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Since late August of last year, I've been doing my small part in the battle against the Microsoft plan for world domination. I've been using Linux, the open-source operating system, for all my regular work -- writing, emailing, web-browsing, etc. -- for a full year.
I had been dabbling with Linux for several years, either with it installed on an old computer, or with a dual-boot system on my main computer, where I did most of my work with Windows 98.
But last August, Windows kept crashing. I'm fairly devout about backing up data, so I didn't lose much work. Suspecting a virus, I reformatted the hard drive, re-installed Windows and restored my data. Within days, the infamous Blue Screen of Death popped up again -- and again and again.
Sick of broken Windows, I reformatted the entire hard drive for Linux, which I then installed. Thus everything I've written in the past year has come from a Microsoft-free environment.
Like any other change, this transition has had its costs and benefits. Making a dial-up Internet connection was tricky at first; fortunately, our ISP's system runs on Linux, so they were able to help.
Printing was also a challenge, since Linux likes PostScript printers and I was using an old HP-6L. Fortunately, I found another use for the HP, which gave me an excuse to buy a PostScript printer, and it works fine.
The only other real problems came from the hardware. The sole ISA slot on this motherboard died. It had held an internal modem. Linux can work with some PCI modems, but it was easier to get an external modem.
For about a week in June, the machine would reboot or freeze at random intervals, and I feared an infection. Then it wouldn't come on at all, indicating a dead power supply which had likely been fluctuating as it deteriorated. That would explain those reboots and freezes, since those problems stopped after I replaced the power supply.
Some anticipated problems turned out to be solved easily. We publish a small magazine here, which means I need to network with three other machines, all Windows devices, in the home office -- our accounting, graphics and publishing software all run under Windows.
But an afternoon's work with Linux Samba and a Windows FTP server connected me to the local network.
Also I needlessly feared complications with file formats. No matter how much I extol the virtues of straight ASCII text as part of the body of an email, our magazine's contributors send their work in a variety of formats: HTML in the message text, Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format attachments, etc. But Linux has the tools to convert these formats into plain ASCII text.
So I can get my work done with Linux as well as I did with Windows 98, and I've certainly enjoyed some benefits with Linux.
For one thing, Linux is much more stable than Windows 98. When the hardware is working, so is Linux. It's solid.
I've read that Windows XP is 13 times more stable
than Windows 98, whatever that means. I've also read that
XP requires an activation code
to work properly, one
that has to be redone if you change some hardware, and I
really don't know why my computer configuration should be
any of Microsoft's business.
For another, the Linux knowledge I acquire through experience should remain valid. I won't have to relearn a lot of stuff, as I did with the transitions from CPM to MS-DOS to Windows 3.11 to Windows 98. That strikes me as a more productive use of my time. Also, I don't have to spend time looking for, and downloading, security patches and anti-virus updates.
During the past fortnight, we've heard plenty about the Blaster worm and the Sobig virus. Those infections arrive here as e-mail attachments -- and that's it. I can't spread them because I don't use Microsoft Outlook for my email, and my machine won't suffer from them because those executable files are for Windows and won't execute under Linux.
We know from biology that monocultures are susceptible to devastating epidemics (i.e., the Irish potato famine of 1845-46). The same seems to be true of computer monocultures -- infections spread quickly.
So a diverse environment, while sometimes inconvenient, is a safer and more secure environment -- and these days, aren't all good Americans supposed to be concerned about safety and security?
My year of Linux has been frustrating at times, but I've
gotten my work done, and there's a great compensation in
just yawning and wondering So what else is new?
when
there's an account of yet another Windows worm.
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