MoLa: Should I use open source apps before diving into Linux?
Better late than never! The first question I’m answering in the Month of Linux answers series is: Would it be best for people considering moving to linux to start using open source software on their Windows computers first?
My answer: yes, categorically.
The open source advantage: why you should be using open source applications
Well, there are at least two reasons:
- Open source applications tend to be higher-quality. I don’t want to generalize, because I’ve test-driven tons of immature open source applications, but a great portion of them are very high-quality, and tend to improve with time, since everyone can “pitch in” and help develop applications further.
- They’re (usually) free. Why pay money to “the man”, when you can save money and do better?
- They respect standards better. You can easily move to Linux or other operating systems, because they respect standards and save their information in easy-to-use, easy-to-backup, easy-to-move file formats.
So, which applications?
Open source applications for Microsoft Windows number in the thousands. The most widely used have gotten great amounts of press coverage, are mature, stable and well-known:
- OpenOffice.org: this Microsoft Office killer has nearly everything to be the next king in office-suite land.
- Mozilla Firefox: unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past 5 years, it’s hard to believe you haven’t heard about it. Plainly said, it’s the best Web browser, ever.
- The VideoLAN client: it’s a straightforward, no-frills, fast media player. The amazing thing about VLC is that it supports lots and lots of video and audio formats — you can even play Flash videos with it(for example, downloaded from YouTube with the VideoDownloader Firefox plugin).
- Azureus: downloading torrents in your computer? Azureus is the best there is for Windows.
Chances are, you’re already using open source applications in your computer. Note I said applications — some portions of Microsoft Windows are direct descendants of other open source operating systems (such as FreeBSD). But the short list doesn’t stop there.
Where do I get them?
Three distinct projects aim to bring lots of originally-Linux open source applications to Windows:
- Open Source Windows. Billed as This is the best Windows software that we know of. No adware, no spyware, just good software., it’s absolutely on the spot.
- TheOpenCD. Instead of having to download each application, you can simply download the CD and start test driving them. Obviously, you can copy the CD as many times as you like, and give it to acquaintances, friends and family.
- PortableApps. If you have an USB thumb drive, you’ll find immense value in this project; if you’re on the road, you no longer need to install and configure each application on the computer you’re about to use — just install them once in your thumb druve, then plug it on any Windows computer.
And the march to Windows continues!
KDE on Windows! Replace your Windows Explorer with a much more powerful desktop environment!
Actually, what gets me even more excited is the fact that Amarok, the best music player/manager ever to see the light, is going to be available on Windows as well. Amarok cleanly blows iTunes, Windows Media Player and Winamp out of the water.
I’ve open sourced my applications… what next?
Run them for a couple of days, maybe two weeks, and avoid running the applications they replaced (Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and so forth).
Get comfortable with them. Most likely, you’ll be using them in Linux too. Take this opportunity to learn, effortlessly, more about computing. No one ever complained when they saw a résumé and noticed extra computing experience, right?
Finally, install Linux. I recommend KUbuntu, because it’s more similar to Windows than regular Ubuntu. Download the live CD, burn it to a CD, then boot from the CD. Run it for a while, see if you like it, install it — once you’ve installed it to your computer, you can use Adept (included in KUbuntu) to install your beloved open source applications.
Did I mention installing applications on KUbuntu is much easier than on Windows?
More Linux questions?
Have a Linux question? Why don’t you drop by our Month of Linux Answers and leave your question as a comment? I’ll get to it right away :-).
May 13th, 2007 at 2:20
Rudd-o, dude, I wish I can help with some of those questions…
La verdad, desearia ayudarte con esas preguntas que puedas recibir ya que mi experiencia con Linux, la verdad, data a mas de 2 años atras… Si es verdad, no es tiempo como para decir “OH! es un guru!” pero me manejo bien en el sistema ya que he administrado un par de servidores (Web y Base de Datos) y uso GNU/Linux en mis PC personales desde el 2005 (2da mitad dl año)… Leo a diario blogs, how-to’s, manuales, referencias, guias… en fin, creo q ya hice mi punto… me kedare callado… jajaja… saludos!
May 13th, 2007 at 22:32
I totally agree with this. Because of my move into linux, I’ve nearly replaced ALL my software with freeware (not shareware, trialware, demoware either.) The only thing I haven’t been able to replace fully is Dreamweaver (Nvu still needs a LOT of work.)
But thanks to this move, I can move into linux with very little problem. I’d strongly recommend Debian 4.0, and KDE. I have had very very few problesm getting this to run, and I’m thinking this will be the linux that replaces Windows. Ubuntu is pretty but like Windows, seems to be more interested in eye candy and features, than being stable, and working. Which for a Windows user, is critical. We don’t want to spend weeks trying to track down fixes on every little thing. After all, you can’t learn about an OS, unless you can use it.