Until quite recently I wasn’t aware of the OS called GNU/Linux. The first time when I heard of it I just thought of it as another OS just like Microsoft OS and far dumber which accounted for Linux’s unpopularity. I was wrong. I didn’t know that then. Once I was having a conversation with a geek. He went on speaking. I felt that I had to ask some technical question. Come on, I am not so dumb. May be I just thought so. I asked him to which company did Linux belong to! I could have stayed silent. He told me that it doesn’t belong to any company and most companies use it because they can change the source code to suit their needs. It was all crap. Since then I thought of it as something similar to DOS since companies used it. I liked DOS too, solely because I have seen computer engineers work with it. The idea changed when I saw something different from MS OS in a computer showroom. It was much like windows and had a GUI. To my surprise I discovered it as Linux !! Damn it ! They had copied Windows.(lolz)Thats what I thought . Of course since then Linux had a GUI :P .
The first time I had my hands on a Linux desktop was on the first computer practical class of my first semester. We were given a machine with red hat OS installed. The programs had to be typed in the vi editor, the most annoying editor for a newbie!! We were given a set of commands which made me feel Linux was incapable of being user friendly. My friend Kavin felt it comfortable as he had been working in DOS for long. Yeah he is my only friend who owns a computer since before windows became famous! Then one day there was a seminar in my college called FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) . A guy was speaking that there should be freedom in using software and as most people do, he brought Microsoft into his speech. He asked how the heck can Microsoft stop its users from distributing and modifying the software they had bought! I had heard one of the stupidest question, the only thing I heard properly in the seminar, which ultimately got me disinterested. I thought Microsoft can because he created the software! I just came out of the seminar and since then many FOSS seminars held in my college went unattended.
Again there was this seminar on python scripting. My friend ArunBalaChandran (ABC) and I always had reasons to bunk classes and this was the best reason we could give. The seminar started with the FOSS thing and this time it was more interesting and seemed to be sensible. This time it sounded something like free education. You are allowed to share your knowledge and use it in whatever way you liked! Isn’t free education good?? May be just then I started to look at in a different perspective. After the brief FOSS introduction, the Python seminar went well with demonstration of few python language features and an eye catching script which opened a tab in Mozilla Firefox. He also spoke about the LDTP project. The small crowd was happy and the session ended with the distribution of a free Linux distribution (Ubuntu). Imagining a licensed copy of OS free of cost was something great. I had to try something new. Until that time I had been a proud owner of legal, licensed, original, genuine Microsoft XP home edition. After that I was proud to be a Linux user. Oh installing it went fine. But making things work was damn difficult! Imagine a newbie like me had to sit for hours just to see my system play mp3 files!! And installing a software was almost impossible since Ubuntu came without most of the libraries, which had to be installed separately. People talk about the security of Linux. Yeah its clear now! If it was nearly mission impossible for me to install a software in my system how can anyone from a remote computer install a Trojan?? Oh God, speaking of trojans reminds me that I have been using the internet so long without an anti virus software. Surprisingly, I found no popular anti virus software for Linux when I searched for one. It doesn’t need one! It meant you don’t have to pay for a Norton anti-virus software or get a pirated version. What will happen to companies like Norton, Mcafee, etc .. if everyone started using Linux?? What will happen to all these softwares which once Ankit Fadia demonstrated in my college? Now this Ankit Fadia thing is a separate story. We will get to it later. All softwares like spyware doctor, spyware blaster didn’t have any job and many people even lose advertising through adwares and installing a software without user’s consent is impossible. Yeah certainly Microsoft makes so many companies live and creates a market!! For without Microsoft I wouldn’t have had a computer in my home!
What did all this result in? I just got interested in FOSS, Linux, etc.., Yeah I know very little of FOSS and have to get things started.
Now I am able to survive in the linux CLI after visiting a site for linux commands and basic linux concepts.
I just loved a line from a website…..
“when you are a child you use a computer by looking at the pictures. When you grow up, you learn to read and write. Welcome to Computer Literacy 101“
Linux taught me so many things regarding computers. As of now this is my stance……
Microsoft OS is smart and does most things for you(and Microsoft) without your consent. Linux asks you permission for almost everything, for which its called non user friendly. A typical user using Microsoft OS knows lesser about his system than the OS. With a Linux you have to decide what the OS knows and does.
Like taking decisions? Use Linux…Sometimes taking decisions can be very tough at the beginning…!!
The Bottom Line: What do you get by using Linux?? Freedom. Lets use it!! It’s ours!!
