Linux As An Alternative To Windows & MacOS

Powerful, secure, and free to use. What’s not to like.

Paul Douglas
Technology Hits
Published in
4 min readMar 31, 2021

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Source: Pixabay (Royalty Free)

Several years ago, having become bored with paying for new computers only to have the same operating system onboard, albeit a shinier package, I began to glance around for something new.

MacOS only worked comfortably on Apple computers which, I don’t mind telling you, were way out of my budget at the time. The Chrome operating system was yet to be developed and so, after reading a large array of computer magazines, my gaze fell upon Linux. This is a free operating system and one which works nicely on older machines. I had such a machine in my spare room and so I determined to give it a go.

History

Linux was first released on 17th September 1991 and was developed by Linus Torvalds, a university student. Free to customize and use, it is now widely utilized in the computer and consumer electronics industries. The Android operating system on mobile phones, for example, is based on Linux and this gives us some inkling of how pervasive this lesser-known operating system has become.

My First Flirtation With Linux

I downloaded Mandrake Linux and installed it onto my computer and tried it. It had a familiar-looking desktop, not exactly like windows but not too alien from it either. It contained some useful software including a web browser, email program, office suite, etc, and I loved trying something truly different. The problem I found though, it was too difficult to download new programs and to customise the user experience.

It had a command-line interface meaning you needed to type computer code to download programs or change the system to your liking. Although it looked familiar, to use it on a day-to-day basis, a certain amount of coding knowledge was required. I wanted to use my computer to be productive rather than learning to code to use it. Although this experiment was enjoyable, at this stage Linux just wasn’t for me.

Linux Mint

Several years later I came across an article in a computer magazine for Linux Mint, a variant of the ubiquitous Ubuntu Linux. Mint and distributions like it, now use a Windows-like user interface and no-longer depend on coding…

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Paul Douglas
Technology Hits

I have always loved to write, especially poems and short stories. I also have an abiding love for technology and gaming. I love to share my outlook with others.