An alternative desktop background for Ubuntu (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Linux powers the Internet and will breathe new life into your older PC or Mac this coming year unless you want to shell out hard earned dollars for the latest and greatest in order to suffer more planned obsolescence in the near future.
Not inconsequentially, you no longer need to open a Terminal window unless you want to. Linux flavors have never been more user friendly. Here are 10 reasons you’ll want to at least try Linux on your older desktop PC or Mac in 2016:
- Your old PC or Mac has slowed down to the point it’s hardly usable, you’re ready to consider buying something new, but love the thought of trying a Linux-flavored Operating System (OS), if it means holding on to your beloved hardware longer.
- If your Mac taps out as far as OS upgrades are concerned at say, OS X Lion 10.7.5, OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or older, you have no chance at running Apple’s latest OS and you desire a modern OS.
- Your PowerPC Mac is stuck on OS X Leopard 10.5.8 or older and you’d like to try a modern OS (see Linux Mate for PowerPC).
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- You read my piece on Linux being the most exhilarating OS experience.
Servers designed for Linux (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- You want to find out for yourself what it means to be free of Microsoft-Apple hedgemonies.
- You have either Android (runs on Linux) or iPhone for your smart phone and apps and have no need to run apps on your desktop.
- Your basic needs from your desktop computer consist of a modern, secure, stable OS with modern browser and email support.
- You prefer choosing what you like to install and run on your desktop computer.
English: Desktop Grusha Linux (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- You’re willing to use LibreOffice as a substitute for Microsoft Office (it’s easy, has cross-platform capability and works just fine unless you have Word or Excel documents with particularly complex formatting–your mileage may vary in these instances).
- Every three to five years you just want to upgrade your OS and not your hardware.
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puggsly
So if you have very old hardware, don’t want to run your current desktop software and are easily swayed by promises of shiny goodness, you should try linux?
What does it even mean to be free of Apple & Microsoft? Does that mean free of the seamless integration of applications and services across multiple devices? How do ether of these OS’s hamper “choosing what you like to install and run”?
Don’t get me wrong, Linux is a capable OS but it just too far down the food chain for developers IMHO. It is competing against the Apple/iOS ecosystem as well as the Android/Google ecosystem and even the Windows installed base/ecosystem. It is simply not enough to entice most people.
kcwookie
The only thing hurting Linux is the lack of software support. Yes, you can find much of what you need open source, but support is many cases is iffy. I like Ubuntu, but I can’t really use it for prime time yet. There is money in Linux, but it’s still the wild west.