Microsoft has, for many years now, had the major market share when it comes to operating systems. According to Wikipedia at the end of 2010 Windows XP was used on 44% of all computers (with the combined percentage for all windows versions from XP to 7 was 84.97). The Graph below is based on the data from Wikipedia.

The thing is, is that Windows is also the most expensive OS at present with Mac costing less than R500 and Linux being free. So I am on a mission to find out why Linux hasn’t caught on, and what a good OS is to use, especially if the cost of Windows is getting to you.

I, at present, have a dual-boot using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and Linux Mint 10 Julia, so LM has a lot to live up to, since my comparison is against the best Windows has to offer.

The start…

To start with, getting the dual-boot to work took a bit of working and playing. I booted from the LiveCD and installed from there. The program installed every time (of the four attempts), but the boot menu, to choose an OS, was not working, once that was sorted out there were no problems.

Once LM was up and running that was basically it – there were no drivers to be installed, it all just works. On my Dell XPS M1330, the media touch keys, wireless and Bluetooth all work without any extra work. It also comes with decent application data: Office, Media Managers, video player, Graphic editors to mention a few. The pre-installed mail client is Thunderbird, which is used only for email, but with add-ons like Lighting and Contacts Sidebar, you can manage your diary and contacts as well. My personal preference is to use evolution which could really be a replacement for Outlook (which is still my first choice in PIM software).

The negative

There are a few glitches which I have not yet found a way around (although I know that solutions exist for most):

1)      There are a few windows applications which I would really like to use, and although Wine is a Windows emulator that allows someone to load and run Windows applications, I have only been able to get notepad working. That being said, I do have a few mates who have been able to get it working.

2)      RIM devices do not sync with Linux. Barry is an app which should allow you to do this, but again, I have not as yet been able to get this running. That being said, when the Wine issue is solved, this problem would also be solved.

3)      Battery charge time is slow and its life is short. There is still nothing which can match Mac in this area, but even Windows 7 is better.

These are the only real issues that I have come across to date. Note that some of the issues are possibly a lack of knowledge more than any real issue (other than battery issues).

The positive

Any Linux based machine has a far quicker start-up and shut down time compared to Windows and the lack of viruses is and always will be a huge draw-card. Windows 7 minimum requirements is 1 Gig of RAM. While running OpenOffice, Firefox, System Monitor, Terminal, and File Explorer all on top of the OS,  less than 400 MB used, which means that the OS will run on a much older machine than the latest version of Windows would.

The Terminal should always be mentioned in a review of any Linux OS. The terminal is similar to Windows Run utility, anything that you want to do can be done through the terminal, and if you are willing to take the time to learn the commands, you will find yourself using it more often than not, to do things like install software and run applications.

I think the best part of Linux is the Software Manager, which gives you access to over 30 000 applications (when connected to the internet), which are free. So no matter what you want to do, you will be able to find the application to suit the need.

The Verdict

I have used a few versions of Linux to date and although this is not the best that I have used, it does “feel” the most similar to Windows, and for that reason, if anyone is wanting to move to Linux from Windows, this would be the place to start.

If you are willing to learn a bit and have some time and HHD space to spare, I would encourage you to give Linux Mint a try.

[Some infomation taken from Wikipedia]

No related posts.