I read a blog post a few days ago where someone who purported to be a Linux user (so as to not be accussed of trolling) claimed that although Linux and its freedoms were great and all – at the end of the day – the user had to return to Windows to get any serious stuff done. Well, I’m here to say, that I think that’s completely bogus. I haven’t had my Windows computer on since last Monday and I’m only turning it on today to work on my photography. All week long I’ve used Linux for everything, even helping to correct my younger brother’s paper by using Open Office.org Writer.

I spend at least 1 hour a day on the computer every day and most days it’s on Linux – which is why I started turning off my Windows computer during the week. Why was electricity and run down my computer if I wasn’t going to be using it. I think that for 99% of the tasks I have to do, I can (and do) do them within Linux.

In fact, despite the arguements of some, I think that for the knowledgable computer user, Linux is already more than ready. If you stick to programs in the repositories, Yum or Synaptic will take care of installing the programs you need. Anyone who needs a program that is not in there is probably not a typical user. I think that, since starting with Linux ~4 years ago, I have had to install programs not included in the repositories maybe 6 times. Usually this was for exotic stuff that the casual user wouldn’t need or want, such as Enlightenment Window Manager.

Finally, the thing that makes Linux so productive is that it comes with everything you need and more. A fresh install of Windows has a bunch of neutered programs such as Wordpad and Minesweeper. A fresh “everything” install of Linux has one or more office suites (Koffice & Open Office.org), 20 or more games (KAsteroids, Nibbles, Atlantik – a monopoly clone), a Photoshop-like program (The GIMP), an IRC program, 2 3D modeling programs (Blender and K-3D), and many, many more programs. So Linux is instantly usable. The equivalent programs on my Windows computer cost as much or more than the computer itself.