Wordy Wednesday

5 Reasons Not to use Linux

I'm always tempted, as you probably know, to go on about how great Linux is, and I generally resist because there are more interesting things to write about, like cans of shit, but inspired by Bee's post today, here is a list of reasons not to use it. Well, actually, there's one reason.

You may prefer to skip all of this, and go straight to the bacon at the bottom of the post. I won't be very offended if you do this.

1. Linux isn't on 95% of desktop systems

This is the main good reason people don't use it. There aren't many home systems that come with Linux, and hardware manufacturers don't always write Linux drivers. So you have to check before you buy, say, a printer. The latest greatest game is probably not available either. I can't argue with this - I know a lot of people who won't switch because specific software is only available for Windows.

Since I could only come up with one real reason, here are some possibly less serious ones:

2. Your computer is unlikely to get a virus.

Because of that 95% thing, the evil virus writers usually concentrate on Windows machines, leaving us poor neglected Linux users with systems that tend to work reliably.

3. Ubuntu is brown

I've actually seen people quote this one online. When you install Ubuntu, by default it's colour scheme is orange and brown. That's not difficult to fix. I prefer red and blue myself.

4. You don't have to spend money on software

What's the point of using a system that comes with a free office suite (compatible with the leading brand), and a good alternative to Photoshop? It's clearly irresponsible during these times of economic downturn for people to use free software instead of helping out the poorer members of society, such as Bill Gates.

5. They've made it too easy to use

In the good old days, Linux was only for people who were serious computer geeks. Like the classic car enthusiasts, their system spent most of it's time (metaphorically) in bits whilst they rewrote parts of the kernel. Sadly nowadays distributions like Ubuntu are easier to set up than Windows and usually just work. Which means that the user community now includes (shudder) normal people.

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Bacon

In these days of plague and pestilence, there has been a suggestion that perhaps people should be careful about eating pork products, in case they somehow manage to contract Mad Pigs Disease from a dodgy hot dog. Of course you're far more likely to get food poisoning or whatever. So by way of showing some support for the much-maligned pig, here is Chris Pirillo eating some bacon. With chocolate. I couldn't get the link that he quotes to work, but I did find this one: Mo's Bacon Bar. Enjoy!