Open Source: Linux. Is it for you?

The three most popular desktop operating systems today are Windows, OS X, and Linux. Out of the three Linux is the only one that is open source. This means that Linux has customizable code that anyone can obtain and change themselves. This customization makes Linux popular among more computer savvy people, but it also has its flaws. One flaw is that Linux has no wall to lean back on. What I mean is that if your copy of Linux breaks because of some add-on, then it is busted. The total customization means that it is impossible to fully prevent a user created add-on from destroying your copy of Linux. Despite the flaws people still use Linux, but should you be using it?

For starters let’s look at what it takes to install Linux. Linux is more or less free, and can either be installed as a regular boot, dual boot, or on a virtual machine. The current form of OS X and Windows makes it hard to dual boot anymore, so virtual machines are the only way to have Linux along with another operating system. Virtual machines are very finicky objects; they tend to have random problems due to many variables. This makes installing Linux on a virtual machine a bit time consuming and ends up with little reward if you don’t really need Linux.

A Linux desktop. Looks pretty at least.

Linux has some good points though. Because Linux is in its purest form as an OS, there are very little other system resources that interfere with other processes. For example, developing on smart phones require either a phone to test code on, or an emulator. Emulators usually don’t run well because they have to be converted many times in short amounts of times. The Android phone emulator for instance runs very poorly on Windows even with optimizations, but runs smoothly and quickly on Linux.

So to put it simply, if you code you should keep Linux on hand for those odd projects. If you are a normal computer user don’t bother going into Linux. The turn-out is not worth the reward.