoft Windows won’t let you do without buying third party software (e.g. resize NTFS partitions without destroying data). Even when write support for NTFS was brand new, I used it often and found it to be quite safe, despite Microsoft refusing to work with the open source community at the time that Linux NTFS support was being developed. 3rd generation NTFS support is now becoming quite mature in Linux.
3. I agree about games. I can hardly wait until Sun VirtualBox has full 3D graphics acceleration support, so I can play Windows games without using my wife’s machine. In the meantime, there are a few Linux games that I really enjoy (e.g. Battle for Wesnoth); however, most of these games are also available for Windows and Mac OS.
2. GUI’s are a little ugly; however, are completely usable.
1. The commandline isn’t always necessary. I don’t like Ubuntu because on some older hardware it configures itself incorrectly and a command line is necessary. Debian stable, on the other hand, despite being somewhat old, usually configures itself quite correctly and comes with fairly powerful graphical package managers. Most versions of OpenSuse and Fedora are the same, they configure themselves quite correctly. In fact, you can configure almost every aspect of OpenSuse without ever touching a command line (unless you want a fairly bizarre configuration on something). Windows and Mac OS have nowhere the reconfigurability that OpenSuse has through its GUI—even if you hack Windows and Mac OS X through the command line and Windows registry.
Conclusion: most naysayers about Linux on the net are just too lazy to learn a new system and take what was true ten years ago as if it were still true today—either that, or they work for companies that depend on Windows or Mac OS.
on December 26, 2008 at 12:37 PM - LINKThat’s exactly what I did, my computer wouldn’t boot because of a driver issue with windows, I popped in a live CD of Slax and I was able to recover my files from there. Slax, and Puppy linux are my favorites because they are small and easy to use.
on December 26, 2008 at 06:26 PM - LINKYes, i do agree with this!
Also i havent found many games that dont run under wine for me…:)
Only issue I have is that currently I cannot sync my iphone without unlocking it…:/
on December 26, 2008 at 07:13 PM - LINKThese are good points made about Linux being
similar to Windows. I have wanted to run Linux
and these are good reasons to setup a Linux
system.
thanks from tony
on December 27, 2008 at 12:24 AM - LINKUm, Ubuntu Eee? Do you mean Eeebuntu? Or is there another fork of which I am unaware?
You could also just use Ubuntu Netbook Remix…
But whatever is wrong with the Xandros fork that comes loaded on most Eee PCs? Works fine for me.
on December 27, 2008 at 02:40 AM - LINKmore then vista i like xp and ubuntu,
on December 27, 2008 at 07:18 AM - LINKlinux is amazing i love ubuntu
Moss Bliss, check ubuntu-eee.com, or the creator’s page jonramvi.com. There’s probably quite a few out there, none of them being official ubuntu releases. While just using Ubuntu with Netbook Remix is an option, I personally prefer something built specifically for the Eee since the space is already so limited, I don’t want to delete things I don’t want, I’d rather have to add things I do want.
on December 28, 2008 at 04:06 AM - LINKSorry, have had the Eee PC and Ubuntu both (different computers) for some time, and had not heard of Ubuntu-Eee previously… but Eeebuntu is an almost-official fork, and I had heard of that… and Netbook Remix is supposed to work. I still don’t understand what’s wrong with ASUS-Xandros that needs to be changed… but I guess if you got a Windoze Eee PC you would want to change it.
I just purchased a 901 (on eBay); when it gets here, I will pass my 701 to a homeless person. Not a comment on the machine, just I’m President of Asheville Homeless Network, still the nation’s only membership organization for the homeless.
on December 28, 2008 at 06:13 AM - LINKLinux is the kind of software, which can only get better when more people join. The current desktop marketshare is around 1% of the total and offers 90% (personal estimation based on my expierence with end-users as a professional software developer, helpdesk employee and computer-repairman) of the total user expierence. Think of the possibilities when the marketshare is up to 90%....
The whole GPL concept makes it harder to investment in innovation based on Linux, because you need a business model based on services to support it. But apart from business investment, there will be researchers and filantropists adding resources, because the usage of GPL software is in the public domain.
One of the biggest obstacles I see for Linux are businesses and schools. Show them that Linux-based PC’s offer them so much for free and additional functionality can be obtained for a fraction of the cost of a propietary software license. The more users, the better a the platform gets (see the rules of Wikinomics). When the Linux-community can convince them to convert, the home-users will usually follow.
on December 29, 2008 at 05:50 AM - LINK