It is Windows that has been the most popular operating system for personal computers for over 15 years. Continually there appear new versions, some of them better, some worse, but there is still no serious competitor.
What might be the cause of this situation?
Bill Gates discovered a niche on the market, when in the 90s PCs were gaining tremendous popularity. For years the users got used to the system, which let Microsoft become a giant. Nowadays almost everyone thinks Windows is the only operating system and that it’s impossible to work on a computer without it. Unfortunately, a large proportion of software is created to run exclusively on this system, so it is difficult to resign from it altogether.
Are we condemned to using Windows?
No, it is an individual choice of every one. Among the most popular operating systems, we may choose also OS X or Linux.
| operating system | popularity | price |
| Windows | 85% | 100 USD |
| OS X | 10% | 25 USD update |
| Linux | 5% | 0 USD |
Will I be able to learn how to use a new system?
It won’t be much difference for an average PC user whether they learn how to work on Windows, OS X or Linux. All these systems have convenient windowed interface and lots of available software. In the case of most applications, finding an equivalent of Windows version is not a problem. One disadvantage might be the fact that many popular PC games are not compatible with other OS.
Why it’s worth to opt for Linux?
What’s the point of spending lots of money on software and continuous system updates when you can have an equivalent for free? Linux has user interface in many different languages and intuitive repositories with which looking for applications is much easier.
Exemplary software:
- office - Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office,
- web browser - Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, Opera,
- mail client - Thunderbird,
- internet communicator - Skype, Tlen,
- music player, internet radio - Amarok, Spotify,
- movie player - VLC media player,
- file manager - Krusader,
- ftp client - Filezilla,
- burning CD/DVD - k3b,
- graphic editor - Gimp,
- 3D modelling - Blender,
- programming - Netbeans.
If you are used to a program that works only on Windows, you can try running it with the use of Wine software.
Intuitive configuration panel with numerous options.
Exploring new elements takes some time and it is normal to feel lost at first, however connecting to a WiFi network or plugging two monitors shouldn’t pose a problem. There might be some differences depending on the chosen user interface, Unity or KDE, so it’s a good idea to test both these environments. What’s worth noticing is that most Linux distributions can be run directly from a CD or DVD, without the need to install them on a hard drive. With this solution it is possible to diagnose the system in minutes, without the risk of losing any data.
Linux, but which distribution?
Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, openSUSE...? It is Ubuntu that has the richest software repository and it is the one I would recommend to beginners.
