Wassup nerds, it's me, Luke Smith.
So there are 2 types of computer users out there,
people who use MacOS and people who use Windows OS.
Now currently, I use neither, because I am using Linux.
"Oh my gosh, the sun here is so bright, I can't see anything."
Now you might be wondering, what's Linux, I've never heard of it?
Well that's because Linux has less than 4% marketshare while Windows and MacOS takes the leaderboard.
Now the reason why people use MacOS and Windows is because it's sold with the computer and it's easy to use.
When you go to Walmart, or Costco, or Best Buy and you buy a prebuilt laptop,
it most likely has Windows or MacOS pre-installed on it,
so these 2 OSes are people defaults.
Also, ease of use.
Most people in the world aren't tech savvy,
they just want to browse the web, send emails, print documents, and etc…
Windows and MacOS do a very good job at hiding the systems guts and presenting everything by a gui,
because of that, people who've been through lobatamies can use the 2 OSes because the ux is just so straightforward.
Now to answer the question, why do I use Linux?
Most people use Windows and MacOS,
why do I use an os that not that many people pay attention to?
Well, it's because I want to,
it seems like a very fun hobby,
and it's also because I don't like the 2 other OSes.
Despite being called “Windows”, you can't even look inside the source code, it's proprietary.
The OS is slow because of bloat,
a Microsoft Account is required to install it,
telemetry,
ads in the start menu,
removed features, and etc…
On MacOS,
and I've only used this at school because I don't have a MacBook.
It's easy to use and simplistic,
but because they focus so much on simplicity,
there are basic features like Window snapping not present,
and you need to find a 3rd party alternative to get things going.
Both of them are paid, close source, and have little to no customization.
Those are my reasons on why I’m on Linux.
I often hear that people who use Windows or MacOS say that Linux is HARD,
and that is true at times because some things don’t work out of the box,
but it’s also because your brain doesn’t work out of the box.
A lack of understanding pretty much.
From my understanding, Linux is a kernel, aka, the systems guts.
It was made in 1991 by Linus Torvalds
and it was closed source at first but then open source and because of that,
there are Linux Distros aka Distrobutions,
pretty much operating systems based on the Linux kernel.
There are distrobutions like:
Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop_OS, Zorin OS, Fedora, Manjaro, and many more,
like 600 Linux distros,
because Linux is free as in price and in freedom,
because you can mess around with the source code.
So I don’t use an operating system called “Linux”
like what you call MacOS and WindowsOS.
I use a distro of it, but people say Linux because it’s the foundation.
So there are 600 distros out there,
nice,
that’s a lot of options,
but what distro do I use?
On my All-in-one desktop, I use Kubuntu
and on my laptop, I use Linux Mint.
These are distrobutions based off of Ubuntu
and because of that, these are the easy to use Linux Distros that I use.
My experience on Linux so far is easy because I use Kubuntu and Mint.
Linux distros come in all shapes and sizes,
some are easy, some are hard.
The hard Linux distros are Arch and Gentoo,
these are DIY distros where you build or compile your own distro.
These are popular distros because people just wanna flex,
but not everyone uses them.
To me, when you’re saying “Linux is difficult”,
I think you’re comparing a Arch to Windows or something.
So what are the upsides to using Linux?
There are 3 things that come to my mind.
Security, Lightweightness, and Customization.
There are times when I have gotten a virus on my Windows laptop,
and since I use Windows, they track my user activity.
From what I read, Macs don't track you and have less viruses,
but I'm not gonna spend 2 grand on a laptop am I?
Windows has more viruses because it's popular and the source code is hidden,
therefore it's slower to fix problems.
On Linux, it's not that popular,
but since the source code is open,
you can look for bugs and issues and fix them yourself instead of waiting for Windows to fix stuff for you…
So for Windows users who worry about privacy, switching to Linux might just be a no-brainer.
"Oh my gosh, there's a shadow here"
The 2nd reason is that Linux is more lightweight than Windows and MacOS.
If you're running low spec hardware,
Linux can breathe new life into your computer because of low spec requirements.
Windows eats up a lot of ram and you can't even install MacOS on any laptop.
For something that's free and open source,
it's pretty awesome to see the affects it can do on your computer.
Goes to show how bloated proprietary software can be.
The third reason is customization.
On Macs, you can't customize or install themes,
it's locked down and I guess it's so that you don't break anything.
Windows is much more customizable than MacOS,
but on Windows 11,
you can't even move your taskbar to the left or right,
what the heck?
Ok, Editors note here,
I forgot to say something about Linux.
So I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop Environment,
which is a style of how your desktop looks.
In my settings,
I can easily change the:
I can easily change the: colors,
I can easily change the: colors, window decorations,
I can easily change the: colors, window decorations, icons,
it’s so easy.
And look, I can move my taskbar around!
So the downsides to Linux, what are they?
To me, it's compatiblility and ease of use.
Some people have this thinking that,
“anything can work on any computer, it doesn't matter the operating system”.
But the truth is, computers are not the same.
Programs that work on Mac will work on Mac,
and programs that work on Windows will work on Windows.
Because Windows and Mac are so popular,
developers develop the programs and apps on those platforms
and Linux gets left out because the Linux userbase is so small,
there's no incentive.
On Windows, that's where all the games are being developed,
all the graphics drivers work.
No joke,
when I installed DaVinci Resolve on Fedora,
I had to use the terminal to install dependencies to get it working.
But on Windows, it just works right out of the box.
Why?!
Which gets me into my 2nd downside, ease of use.
Sometimes when something goes wrong, you have to open up a terminal to fix things.
For advanced users, this isn't an issue,
but for the average Joe out there, this can be daunting.
Personally for me though,
I can deal with this because it is convenient to type in a command than to open up settings,
but it does stress me out a lot at times.
But yeah, I am a Linux boi.
I have switched back to Windows for some days,
but then I switched BACK to Linux because I got familiar with Kubuntu and Mint,
I kinda forgot how to use Windows tbh.
My biggest challenges are playing video games as some games are not supported,
especially multi-player titles,
and softwares I might need like DaVinci Resolve that I have issues with.
That’s why I’m using Kdenlive to edit this video.
But even with downsides,
Linux has improved a lot since the Vista days
and I hope for more work to be done on it
so that people can consider it as a viable alternative to Mac or Windows…