[lug] Why use a Linux desktop? Was: Re: (Virtual)

[Steve Litt]

On Fri, 10 Apr 2020 13:48:34 -0600
Maxwell Spangler <lists at maxwellspangler.com> wrote:


> While Linux in areas like high performance computing, services and
> embedded devices has definitely succeed over alternatives, the Linux
> desktop marketshare appears to be stalled or shrinking.  Other than
> personal politics, I just don't really see any reason to use it. 

Allow me :-)

1. DIYability: After moving from DOS and Windows in the 1990's, I
   noticed it was hard to automate or personalize Windows
   software. Moving to Linux in 1998, shellscripts and other tools
   brought back the automation and personalization, and just plain
   DIYability I'd had in DOS, but much more so.

2. POSIX: With Linux (or any POSIX system) I have all those little
   tools I can connect up like Lego (R) blocks to accomplish *exactly*
   what I want to accomplish. AWK, sed, cut, grep, tee, sort, tar,
   find, /bin/sh, piping, redirection and backticking. If one needs a
   functionality *right now* and isn't concerned with "pretty", these
   can be used. 

   For instance, I recently needed a way to store locations of items
   on my huge bookshelves: Quick input, and quick retrieval, both as
   shelf to item, and item to shelf. For ease and just to get it done,
   I chose VimOutliner as the native format and input mechanism.
   VimOutliner is available on most distros and is easily installed
   from source. Menuing is provided by my home-grown UMENU2
   (http://troubleshooters.com/projects/umenu2/). Entity listing is via
   the spectacular dmenu software from Suckless Tools. What little
   programming was needed was provided by a couple 20 line AWK programs
   and a couple even tinier and simpler shellscripts. I was on a huge
   cleanup campaign and needed my software *right now* so my campaign
   didn't stall: I had what I needed 1/2 hour after I started. That's
   the Power of POSIX.

3: dmenu: Dmenu from Suckless Tools is extremely fast and versatile for
   both picklists and data fields. It works ONLY with X, so no Windows.
   I don't know whether OS/x uses X or not. I literally use dmenu at
   least 50 times a day, I've integrated it into handy little software
   applications, and yet I haven't scratched its surface. If Wayland
   ever completely replaces X, I'll have to convert it to Wayland. Not
   that easy: I've seen the source code. I might also convert it to
   ncurses so it can be used in a CLI context.

4: TRULY free software: I remember back around the turn of the century,
   you could get Perl and Python for Windows, as long as you got them
   from a vendor who forbid you from giving them to anyone else. If you
   wrote a Perl app for Windows, for each client you had to show up on
   site and download their stupid thing in your client's name. Contrast
   this to Linux (and BSD), where you have complete access to all free
   software, and you can put it on the computers of a few thousand
   friends. No "store" to obtain applications and software, with
   Linux you just install it.

5: Choice of user interfaces: Whenever I'm forced to use Windows 8 or
   Windows 10, my first thought is "are you kidding me?" Chicklets
   aren't my thing. For a narrow era of time, their application finder
   enabled you to pull up any application you knew the name of. But
   then they made it so your search term pulled up an Internet search.
   Every time I'm forced to use Windows, I feel like I need a barf bag
   handy.

   In Linux (and BSD) you can have any user interface you want. I like
   OpenBox. Some folks like no-mouse no-decoration ratpoison. Some
   enjoy that wierdo, Gnome3. JSM. CTWM. Windowmaker, Mate, LXDE, lxQt,
   XFCE. The CPU exerciser KDE, or the CPU-gentle IceWM. And tens more.
   And within each of those, you can personalize the look, you can
   personalize hotkeys and mouse activities.

6: You control your computer, your computer doesn't control you: This
   is a natural result of the preceding five benefits, but is important
   enough to warrant its own bullet point. With Windows (and I imagine
   Mac), when they decide to change their software, you have to change
   your habits, reflexes and workflow. In Linux (and BSD), you can
   almost always make a few mods so that the way you do business
   remains *your* way of doing business.

=====================

Of course, whenever I make the preceding six points, somebody will
always pipe up with: "But Steve, you're a programmer, you can't expect
an ordinary user to do that!"

My response depends on the definition of "ordinary user." If you mean
somebody with a sub-80 IQ who has trouble adding two digit numbers or
forming a complete sentence, I agree. 

But if you mean an average person with average learning abilities and
disabilities, it's just not true. Anybody who has ever written a set of
instructions for their child or somebody else to follow has
"programmed." The only difference is stricter syntax checking and an
inability to grok "you know what I mean." But syntax isn't difficult in
a ten line shellscript.

My response also depends on the definition of "programmer." I'm not
talking about a guy who can create a GUI interface to a database or a
wordprocessor. I'm talking about a guy who can string five to twenty
instructions together, perhaps with some simple ifs and loops. I'm
talking about somebody who can learn simple Python (trivial for the guy
with a 100 IQ). Extra credit for the guy learning Python's subprocess
module, which in my opinion would require 16 hours to learn, and aid
the person for the rest of his or her life.

I worked for a huge law firm back in the 1980s. Most of the lawyers and
all the legal secretaries could do their job just fine in MS-DOS. Many
legal secretaries had enough "programming" chops to create Wordperfect
macros and simple batch files. Humanity is nowhere as stupid as Bill
Gates and Steve Jobs spent billions to convince us we are.

There are people who would be better off with Windows. But there are
plenty of people who would be happier running their desktop computer on
Linux.


> Even
> in my case, most of what i do is now terminal based or browser based
> and I can't identify any GUI apps on Linux that are best of breed over
> Windows or Mac.

* LyX
* LaTeX
* Plain TeX
* Inkscape
* VimOutliner (GUI or CLI)
* Calibre

Oh wait: Those are free software and were also ported to Windows and
Mac, so they don't give Linux an advantage.

But what about when you need to run Visio, Turbotax,
Quicken/Quickbooks, Adobe and the like? Run them in Windows: Modern
machines can be VMed.

=====================

Bottom line: No matter what OS one chooses for his or her desktop,
there remain plenty of reasons to choose Linux.

SteveT

Steve Litt
March 2020 featured book: Troubleshooting: Why Bother?
http://www.troubleshooters.com/twb