Adrian Kingsley-Hughes on why he's not switching to Linux ... and why I am

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet says he's not switching to Linux until those we works with do the same.

While I can respect that, my situation is different:

Nobody's providing me with free computers for my personal use that come complete with the Microsoft Windows operating system and office suite, plus all the other proprietary applications I want or need.

Just as I'm unwilling and unable to pay for said software, I'm also uncomfortable and unwilling to do what everybody else seems very comfortable in doing, namely stealing said software.

And I also don't have the newest hardware on the block. My price point is usually "free" or $15. That's for the whole damn computer.

So I'm using stuff that's at a minimum five years old and usually older. It just runs better on Linux and BSD.

And that's what I run. In a great many cases there are excellent equivalents to the applications one finds in the Windows and Macintosh worlds. Not all the time. There are some huge holes in the free, open-source software world, and I should probably start biting that bullet and running a few Windows apps under WINE in order to overcome what the FOSS world is either unwilling (IPTC support in JPEGs) or unable (pro-level video editing) to provide, not that (especially in the case of video) there isn't work under way to bring up the level of FOSS.

In contrast to Mr. Kingsley-Hughes, I can do the majority of my work in Linux (at present Ubuntu 8.04) and only need my XP box to access a few specialized programs that my employer provides. That and the dammed embedded data in JPEGs, which Photoshop seems to have originated and IrfanView handles so very well. (IrfanView, a free, closed-source photo editor is probably one of my two favorite Windows apps, along with the free, open-source Notepad++ text editor that EVERY Windows user should be using).

But with Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice and all the great Unix/Linux apps packed into most Linux repositories, distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Mandriva can offer a rich, compelling environment in which to work and play.

My hope is that by using and promoting free, open-source operating systems, the momentum that I know is going in the direction of more and more of us using them will build that much more quickly.

So why don't you try Linux? It's not perfect, but neither are the alternatives.