A Year Using Linux
Pros -
Privacy - I’ve been growing increasingly wary of companies that feel that they own your data. They feel that they can sell it to the highest bidder or use it to try and sell you something you don’t need by tailoring the ads so they might appeal to you. I believe you own your data! Most distributions of Linux will not sell your data, they don’t collect any personal stuff, or record your usage habits. When a Linux Distribution wants to collect hardware information, etc., you can always disable that at install, or it’s disabled by default, so it is not really an issue.
Security - Linux was built with security in mind. After all, most of the servers in the world use Linux. Security is not an after thought.
Freedom – You are free to use any graphical desktop that you like. You can add or remove features from the desktop. You can make it ‘your’ desktop. I personally like the gnome desktop environment which I have customized to my liking. You can’t say that about the Windows OS or Mac OS.
Community - You can get help online through forums, various social networks, or just by asking the developer. You are able to interact with people who are just starting their journey, or with people who have been there from the start. Community is essential to Linux.
Cons -
Program availability – For most of the programs that I use there are very good programs that can replace those that I would have used in another operating system. I might have to spend extra time to learn how to use a new program. Or worse, there may be no program available to replace a favorite programs.
Earlier, I wrote that I had two operating systems on my computer. There are two programs that I use that I have not found adequate replacements for. One of those is Adobe Acrobat Reader. There are a number of pdf readers in Linux, and I use Acrobat Reader to fill in forms. Sometimes these forms are created correctly and have fields to fill in, but other times they have been created using Microsoft Word and the forms have to be edited manually. I haven’t found a good pdf editor in Linux that allows you to do edit a pdf without jumping through a lot of hoops. It is just easier to reboot into Windows 10 and use Adobe Acrobat Reader.
I use Adobe Lightroom for editing/developing my photography. I have a Canon EOS-R camera and it saves the Raw file in a .cr3 format. As of now, there is basically only one program that is able to edit this format in Linux and it is foreign to me. I have used Lightroom since it first became available and I am quite comfortable with that workflow. I am not prepared to give that up just yet. There are other photography programs in Linux that will hopefully be able to process the .cr3 format in the near future, but until then I will stick with Adobe Lightroom.
As I look back over this year, I realize that the real reason I have switched to Linux is because it has rekindled that enjoyment, that excitement in using a computer. I have used both the Windows OS and the Mac OS and have felt that I was stuck behind a walled garden. Both Win OS and Mac OS are based on what the corporations behind them feel are important for them. After all, who wants to have an OS with all of that telemetry and data gathering. On the other hand, community input is important to the Linux. In Linux, your voice matters.
As a screen that sometimes pops up after upgrading your OS in Win 10 points out ‘Leave everything to us’, you really don’t have a choice!