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| Katherine Noyes, aka Linux Girl |
Why?
Because
for most of the ensuing time I was dual-booting between Ubuntu Linux
and Windows 7, and so—at least on one side of my PC—I was still
subject to all the vulnerabilities and restrictions that afflict
Windows
users.
Then,
at the end of last month, I finally gave Windows the boot once and
for all on my desktop PC and installed Fuduntu
as my primary operating system. I've felt light as a feather ever
since, and now can't imagine what took me so long.
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| Fuduntu 2013.1 Logo |
2007:
What Is This 'Linux' of Which You Speak?
I
began writing for ECT News Network in early 2007, and soon afterwards
discovered an affinity for the stories published by LinuxInsider,
one of the company's multiple tech publications.
I
had always had geeky inclinations, but had never used or written
about Linux before.
Not
long afterwards, LinuxInsider invited me to launch the Linux Blog
Safari column, and I became Linux
Girl.
2009:
Windows Who? Oh Right, Still There.
Over
time, the more I wrote about Linux and open
source software, the more intrigued I became. I began to use
examples like OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and GIMP, and soon I
couldn't resist checking out Linux as well.
I've
never been a fan of big corporations, and was strongly attracted to
the small, community focus of projects like these. I started with
Ubuntu but tried out Mint and Fedora as well.
All
the time, though, I kept that Windows partition, partly (I'll admit)
out of laziness, but also partly out of a vague feeling that I might
need it again sometime. I use a VPN for some of my writing, for
example, and wasn't sure how that would work on the Linux side.
2013:
See Ya, Windows
Fast
forward to just a few weeks ago, and I finally realized it was time
to pull the plug. I hadn't actually needed Windows for years by this
time, but had only kept it lingering on my PC out of sheer inertia.
Encouraged
by +Dietrich
Schmitz and others, I wiped my Windows 7 partition and installed
Fuduntu using the whole drive. It was a liberating feeling.
Next,
however, I had to get connected again with respect to my employers.
Setting up email was easy, and with Chrome I could import all my old
preferences. I had all my old data on a thumb drive.
The
big, remaining question was getting my Cisco VPN connection up and
running. The employer in question told me it didn't
support Linux desktop clients, so I had a few tense moments
initially.
Then,
however, I saw that Fuduntu had numerous VPN
options,
including
Cisco AnyConnect Compatible VPN (openconnect); Cisco compatible VPN
(VPNC); IPsec/IKEv2 (strongswan); OpenVPN; and PPTP.
The
second on that list worked like a charm. Credentials in hand, I got
it up and running on the first try, and it's been flawless ever
since.
Plays
Nicely with Others
All
of which goes to say, Linux
plays pretty nicely with the business world these days.
Never
have I experienced such a feeling of freedom in my computing
environment—to
do online banking, even!—and
it's
all because so much work has been done to make Linux compatible with
the (often inferior) proprietary technologies businesses so often
use.
If
you're considering pulling
your computing plug
in a similar way, I'd encourage you to do it sooner than I did. I
think you'll be pleasantly
surprised
by what you find.
Absolutely. I've been living on it since 2007, "using" it heavily since 2001, and "introduced" to it in 1998. This has been a great ride. It's absolutely changed my career. I'll jump on opportunities to return to the Linux community whenever possible and have been *stoked* to help out with things like the occasional Ubuntu QA Jam.
ReplyDeleteI had an abrupt intro to Linux thanks to Windows :-D January-ish 2010 my Windows XP machine caught a nasty virus. I was a budding Android addict and needed a computer for learning more about Android's guts. My computer 100% died and I was stuck. A friend at work asked if I installed Linux to fix it. "What is Linux anyway?" I remember asking him. He said I should check out Ubuntu. I read up a bit and settled on Kubuntu. I booted it up and learned I could add widgits to my desktop just like I could on my phone, my mind was blown and I haven't looked back at Windows since. GLORY! Now I use Arch Linux for my daily use and am going to try to make a home server with Arch as well.
ReplyDeleteOuch... What took you so long ? I started on GNU/Linux on 2003 and in 2005 I migrated full time and gave winblow$ the boot.
ReplyDeleteBut...
Better late than never.
A big Amen!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to GNU/Linux desktops. For your next challenge and to truly escape the bonds propagated by M$, check out using a good PC for databasery and servery. For example, it is trivial to cache all your documents and webpages visited in a database accessed by your browser. Then you have a single tool to do everything better. Do try a search engine on your PC, too. If you are going to use a desktop PC you might as well get it to do all it can faster, cheaper and better. M$ sells server licences at a huge markup and many users don't realize that a computer is a computer whether it is a client or a server and GNU/Linux can be both at once.
For databases, I recommend MySQL or PostgreSQL. For a search engine, locate from the CLI works if you use descriptive file-names, but you can have full-text search with Swish-e (a bit old-fashioned) or strigi, solr or xapian. Learn to use your package-manager's search function. GNU/Linux repositories of goodies.
Pssst. You name link to Dietrich Schmitz on google plus
ReplyDeleteCorrected. Thanks for the catch! :)
ReplyDelete