Code|Beta

I was reading something that a friend of mine posted on his site about people saying that they are geeks and also saying that one OS or the other is better. This is just to show my point of view on this subject.

If you are interested in reading his rant, just go over to AudioWiki site.

I consider myself a geek in the way that computers are my passion and I’m open minded when it comes to computers. I do have my opinions which are opposed by others….but hey, don’t we all have them

When I first started using Linux and actually got to the point of being able to understand it the way I do now, I had the idea that Linux worked for everyone and wondered why if it was free and so easy to use why didn’t the government, who pays a lot of money in other commercial operating systems, use that. Then I remembered that not everyone sees things the same way and specially those that I find easy to do are hard to accomplish for other people. Also, after much work and talking to people, I came to realize that there is no single solution for everything and that one of the reasons that there are multiple options out there is because there needs to be multiple options out there.

Looking at the points that Sunny talks about in his rant we see that he mentions a couple of times the different operating systems out there which are commonly used by these so called geeks. In my opinion there is an OS for the task at hand, sure you can pretty much do one thing on Linux in pretty much the same way you do in Windows, but it just wasn’t originally thought to do that. One analogy that I often use with the people I’m training or talking to is the one of a car, just because you can use a sports car to go the supermarket to do your shopping doesn’t mean that the car was originally made for that. Windows was originally created to be a desktop OS and I strongly recommend it for that, sure there are server versions but they can achieve certain tasks which other operating systems can handle a lot better. Nowadays I have the idea that you should use the OS that better completes the task, if you want to setup an office that handles text documents then use Windows on the desktop, why should you make your life more complex by setting up some weird UNIX setup which may seem cool to you but hard to manage in the long run. Now don’t get me wrong, Linux can also be used on the desktop, I myself use it that way, without any problems, but it’s just that some people simply take it to extremes.

I agree with Sunny in the fact that there is no point on having an OS that can run on some archaic system that no one really uses in real life anymore, why waste the time of doing so when you could use that time and resources in enhancing projects that really have a use in real life situations. As I mentioned previously in one of my posts about Linux and people that make these Windows-look-alike versions, this is just pointless and you should better spend your time doing something else.

I must agree on the Open Source not really being about choice, yet I also mention that you at least have the option to use X application that allows you to complete the task that Y application can with little to no difference, lets make a better example say you want to use a simple text editor to write a text file, you can use vim and if you find that application very complex to use then you can use nano or another application which are console based text editors which allow you to write your text file but they work differently. I try not to fall in the position where I only tell people to use ArchLinux because that’s what I use and I’m a fan of that distro, instead I ask people how in depth they want to go and also tell them that every distribution will allow them to go deep but their experience will vary on the way there. I do tell people not to use some distributions because I’ve had bad experiences with them or they are too out-dated or simply because I hate them…so there is a little of that in me. I always try to suggest to people what I’ve used and tell them that I have used it and what my experience has been.

Another point which Sunny makes is that most of the Linux and *BSD community, this is where I’ve seen it mostly, in more cases than none tell you to read the manual. The man pages are quite cryptic and I’ve been able to get something out of them because I’m specifically looking for that or was just wondering what an option meant. Most of the time what one asks is not on one single manual and one could sure use the help, I’ve been to groups or IRC channels where people are quite helpful and will explain to you what is being asked and finally reference you to the document for more information and then there are other people who simply throw the RTFM at you. I consider it to be polite to explain to people and reference them to further material.

Going back to the subject of the OS, it’s commonly said that OpenBSD is the most secure OS out there, I don’t really agree with this. It’s also said that Linux is way more stable than Windows and I actually get a question quite often from people asking me which is more stable and my reply is always the same “Depends on who sets it up.”, because at the end of it all it really depends on the person that sets it up, since a person that hardly knows anything about Windows won’t be able to configure it properly enough to have it run without issues. A system is only as secure as the programs it runs and the person who uses it.

LMurillo