[lug] Another reason to use Desktop Linux

[Steve Litt]

Hi all,

Last night I was reminded of another reason I use Linux/BSD over
Windows/OSx/iOS...

Years ago, before Microsoft used Skype, I used Skype all the time. Even
after Skype unwisely made PulseAudio a Skype requirement, I used apulse
to run Skype on a Linux box without PulseAudio.

Then Microsoft bought Skype, and with every update, it became harder
and harder to use with Linux. Finally, in 2012 or 2013, I gave up.

My wife Sylvia needed an operational Skype on her Windows laptop for
a doctor's exam. She got nowhere installing Skype, so I tried it. It
wasn't a technical challenge: The problem was that you needed to
install it off Microsoft's store, or whatever it calls, and you had to
jump through all the hoops of setting up a Microsoft account.

Furthermore, Microsoft has ruined the discoverability of Skype. You
click on the name of the person calling you, and nothing happens. You
need to click on the big green phone. There are tens of other confusing
roadsigns added by Microsoft. There was little logic to the whole thing.

When you install software on Linux, you install the software and that's
it. No demands that you join a members-only club with yet another set
of dire legal requirements and yet another password to both remember
and guard. Open Source can't tell you want to do, but these
members-only clubs can legally force you to do almost anything, thereby
defeating the spirit of Open Source.

So let's examine the subject of "killer apps". I can use Windows with
Visio, and get beautiful icons for the blocks in a block diagram. But
doing so ties me to all sorts of legal encumberments (read the license
and imagine if the project goes bad and you need to tweak it). On the
other hand, Linux (or Windows) with the dia diagrammer gives you ugly
and harder to use icons, but you can do anything you want with it
except privatizing it or passing it on without the license attached.

Every minute I was messing with Skype on Windows, I said "man, I'm glad
I use Linux."

SteveT

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