Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux

Knuthf

@HAL2000 Windows is no "operating system" and you abuse 3 letter abbreviations badly. I "negotiated" Linux in 1988 when we defined the 88 platform, and we had prototypes of Windows running above the 640K address restrictions. The issue with the internet is that the Internet uses a communication protocol called TCP and this is an ITU standard, approved even by the FCC in the USA - in "RFC". Windows by Microsoft is using the code developed by Xerox to make their Smalltalk. This was a very restricted piece of software, intended just to get Smalltalk developed, and detached from the development of TCP/IP at MIT. There are numerous features that XNS will not support, like "HangUp" and "Sense" that is used to implement Events.

All Linux distributions support TCP/ip in full. They are based on the full Unix System V "Interface Definition". Windows as you see it has very few features enabled compared with all Linux releases. The different Linux releases are different drivers and graphical user interfaces. The operating system is the same - the Linux Kernel. The only question is when simple people will realise that what they believe firmly is wrong.
If you want an elegant look, take a pick. If you have old 32-bit computers, the hardware will restrict the variants you can use - it is not the code in Linux: this is coded in C and it is the same. You may also port code with fancy graphics to this old distro. Windows is not that difficult and unique - search KDE or "MeeGo" or on to "OpenPlasma" with widgets and graphics available for free - distributions like the Chinese "DeepIn". This is where modern graphics are designed - the instruments in new cars. If you want a simple, try Linux Mint Cinnamon. It is identical to Ubuntu just without neon borders. The colour is a choice and it is not "technology".

HAL2000

@Knuthf You know, it takes no extra effort to communicate, exchange information and opinions without being obnoxious. While I appreciate information tips and tricks, I simply block those who fail in social skills. Try again?

HAL2000

@potmeklecbohdan Now THAT was a very interesting article.

I don't know how much of my posts you have read, but my interest in Linux is twofold:

My immediate mission to revive a bunch of old but serviceable hardware, and give it to kids as free, functional computers, whereas, otherwise, they have nothing.
For my own use as a replacement for Windows 7 when this faithful old horse finally cannot be used.

My background involved computer security in Washington DC, during the Cold War, but not in coding so much, but with respect to policy and procedure, shielded enclosures, Tempesting of workstations and the like. I later would work in DC reviewing the corporate telecom / internet mergers.

During this time I became aware of all those things which Snowden confirmed with his disclosures, from the days of THE PUZZLE PALACE, ECHELON and the war against Phil Zimmermann's PGP (yes, this goes back years, probably before the memory of most here).

So privacy is an issue as well. It took some time before I could read your article, since for some reason, on another machine I was using your FYI link did not work in that browser.

Since I am still exploring many strains of Linux and have not made a commitment (although for donations, I am leaning towards Q4OS/XPQ4), perhaps now is a good time to learn more about BSM.

Being a Windows Refugee, I had been under the impression that BSD was just another version of Linux. I welcome any additional information you'd like to steer me towards with regard to BSD.

Thank you, very much.

Steffie

@Christian-Rauch said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:

Every X11 application on your desktop that runs as the same user can access every mouse and keyboard input. To make this more clear: Any X11 application (e.g. Steam games) that runs in parallel to Vivaldi can access your typed passwords

IMO it is excellent that you mentioned this. I do not game [at all], so the following might immediately be of no interest to those who do, but, fwiw. I run Firejail on both my laptop & tower PCs. For all apps that either do not "need", or which claim they need but which i do not want to be able to access the internet, i add the --protocol=unix option to their custom launchers. Thus, for all these apps anytime they run, there is simply no such thing as "the internet" at all. Even if one of those apps were to be malicious & intent on stealing any of my private data [passwords, finance info, whatever], & even though i still run x11 not Wayland, it simply has no way to be able to "call home to mother".

Those apps which by definition must have net access [for me that's limited only to Thunderbird + my browsers], standard Firejail operation sandboxes them from accessing all private data other than what they need to run with their own specific ~/.config/ directory.

Anyway, as i said ... fwiw.

Steffie

@Koolio said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:

most the desktop variants barely even match Windows XP in terms of features, explorer shell extensions, and just plain basic user experience that doesn't feel like it was built by complete amateurs who can't even get the most basics of a desktop functionality working right

One of the highest Coefficients of Dishonest FUD i've read for a while. A genuinely superb example of the genre.

A Former User

@HAL2000 I’ve read enough to know about your first point, about the 2nd one I might have forgotten (but I think I read about it also). IMO, it’s easier to first look around with Linux, and then try BSD (also coz often the only UI you get pre-installed is terminal ).

TBH, the middle section of your post was like if it was in Chinese… OK, I understood that you must have quite some experience in security & privacy. I won’t understand the rest & I don’t hope to (you don’t wanna tell me all last century’s history).

I don’t have much more information about BSD, I’m still in very early phases playing with FreeBSD (& it’s fun!). Their websites might be helpful though.

Steffie

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/the-simple-cut-and-paste-used-in-major-cyber-attack-20200619-p5547x

Yet people continue to want to use windoze, & continue to defend it.

Simply amazing.

Linux is fab. Windoze not so much.

Numerous tech websites, not only but especially bleepingcomputer, publish near-daily roll-calls of dishonour, listing litanies of latest hacker attacks on windoze computers, and latest M$ incompetence in updates that destroy data, break essential functions, create bsods et al.

Yet people continue to want to use windoze, & continue to defend it.

TalGarik

@Steffie ¨people¨ is a quite vague concept, different people use - not necessarily defending it - Windows for very different practical reasons where linux is not even a competitor.
The point is that not only all the friends and family that during the years I had tried to convert to linux sooner or later switched back to Windows (Windows 10 in particular convinced a lot of them that linux was an unnecessary PITA) the fact is that even I - the linux evangelist - when I started doing some photography work I needed a dual boot to run Windows since the range and quality of available software in that field was (and remains) beyond comparison. And there are many other software areas where the best available products are available for Windows only and don't work (or work poorly) with WINE: how and why these people should use linux? most of the time practical reasons beat technical reasons.

Catweazle

It is irrelevant which of the current OS is used, it depends solely and exclusively on the use that is given. This is because Windows in the main target of hackers is true, simply because it is the most used OS, but precisely for this reason also the OS that is currently best protected is. Malware exists for any OS, but look for a good anti malware for Linux, there is not. Despite this Linux users They still think that they are safer than with Windows, which in reality is only statistically true, but not technically.Linux has good functionalities superior to those of Windows, but the same can be said for Windows or any other OS. Windows has 10 times more software at your disposal than Linux, even in the FOSS field and a lot of soft (not all) is of a better quality.Well this, the rest is a matter of personal taste. and finally, in a life mainly online, with which platform it is carried out is not so important and you can always have Well this, the rest is a matter of personal taste. and finally, in a life mainly online, with which platform it is carried out is not so important and we always have the possibility of dual boot.

Steffie

Stockholm Syndrome.

Catweazle

@Steffie , all who use an OS with their favorite soft have it, regardless of whether it is Linux, Mac or Win

TalGarik

@JohnConnorBear when I persuaded friends and family to switch to linux what was I doing? can we say that they were ¨conditioned in thinking¨ they could use linux? in the long run ¨conditioning¨ works only if and when the ¨conditioned¨ person experiences a benefit.
alas the proof of the pudding is in the eating and when they tasted linux they did not like it, that's it, ¨conditioning¨ works only to a certain extent. Someone lasted a few weeks, someone - my daughter - lasted four years, but in the end she realized - working with university colleagues that were using windows 10 - that their life was easier.

npro

@JohnConnorBear said in Why you should replace Windows 7 with Linux:

This is wy beyond the pros and cons of software, it is about monopolies and abuse of dominant position. Only governments can deal with it. They don't because whoever dominates the market has got money for lobbying.

Exactly.

As a general remark regarding all those sad corporate cheerleader posts, you know joining the devil also makes your life easier, let's do it, right?

Folgore101

@Steffie Reasoning a bit too much simplistic, you can have the most beautiful, safe and reliable OS in the world, but if it doesn't run the programs you need its usefulness is practically nothing.

Catweazle

When I suggest a Windows user to use Linux, as in the case of a Windows 7 outdated, or a very old PC, I always do it suggesting to install it in dual boot for a very simple reason. All users throughout using a software or game in Windows want to continue using it, although their OS is obsolete and does not offer security on the network. In dual boot you can continue using it in offline use. Linux is also indicated in PCs dedicated to education, in colleges and universities, since it does not require expensive licenses, in very old PCs, research centers, etc., it is there where it has its strength due to its great adaptability that Windows does not have.
There is no point in being a Taliban of one or the other SO, it always depends on the use, just as it is irrelevant if one prefers Audi or BMW, a utility vehicle or a large car to travel.

Steffie

@Catweazle My journey from windoze to Linux beginning in late 2013 was:

Win7.
Win7 with VirtualBox installed, & myriad VMs created to play with & learn about Nix distros & DEs.
Win7 dual-booted with my chosen Nix.
Nix.

There is undeniably a learning curve, so my process stretched over several months. It was fun, stimulating, exciting, & very illuminating.

Catweazle

@Steffie , I believe it, but most of the users, at least the ones I know outside this forum, because they are this, plain users who don't really want to complicate their lives.

Steffie

@Catweazle I never understand people who lack intellectual curiosity. Yes i know, they are all around us, the world over, & sadly many of them hold great social & political influence. They remain incomprehensible to me however.

Catweazle

@Steffie , if it's really sad that a lot of people just consume without their own criteria, not only in the computer world. In many this of the "Sapiens" is pure pride, the worst that above are many of these in governments and positions of responsibility.

TalGarik

@Steffie an eccentric point of view, someone could say that since they have a lot of intellectual curiosity they are uninterested in wasting precious time for something - a computer - which for them is just a tool, especially when in the end what you get is not different than what you would have got without that effort.
Example: learning to bake your own bread is an effort that repays the effort, since in the end you get something with nothing in common with what you can get in a bakery.
Overall it is a matter of choices, no one of us can do it all, most of the time ¨plain users¨ is what we are and it has nothing to do with being or not intellectually curious.