Goodbye Windows! The Power Of Open Source

[smccarthy945]

I really didn't get the power of open source for a while and thought it was a stupid idea quite frankly. I never thought it would work - people programming for free. However, the last straw came when Windows rebooted in the middle of running a very long conversion script because there is now no way to stop Windows Updates from running on the Home version of Windows and I am not paying another $100 just to stop my computer from rebooting.

The main thing that kept me from going Linux was a lack of knowledge and apps. Well, I decided I was going to master Linux no matter what it took and I did. I love Linux - and specifically - Linux Mint so much now that I can't even use Windows anymore - it just seems like such a "toy" now. Second, apps were still an issue for a while. However, the last app - XenServer Manager - finally came out and was written in Python and works amazing. So I was able to teach myself Linux and due to an amazing open source community I have every single app I need. Even audio software I use to make music is now available on Linux (commercial product) and it is so much better to use because it never crashes and the audio interface is so much more stable and clean.

I am just amazed at the quality of Linux Mint now and how easy it is to deal with installing software and customizing the system! What other desktop can you install SSH in 2 minutes when you need someone to send you a huge file securely! Yes, there are SSH packages for Windows but they suck and are unstable.

But the biggest selling point with Linux Mint and other distros is the quality of the software and the fact that a major corporation like Microsoft doesn't have control over you or the ability to continually extort money from you with ridiculous licensing requirements and "software subscription" fees because their salespeople are greedy. I can't tell you how much money I have saved switching from Windows w/Microsoft Office to Linux Mint with Libre Office and Thunderbird w/the ExQuilla Exchange Server plug in. What's even more amazing is that Libre Office is actually more enjoyable to use and I am more productive with it because of the innovative features is has that MS Office lacks like predictive typing.

So to everyone at Linux Mint and other open source projects like OpenXenServerManager - THANK YOU! You are making incredible software and breaking this monopoly down that needed to be destroyed years ago. Companies like MS need to make money fairly instead of cornering people and forcing them to upgrade so their computer doesn't reboot or forcing nonstop monthly subscription fees because they hold a lock on a particular protocol.
The EU has played a big part as well in destroying this hold by stopping MS and others from forcing vendors to distribute software and is now requiring MS to release ActiveSync specifications and code to the open source community so they cannot have a lock on everyone in the EU.

The quality of Linux Mint is just absolutely amazing and it's simply incredible you can install it on any system in 10 minutes and every driver and piece of software you need is already installed and ready to go! Thank you to everyone in the open source community and for everything you are doing to break this lock vendors HAD on us. Linux Mint is THE BEST OS I have ever used and I simply can no longer use Windows. I actually enjoy using my computer again and it puts the fun back into everything!

[Crewp]

Welcome to Linux Mint, and the Mint forum.

[The-Wizard]

Welcome to the Mint family forums

wizard

[Fred Barclay]

Welcome to the family, and Happy Minting!

[MaCroX95]

Welcome to our community OP

I agree with everything you said, Windows 10 moved me here as well, before that I was more or less just playing with Linux distros, but with Windows 10 there is literally nothing to go back to on Windows side and after some research and everything I've found out that open-source actually provides majority of things that Average user needs... There are great browsers, VLC player, LibreOffice, Inkscape, KDenLive, Cinelerra, Audacity, Blender... So many powerful tools that are being used by Windows users as well and for an average user, there is way more software than one could possibly imagine. Only some need some learning curve if coming from other proprietary programs, however there are also many of those availible on Linux as well. If we must use some proprietary apps it's better that at least the system is fundamentally free I hope that you will enjoy your staying in the community and that you will share our philosophy and approach towards computing with others!

Best regards and best luck with your full-time Linux experience!

[jimallyn]

Welcome aboard, smccarthy945! I have been using Linux for 14 years, and on those rare occasions when I have to use Windows on somebody else's computer (or fix it for a friend), I absolutely hate it. It's just one godawful thing after another.

[smccarthy945]

I agree! I cannot believe how stable Linux is. I never have to reboot my system - EVER! When I was using Windows - no matter how expensive of a computer I bought and how carefully I installed and configured Windows, it would always crash. There wasn't a day I could get through without doing at least 1 reboot. I haven't rebooting my workstation with Linux Mint in over 2 weeks and never have any problems. I had to end the Thunderbird process once but that was it. Also, updates are SO easy to install. I cannot believe you can do a complete update and don't even have to reboot your system!

It's simply amazing to me that Microsoft can't build an OS as stable as Mint and get the updates installed without nonstop reboots. A company with that many resources and programmers can't build something as good as or better than Mint. It's beyond belief.

Even with all the Windows problems, the biggest thing that always bothered me was the fact that I would purchase my own license and had to go through this ridiculous process of calling in to get my license working again when I got a virus or spyware because Windows security sucks so bad. Because their OS sucks, I have to jump through hoops to get my license key working again. With Mint and others, you don't have to worry about license keys, reinstalling or any of that nonsense.

There is simply no way I can go back to Windows now.

[MaCroX95]

I agree! I cannot believe how stable Linux is. I never have to reboot my system - EVER! When I was using Windows - no matter how expensive of a computer I bought and how carefully I installed and configured Windows, it would always crash. There wasn't a day I could get through without doing at least 1 reboot. I haven't rebooting my workstation with Linux Mint in over 2 weeks and never have any problems. I had to end the Thunderbird process once but that was it. Also, updates are SO easy to install. I cannot believe you can do a complete update and don't even have to reboot your system!

It's simply amazing to me that Microsoft can't build an OS as stable as Mint and get the updates installed without nonstop reboots. A company with that many resources and programmers can't build something as good as or better than Mint. It's beyond belief.

Even with all the Windows problems, the biggest thing that always bothered me was the fact that I would purchase my own license and had to go through this ridiculous process of calling in to get my license working again when I got a virus or spyware because Windows security sucks so bad. Because their OS sucks, I have to jump through hoops to get my license key working again. With Mint and others, you don't have to worry about license keys, reinstalling or any of that nonsense.

There is simply no way I can go back to Windows now.

Yup, even the biggest crash that I've had on linux was fixed with simply terminating the process and start it over again, system doesn't get screwed when a process stops... and we all know how good Microsoft's task manager is... you want to force end the process but you just can't sometimes and need to reboot... also need to reboot after every update and most importantly, Windows 10 cannot even have the updates turned off... Microsoft was guarding their walled garden and were not innovative in terms of kernel and stability... linux kernel is at this stage I believe way more advanced than Windows NT kernel and Microsoft, also works on way more architectures than WIndows do... did not even try hard because they used their marketing strategies to promote their operating system. But lately even linux on desktop has pretty caught up and even gaming that was always horrible on linux is becoming a thing now! Keep spreading the good word about Linux, we are ones who must promote it because big proprietary companies will never do that

[smccarthy945]

For some reason, I had Mint freeze on me on my Dell laptop and then when I went to boot, I would get the logo and then dropped to a command line and nothing would happen. Somehow the boot files or something got corrupted. However, it was so fast and easy to reload it I was back up and running in like 15 minutes because all the programs are built in and everything is ready to go.

Why doesn't Microsoft get how Linux works - patches without reboots, stable, pre-built in apps, etc. I can't believe M$ doesn't take some of these ideas. I mean how hard can it be for a company like MS with the money they have to build an OS that doesn't need reboots with patching?

[dcrowder]

Welcome to the forums!

[linux-dummie]

Great testimonial! You voiced a lot of good points. Many of us here can understand your experience perfectly. Yeah, Mint is great great great!