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In part one I addressed the introduction of the Crossing Over series, with regard to escaping dreaded proprietary systems. In a way this series is about self-reliance to some degree and the ability to sustain oneself over time with something completely foreign from a technological standpoint. However this should not bring to mind the self-reliant in the mountains, with wild-eyes, and boot-leg gin pouring out of shotguns.

An OS By Any Other Name: The first thing I needed to decide on was a good operating system from which to build my ‘Ultimate Web-Devers’ engine. Now while I want to address these decisions as one who knows very little about computers, I need to clarify that I am indeed trying to make a professional decision here as well.

Open-Source is not nearly as risky as it once was. As a matter of fact, its hardly risky at all. Consider the following;

1. Does Microsoft provide REAL customer service via the phone?
2. Does Microsoft troubleshoot your computer when things go wrong?
3. Does Microsoft provide any REAL support for doing the things you would like done?

Probably not. This is no different than Linux. With Linux you get;

1. A stable operating system:

What does this mean? It means no blue-screen-of death. Linux is built stronger by default. In fact, the very reason why Steve Jobs left Bill Gates and Microsoft was over the OS stability issue. (aside from Gates ’stealing’ his stuff) Steve Jobs decided to leave Bill to start a company called ‘Apple’. Perhaps you have heard of them? In any case Gates started his new company based on a different approach to the Operating System. After seeing some real struggling times Apple and Jobs begain implementing/working with a version of the Linux Kernel. In fact Linux had gained and is still gaining such popularity that it is being fully supported by IBM, Novell, OpenGL, HP, and Sun Microsystems. Linux is known for its stability.

2. Community Support:

There can be a lot said for support, but what is important is what is unsaid. People generally feel more comfortable knowing they can call someone for help or assistance. The latest rage is to send these call-centers over to India, and pay them $1 an hour (this is not a fact an embellishment) to speak to you in a form of English you barely even knew existed. What Linux has, Windows doesn’t have and will never have. Windows did not build its company on a community, which is why they cannot build community into their product. I will tell you who has though, Apple. The folks at Apple has built serious community into their computers, in fact they are such a tight-knit community I call them Apple-snobs. This is more of a joke than an assault, I convinced my father (a non-computer person) to get an Apple and he absolutely loves it. So now my dad is part of this snob group. But when you buy an Apple you buy the community, much like buying a Harley Davidson. You belong to an elite group, plus Apple is just absolutely sweet on graphics and presentation. Microsofts UI (user interface) is just plain ugly, even Vista isn’t as nice looking as it could be. And the UI on Vista is a power-munching, ram hording, CPU sucking monstrosity! So basically with Microsoft there is no community, with Apple you buy the community, but what about Linux? Linux IS the community! What do I mean by that? Well the Linux community is a close-knit user group who are all committed into helping one another, and the reason why Linux has always attracted that kind of people is because Linux has been shoved in the deep dark closets of obscurity, populated by pocket-protectors and thick-rimmed glasses for some time now. Linux is used to being the secret, however recent advances have really shone brightly for Linux. It has been this strong community support that attracted me to Linux. Well, I’m lying, the first thing that attracted me to Linux years ago was to try and be a part of that elite group of computer know-it-alls, then I discovered you can’t know it all, and went back to Windows after trying several distributions. But after the aforementioned frustration over the cost of continual ownership of proprietary systems, I decided to do something about it. Which ultimately led me to using Ubuntu as my operating system of choice.

3. Linux Only Open Source?

Of course one needs to be aware that there are many open-source applications that are readily available for Windows however, I am seeing some things in Windows that are really quite disturbing. Those who disagree may want to re-read the new Microsoft EULA for Vista. In any case, it became clear that I was going with Linux but with so many options and flavors of Linux I was having a tough time deciding. I had tried Fedora Core, Red Hat, SUSE, Gentoo, Slackware, Debian and Ubuntu 7.02 (Edgy build) and 7.04 (Feisty Build). Out of those my favorites were Debian (lovely package manager) and Slackware. However, I was completely WOW’d by Ubuntu’s latest release. Originally I had Beryl running and a bunch of pretty’s but I wanted something that anybody could install and run. Crossing over from Windows to Ubuntu is so easy it’s almost scary. Setting up email on Evolution is really simple and fast, and FireFox is the ultimate in browsers. Deciding on my applications was a bit harder, and is best saved for discussion in a different segment.

4. The Aftermath

Once I decided to convert over to Linux I went all the way. My office machine is running Ubuntu, my laptop (where most my productivity comes from) is running Linux and to top it all off I decided to run a really simple test. About a month ago, I asked my wife what browser was she using. I figured since being married to me she would easily know the answer to this question. Her answer, “What is a browser?”. I almost fell down, but immediately I thought, “Hey! This would be the ultimate test to see if Linux was ready for the masses!”. So I ripped her machine down, saved all of her email contact information, and installed Ubuntu 7.04 (also called the Feisty Fawn version) and she has loved me ever since. She was amazed at how beautiful the interface was, the quickness of its response. Ubuntu is so much faster than Windows its really quite unbelievable. Why is this? Well mostly Linux doesn’t rely on a huge weird system of stuff to make it work, like Windows. In an effort to police people, Microsoft has built a serious monolith it calls Windows that you pay anywhere from $300-$500 to use. There are rumors that the new EULA claims anything you create using its system is owned by Microsoft corp. intrinsically, and that it is now a one time install. If you have multiple computers in your home, it will now cost you $300-$500 for each computer just to make it run. But aside from all that, Ubuntu is extremely user-friendly, easy to install, easy to use, and you can do pretty much everything that you used to do with Windows if not more! And the software? Oh that is the best part, but again, we should probably wait for the next segment.