As I continue my
painful recovery from surgery and float through the cybersphere, I
came across a post on one of my subreddits —
a Linux Mint forum. The post celebrated the first release of this
operating system on August 27, 2006.
Why should this matter to me? Or to anyone else?
Well, late in 2023, I decided that Microsoft had become too intrusive to both my pocket book and my data. The tech giant converted its office suite into a subscription-based product while disabling and locking away access to former versions of Office, which had been fully paid for making practically industry-standard Word, Outlook, Excel and other programs useless. The threat that the firm’s monopoly-coveting greed would extend to renting the main operating system seemed real to me, specifically because its PR flacks issued denials of the possibility. Then, “security” updates to the Windows 10 system imposed defaults to such things as OneDrive, where all your work was loaded into the Microsoft cloud app or “copilot,” a supposed artificial intelligence app. It was clear that my “personal” computer was really just becoming Microsoft’s work station placed in my home.
Then with no rational justification, Microsoft’s new hardware requirements for its Windows 11 operating system would vomit, according to some estimates, about 240 million (yes, million) older devices in landfills. I lack any civil words for condemning Microsoft’s rape of the environment.
I knew, from my introduction to personal computing in 1976, other operating systems were available; and I knew from playing in cyberspace in 2016 that operating systems based on Unix and Linux were gaining ground and becoming more user friendly. So, I went on a research spree and, in November 2023, checked into various Linux operating systems (called distros in Linux-speak). The learning curve was steep, complicated by the fact that some of my essential finance and photography programs were not available for Linux systems; or, that the Linux variants were simply not robust enough.
After an agonizing trek through research and testing in December and part of January 2024, I decided that I wanted a “dual boot” system. That is, I wanted the ability to start and/or boot my powerful desktop computer into either Windows 10 or Linux Mint Cinnamon. The latter Linux system’s desktop environment looked much like Windows although it was completely different. That decision made, I took apart my computer and following very helpful YouTube videos, installed two solid state drives, or SSDs, and then loaded Windows 10 on one and Linux Mint Cinnamon on the other. I reattached all the drives and booted up. By the end of last January, I had everything installed with both operating systems available at my command. And, the few Windows-only programs run on that SSD while the majority of my “daily driver” applications are on my Linux drive.
Remember I said environmental rapist Microsoft is forcing those who want/need to run Windows 11 to give up perfectly good devices, flooding landfills with the poisons of Silicon Valley? Well, a major answer to dodging the cost of new equipment is that the variety of Linux distros let you choose one that will work on older machines because even the most robust of Linux flavors are less bloated than Microsoft’s operating systems. My Linux Mint Cinnamon is lightening fast on a 2011 ASUS laptop that slogged along on Windows 10.
There is another benefit to using Linux and Linux-based applications. They are known as “open source,” which means they are free; they are supported by large communities of developers who will take but not require contributions. So my word processing, video editing and playback apps, other office-programs, browsers and VPN are all free and run on Linux. I am writing this on LibreWriter, which is part of my LibreOffice suite. It’s not as robust as Word in some ways, but it’s easy to use and, as I noted, free. Even better, none of the Linux applications default to data sharing or have embedded spyware. Further, as many in the Linux community will point out, these distros are remarkably secure and almost totally immune to malware attacks.
Moving from the major computing environments to Linux can be challenging. In my moments of great frustration, and there were many, I reminded myself I was also learning things and the exercise was good for my Hercule Poirot-type “little gray cells.” Now I start my days in Mint condition, visiting Microsoft once a day to handle finances. It gives me peace to know I am less vulnerable to BigTech and am part of a community with similar values to mine. If you, dear reader, wish to detach from BigTech and greedy capitalism, take a look at Linux. Even if you don’t convert, you will have learned there are more options for you and your computer to enjoy.
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