Lose Your Linux Virginity

Some people are too skittish about losing their Linux virginity. After thirty years using Microsoft products (yes, I remember--and used to love--MS-DOS), this is what I did, and I recommend that you do it too. Just buy a hard drive. They are not expensive. I'll bet an 80-gigger sells for less than $30 on E-bay. Plug that sucker in and install the Linux distro of your fancy. I'm partial to Xubuntu, but that doesn't mean it's right for everybody. Due to occasional bug reports, I am sometimes tempted to try a different distro, but don't want to lose all my configurations, so I don't.

The first couple of days that I spent with Linux were on a fresh new hard drive. Everything worked, as I recall, with the exception of 5.1 surround sound via S/PDIF, and I spent a bit of time tinkering to get that working, but this was a couple of years ago, and I don't know whether I would still have that problem today. The end benefit for me is that I can reinstall an OS any old time I feel like it, and I have four computers operating without any Microsoft licenses and they work just fine. As a matter of fact, my Linux rigs have fewer problems than my one remaining Windows rig. I spent two hours setting up tasks in Windows's confusing, ill-designed Task Scheduler, only to receive errors this morning. My tasks have all disappeared due to a Windows bug, and I have had to spend another two hours entering the tasks, with no assurance that they will still be there tomorrow. With Windows, one pays a premium both in time and money. The Task Scheduler is one of Windows's hidden "gotchas". Linux is just easier to use all around, partly because it is a simple matter to customize every aspect to the user's preferences.

I think it's funny how some people assume that computers begin and end with Windows. It's a naive outlook and comes with a lot of limitations, the first being that provisioning a new rig is going to cost upwards of $75, while experimenting with a pirated Windows in this day and age is asking for trouble. I don't know why people will spend a lot of money buying new hardware and paying for a new Windows and then spend the ten to twelve hours required to get Windows fully configured and customized, but they won't spend an afternoon learning about Linux. I think the reason is similar to why people drink Coca-Cola, smoke cigarettes, and eat candy. Thinking probably doesn't have much to do with the equation at all.