Why i <3 linux

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This is my story of how I fell in love with the Linux operating system and why I keep using it.

At school, a student interested in learning new stuff for his small business asked me: "What is Linux? And why do you use it?". I did not expect anybody at school to ask me this question since my classmates usually are quite in love with Windows. I did not know what to say or what to respond with. I gave him a dumb history lesson about open source and free software. After this long speech, he quickly lost interest in what Linux was and quickly changed the subject after I was done.

Not only did I lose his interest but I felt a bit hung up on the fact that I can't even explain why I love Linux. This blog post will explain my love for Linux.

How i started

How did I get started using Linux? I started running Linux on a small home server to explore how it worked but I did not use it full time by then, it was a mere curiocity. But fate would soon bring me to use Linux full time on one of my devices.

A few months after I started using Linux on that server I experienced some difficulties with my laptop. It would lock up when booting into Windows 7. At the beginning, I did not experience this problem often but as time went on it would happen more and more and more. It drove me to the point that I tried installing the newer Windows 8 on my old laptop but as you might expect Windows 8 was not compatible with my laptop.

At this point I was desperate, I could not use Windows 7 without having boot problems and I could not use Windows 8 cause of driver problems.
In this desperate time a normal user might write off his laptop and go and buy a newer model but somehow I did not do so. But I installed a fancy new Linux distribution called 'Elementary os' alongside a Windows 7 partition.

Why did I keep using it?

I used this distribution at the beginning just to get work done. I needed a working laptop at school and the Linux partition made the laptop rather usable again. Not only that but it felt faster, smoother and so new.
At first, I thought "I will use this until I fix my Windows partition".
But I soon put off fixing the Windows partition and kept using the Linux one.

To my surprise most of the applications I used on Windows for my day to day programming where available. Not only that I loved that most installs where one apt-get command away. For the programs that were only for Window's, there were good replacements that worked fine enough for me.

The operating system felt so snappy and responsive on the same machine where Windows 7 dared not to go faster than a snail.

The reason i stayed using linux

I got to admit for all the good Linux has provided it's a learning curve. But this learning curve is far easier to overcome than many critical blog articles about Linux like you to believe.

Not only that but when you learn Linux you gain the most valuable computer knowledge that most other operating systems hide away. How your computer works. This is the main reason I love Linux.

Linux does not hide stuff. If something goes wrong you will get a clear and understandable error, It does exactly what you tell it to do and nothing else and it's customizable beyond belief.

But even if you don't want to know how your computer actually operates it's a great operating system. I bet you can do most stuff you do on your Windows computer day to day on a modern Linux distribution.

To answer my fellow students questions

What is Linux?: Linux is an open-source operating system that's fast and has great variety and customizability.

Why do I use it?: It has all the programs I need on a day to day basis it's customizable and I love tinkering with it. I'm currently running the Arch Linux distribution wich lets me customize my operating system to a point I feel very comfortable using it very quickly.

To anybody interested in Linux

To anybody interested in Linux I would recommend you just try it at least once. Try it in a Virtual Machine or on an old laptop and go ahead and explore! Linux is not as scary as you might think and you may learn some valuable knowledge along the way.

Kind regards,

GG_Phyduck