[clug] Why switch to Linux?

Paul Wayper paul.wayper at anu.edu.au
Fri Nov 10 00:39:31 GMT 2006


Drew Parsons wrote:
> To be honest I find this statement is extremely deceptive.  
>   
Well, it's no more deceptive to say Linux never crashes than to say
Windows never crashes, and I've heard plenty of people say that.

> Between firefox, evolution, open office and power management, I find my
> laptop running Linux crashes a *lot*.  Doesn't always freeze the entire
> system up (then again sometimes it does), but a crash is a crash.
>   
I have crashes occasionally on the new laptop.  I reckon it's probably
the fact that I haven't got CPU frequency scaling installed and worked
out yet, so that it's overheating.  In Windows on the same laptop it
seems less prone to these crashes.  But I have discovered that Windows
has the same problems with the WiFi (long bursts of receiving will
eventually adger the WiFi somehow, causing it to disconnect) as Linux does.

But the real point is that, in Linux, you have _much_ more chance of
being able to work out what's going wrong and fix it.  You may find
messages in /var/log/messages or dmesg; applications will either dump
core or give you stack traces.  You can often put these applications
under debugging frameworks to find out more about what's going on
internally.  You have the source code to look at if you have the skills
to understand it.

Windows basically gives you none of these.  My experience with Windows
(over a decade) is that troubleshooting problems is _much_ harder. 
Firstly, you often don't get told anything about what's causing the
problem.  Secondly, you have no way of sticking your head under the hood
to look.  The reason that Windows debugging often comes down to
rebooting or closing and reopening applications is that, often, that's
about all you can do.

If you have problems with your laptop, then start trying to find out
what's causing them.  File bug reports.  Email the CLUG list, or other
lists, with questions.  Google error messages and symptoms.  There is
absolutely no reason, in any operating system, why you have to have a
flaky machine.  In my opinion, with Linux you have much more chance of
getting it working reliably.

HTH,

Paul


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