Why do people switch to Linux 13491

On Saturday 29 October 2005 15:56, Kier stood up and spoke the following words to the mbuttes incomp.os.linux.advocacy...:

As I have stated a few times before - it may have been on other newsgroups, though - I myself never started out using GNU-Linux as an escape route from Microsoft Windows.

When I bought my very first own computer - I had previously been working on my dad's second-hand XT, which didn't even have a hard disk - I actually wanted 32-bit OS-2 on it.

Yet, OS-2 2.0 wasn't available for purchase yet, and that PC came pre-installed with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0. I've used that set-up for about six months before OS-2 2.0 became available, and I've used OS-2 itself for about five years.

As OS-2 was dying and my 33 MHz 386DX computer needed replacement, I wanted my next computer to be a UNIX machine. Yet, commercial UNIX was incredibly expensive at the time, and as I didn't have an Internet connection yet, I was less aware of how GNU and GNU-Linux had grown in the meantime. All I got to see as status updates concerning those came from minor articles in computer magazines.

My friends were all on Windows 95, which I considered a waste as it was still DOS-based. So I made a compromise between wanting to be "compatible with my friends' computers" and my wish to have a native 32-bit operating system. So I purchased NT 4.0 Workstation. Not a UNIX, but it seemed an okay choice at the time.

About three years later - late 1999, to be exact - I read an article in a computer magazine in which the (at that time) most recent GNU-Linux distros were being compared. It drew my attention and I kept thinking about it later on.

Incidentally, I happened to be at a software shop two weeks later, as I wanted to buy MS Encarta as a Christmas gift for my brother. And there on the shelf were several of the GNU-Linux distributions I had just read about only two weeks earlier: Mandrake, RedHat, Caldera and SuSE.

From reading the article, I thought Mandrake would be the most interesting one to me, and so I checked out the box. I thought about it for a while, but I put it back on the shelf. After all, I already had an operating system on my computer, so why would I need two operating systems?

I decided to just head for the cash register and forget about it, but after having only made one step, I turned back, grabbed the box from the shelf, and took it with me to the cashier.

Due to circumstances, I waited another two weeks before I decided to install it alongside of Windows NT. This was early December 1999.

I managed to install it without any problems. I had read the manuals and had gotten my soundcard set up using theisapnptoolspackage. My 17" monitor also worked nicely in 1024*768 at a nice refresh of 71 Hz.

In those days, I didn't use my computer on a daily basis, and I didn't keep it up and running for 24 hours a day. I would regularly boot into GNU-Linux and regularly into Windows NT. However, the more I booted up in GNU-Linux, the more I felt like wanting to boot up in this wonderful new system.

At a few minutes after midnight on January 1st 2000, I booted up NT - or at least I tried booting NT... The boot procedure crashed immediately, leaving me with a message that I was to contact the system's administrator - duh! I was to contact myself! - or that I had to change some settings in the Configuration Panel - another "duh!"; how do you get to the Configuration Panel if you can't boot up the system? Nice move, Microsoft! Especially for a system with all the service

I reset the computer and tried a few times again. It just kept hanging at the same screen. I reset it again and chose GNU-Linux from the bootloader menu. It ran just fine...

I was disappointed that NT didn't work anymore, because I had invested a lot of money in NT and MS Office. Yet, for a while, I just kept on using GNU-Linux, using StarOffice to access my Word documents - which I had saved on a separate FAT filesystem - and even playing around with the WordPerfect for GNU-Linux that was shipped with Mandrake at the time.

After about 4 months, cable internet became available here in town, and I was one of the first local customers. The guy who came to install it knew nothing about GNU-Linux, and the CD with software from my ISP was of course tailored for Windows 98.

Still, being totally new to the concept of setting up my own Internet connection, I managed, usingnetconfand the information given to me by the ISP's tech guy.

Again a few months later, I decided it was time for a new computer again. I also contemplated buying Windows 2000 - no way I was going to settle for Win98 or ME! - but then again that same question as before came up in my mind:

"Why do I need two operating systems anyway? This one works I like the GPL and the whole philosophy! Besides, Win2000 is going to cost me a fortune again, and I'll probably need a new version of Office as well..."

So I stuck with GNU-Linux and installed my new computer with the penguin as my only operating system. I found that I had no problems exchanging documents with others, as StarOffice was compatible with their MS-Office documents.

I could surf with Netscape, I could chat on IRC with KVIrc, I used Netscape Messenger as my e-mail client, and I played around in The Gimp. Meanwhile, I also got more and more familiar with the Free & Open Source Software philosophy, and I was thoroughly impressed at the wealth of applications that came with a GNU-Linux distribution.

It wasn't all too long before I joined the Mandrake-specific newsgroup and started sharing my experiences with the newbies. It was only much later - and mostly through the clues and links I picked up from Usenet regarding Microsoft - that I started disliking Microsoft as a company, and that I became more familiar with all the problems people were experiencing with their Windows machines.

GNU-Linux was not an escape from Windows at all. It was the embodiment of the system I had always wanted, and built around a software licensing that was totally new to me, but that I found very much in agreement with how I felt about society.

To this very day, I still stand by my choice and by the sentiments regarding GNU-Linux and FOSS that I experienced when I first encountered those concepts.

In fact, one could say that I wouldn't need to concern myself with Windows or Microsoft anymore now, as those have nothing to do with me personally anymore. However, Microsoft is the archenemy of Free Software, and Iamoften being called upon to help Windows users out of their misery whenever their system gets screwed up again.

So those are the reasons why I dislike Microsoft. Not as a frustrated Windows user, but as a frustrated support person for Windows users and as someone who feels that not only his personal freedom but also the personal freedom of others is threatened by Microsoft's attempts to destroy Free Software, whether it is by political lobbying or by asphyxiating NDA's with, and conditioning of hardware vendors.

That last part has been a particularly painful experience for me when I ordered a custom-built machine - the one I was supposed to have instead of the one I have now - and of which I had clearly stated that I would *only* be using GNU-Linux on that machine. The people who built it had tested it with two versions of Windows, but not with any version of GNU-Linux "as they didn't know how to install it or use it".

Said machine was flawed from the start - it crashed about 10 times in two hours, 8 times of which in the first half hour. As the machine was under warranty - it was brandnew! - I wanted to appeal upon that warranty and have it examined again, but the company that had built it refused to do so.

They said it was my fault, that I had done something wrong or that it was GNU-Linux's fault, as "it ran perfectly with Windows". Another "duh!" here, as I had clearly stated not to be using Windows. Eventually, there was an e-mail flamewar - initiated by them, as I had stayed quite polite in my complaint - and they took the machine back for evaluation.

While they were not too keen on admitting it, they would soon confirm that there was indeed something terribly wrong with the hardware. It took them over a year to determine that the machine could indeed not be made to function properly.

Apparently, Tyan had specified that the motherboard needed two Athlon MP processors, while the board could *not* be made to run properly with those CPU's installed. Instead, it ran fine with two Athlon XP's, but AMD did not provide any warranty for SMP usage of the Athlon XP.

Eventually, I was offered a totally new configuration - even the case is different - worth the same amount of money I had spent on that dual AMD machine. And this is the configuration I have today; the dual Xeon HT machine. They even gave me 2 GB extra of (ECC) RAM.

The bottom line is that I had a hell of a time standing up for myself and for GNU-Linux. I had presented these people withdmesglogs and other evidence, but they simply had refused to believe me because they had run a non-productive test with two - if it really *was* two - versions of Windows, an OS that I had specifically said not to be using.

Apparently, these guys were unable to grasp that Windows is not the only operating system in the world, and that computers are not supposed to behave as they do under Windows, i.e. the required reboots, the blue screens, etc. Their idea of "works perfectly well" also seems to rather be "We booted Windows and watched it sit there for a while before we shut it down again, and this test was perfect".

And *that* is why I hate Microsoft. Because they are indoctrinating and conditioning people to such an extent that even alleged IT professionals no longer acknowledge that there are other operating systems besides Windows, and that by definition anything going wrong on a machine running GNU-Linux is GNU-Linux's fault - and even more insulting to the user's intelligence, that it's the user's fault.

And well... I also hate them whenever I have to reinstall Windows and all that goes with it on someone else's computer... ;-)

Thusfar my story... ;-)

-- With kind regards,

*Aragorn* (Registered GNU-Linux user #223157)