How I learnt not to use Windows

I have not used Windows for the past 17 years, the last version of Windows that I used being Windows XP. Migrating to Linux has been a pleasant experience in terms of its stability, security, user friendliness and opportunity to learn. Most importantly it has been liberating experience in using various Linux Operating systems over the years.

My first Linux Operating System was RedHat. It was love at first glance. The gnome and KDE desktop environment had beautiful icons, you could even rotate the icons in the desktop. It was blazingly fast and didn’t crash every other hour like in Windows. I could leave the system up for months without the system crashing, or system slowing down due to memory leaks like that happen in Windows. There were no BSODs in Linux.

There were so many packages including games, photo editing software, Office Suite, media players etc. that all came in the installation media. This was the time where Computer memory and hard disk space was limited. Even after installing every single software package that came in installation CDs to the hard disk, the used hard disk space was way less than it would have been if you installed similar featured software in a Windows installation. This small hard disk footprint is due to Linux software using shared libraries amongst software packages. For example, two image editing software in Linux may use the same shared image editing library instead of bundling duplicate code with each software.

Not Innovative

Linux Operating systems is where innovation happens first in the software world. For example, if we have a look at desktop shells, window animations, multiple virtual desktops, desktop widgets, desktop search, these and many more features were first introduced by Linux desktop environments. Windows users are confined to a functionally limited, unstable mess of an Operating System. It would be wise to move to Linux now. Linux, because a computer is a terrible thing to waste.

Not Secure

Linux is much more secure than Windows. There are multiple layers of security, from file permissions architecture to network firewalls and access control security policy management software bundled in Linux. Linux doesn’t tend to give users administrative rights by default. We all are familiar with the virus infested world of Windows. Even if a virus were to infect a Linux program, it wouldn’t be able to do system wide damage. There are millions of developers contributing to the Linux operating system ecosystem. They include security specialists who regularly go through the openly viewable code of the software to find any security vulnerabilities and patch them up with security fixes as soon as they are found. Microsoft has historically had a lot of delay in patching up security vulnerabilities even if they were notified about it. For vulnerabilities in there software that are not known by microsoft, hackers and government have been using the vulnerabilities to gain access to computer systems for ages. Irrespective of the amount of money Microsoft has, they will not be able to hire all the leading security and software experts into their company to secure their software. Due to the open nature of Open Source Software,millions of developers in the community submit fixes to Open Source software freely or even are paid by their own companies to do it. IBM, RedHat or Amazon and many other large companies hire experts to develop, test and secure Open Source software.

Microsoft Windows Operating systems also has universal back doors which allows Microsoft to delete your files, force upgrades and to allow the U.S government/NSA to peek into your personal files. It is a national security risk to use Windows in the government. In addition respectable security experts have alerted that writable microcode for Intel and AMD systems can be utilized by U.S government to gain access to your data, with the help of Microsoft.

Internet Explorer and Edge browsers have many flaws, allowing hackers to access logins stored in them. Likewise many other software included in Windows have flaws, which are utilised by hackers and U.S government for a long time before microsoft patches them, that then only due to pressure by the IT community. .

Some European governments as veered away from using Windows in high confidentiality areas due to the many security issues with Windows and have adopted Linux. It is not possible to include a backdoor in Linux Kernel or Open SSH without users being immediately aware of its presence due to the freedom Open Source gives to study what is included in the software that users use.

Forces older hardware to be redundant

Microsoft, to sell their operating system has agreements with computer vendors like DELL to install Windows by default into the PCs and laptops sold. Vendors will want users to purchase new computers frequently and Microsoft also benefits when users purchase newer versions of its operating systems. To run a Windows 10 successfully, you will need to meet its minimum hardware requirements. Linux Operating systems on the other hand, can be installed on the oldest of hardware to perform tasks. Evenon high-end systems, Linux, due to its efficiency would take the edge in speed and stability. Microsoft has no incentive to make its operating system run efficiently in older hardware.

Anti Competitive Behavior

Microsoft manages and unleashes patent trolls to intimidate competing software. The company continues to use software patents to threaten FLOSS software developers to kill competing FLOSS software. Threat of patent trolls also forces many businesses to adopt Microsoft software in addition or in replacement of FLOSS software. Many FLOSS projects don’t have enough finance for an extended legal battle, and many users would rather adopt Microsoft technologies rather than face legal repercussions over perceived threats from continuous legal fear mongering. Software patents are a hindrance to innovation, where simple concepts like ‘swipe to unlock’ and ‘enlarging an icon by moving cursor over them’ can be owned by a single company. Even a small software application can contain many patents belonging to mega corporations, without the developer being aware of the features being patents. The fashion or culinary industry is thriving without businesses owning recipes or designs of clothes. Software patents as a protected virtual asset of companies, were introduced by companies like Microsoft through their well-financed lobbyists, by buying out corrupt politicians.

Microsoft also has a history of using their monopoly in the desktop operating system market to introduce non standard, proprietary extensions to their services, forcing the users to use Microsoft software. For example, Microsoft had used Active X technologies in their websites, and forced other companies to adopt it. Hence users had to use Microsoft Operating system to view websites which uses those non standard, proprietary technologies.

Restricts Users Freedom

Most Importantly using Free/Libre Open Source Operating system instead of Windows will give users freedom and protection over their data and software. The freedoms Free/Libre Open Source software promises and are enforced in FLOSS software though FLOSS licensing are:

• The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Due to all these reasons there is no reason right now, with regards to usability, security, features, power of customization, dependability and cost that the government, businesses and users should not move to Linux, especially in Maldives where migration to Open Source operating systems would be a much easier task. Much larger countries have done it.