Whoa, look at that, there is a Linux hater’s blog, and whoa, it has a new post about my whylinuxisbetter.net website. From the post: “[...] it reads like a talking point manual for your local neighborhood Linux zealot. I thought we might have a bit of fun with this one.” Hmm, let’s see… Yay, let’s fight 
- Is your system unstable? “Who knew. When a system doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t crash.” All of Google runs Linux. So Google doesn’t do anything? Well that’s news. Nasa probably doesn’t do anything either? The French administration doesn’t do anything? Oh wait, that was a bad example.
- Choose what your desktop looks like… “To make yourself feel better about it not being to do anything. At least it is pretty.” Huh, were you just talking about Windows Vista?
- Too many windows? Use workspaces. “Yes. Spaces.” Oh, you mean that Mac OS X thing? So if I got two windows A and B on space 1, I put window B in front/focus, then I go to space 2, then back to 1, woops, now A is in front of B. And this is the newest version of the OS, released this year. Linux got this right 10 years ago.
- Why does your Windows get slower day after day? “Because you install a shit-ton of crap on it? If the same large selection of software could run on Linux, users would be having all the same problems“. Would they now? Fortunately for Linux, uninstalling software is done in a clean way and doesn’t leave a shit-ton of crap in your registry.
- Forget about viruses. “I think we went over that already” (with a link to another post). Oh, so the problem of viruses in Windows is completely fixed, solve, basta, finito? That’s news as well.
- Linux protects your computer. “What does that even mean? It sounds like the same as [the previous one]“. Does that mean the problems with spyware, adware, etc. is fixed as well? Well, great. Oh, but maybe you don’t know about them because you’re protected, right? How much did you pay for this protection? Are all users well protected? Is the average user well protected? I guess not because otherwise, all these crapware problems would have gone away by now, right?
- Don’t pay $300 for your operating system. “But spend 10 weekends setting it up“. Well, now I understand why you don’t like Linux that much, that’s because last time you tried to install it was 10 years ago! Got it. By the way, last time I installed Windows, it took me a whole day to go, fetch, and install all the device drivers for my hardware. And reboot after installing each one of them. Last time I installed Ubuntu, I spent 10mn in front of the screen, went away for 20mn, and everything was working and ready to be used when I came back.
- Does your digital life seem fragmented? “No? Does anyone care? Is it so hard to click three buttons to defragment?“. Well if it takes 5 hours and I can’t use my computer during that time, yes. Oh but didn’t you just wonder whether anyone cared? So why are you still doing it?
To be fair, let me say that whylinuxisbetter.net mentions several situations where you’re better off keeping Windows, including (among others) if you work for the book/printing industry or are a hardcore gamer. Linux isn’t perfect, but what this website says is that it’s better than Windows for most users.
If you don’t install anything that’s not in your distro, don’t update and all your hardware is supported.. then yes – Linux is not worse. Better? No, just not bad, that’s the best you can get,
(And I’m not going to repeat it everywhere that Linux on desktop and X-less Linux with paid support are two different animals altogether)
Go ahead and argue with a humor blog.
That is not a humour blog.
It is called “Linux Hater’s Blog” for one reason – hatred.
A very constructive thing to do – to hate – isn’t it?
I have removed the blog from my feeds as reading it is like eating dung.
Some of his arguments are valid, but in general the blog is made by a prick who has too much free time on this hands and too few brains.
It is especially obvious in the last post and I think Manu should not even have wasted his time on argueing.
I have a good one. my dell laptop was too slow and didn’t do 1280×1024. so I got a new (already used) one. I copied my home folder, I generated a list of installed packages, I partitioned the new disk, I installed linux. that was like 1-2 hours. now I had a complete linux system running. now comes the good part: I automatically installed all software from the package list I had generated. I left the pc running until some time later I had the new computer having exactly the same software as the old one. now I copied my personal stuff and I was done. now linux-hater you can not do that with windows – no way! gotcha….
Dont feed the troll!
//Some of his arguments are valid, but in general the blog is made by a prick who has too much free time on this hands and too few brains.//
By a smart prick we must add. Smarter than you.
Albeit thou art holier than him, of course.
Some points are so valid they’re not funny.
Well I use Linux solely on my PC but I just can’t stand the Linux zealotism that goes on in the community. This site being a perfect example of it. For f’s sake just admit that Linux as a platform (I’m _not_ talking about the kernel) is flawed, and every sensible person knows it.
“Huh, were you just talking about Windows Vista?”
So you actually like the looks of Vista? I’m not saying it’s a perfect OS, but you can still run many more applications on it than on linux. And I’m not talking computer games.
“Oh, you mean that Mac OS X thing? So if I got two windows A and B on space 1, I put window B in front/focus, then I go to space 2, then back to 1, woops, now A is in front of B. And this is the newest version of the OS, released this year. Linux got this right 10 years ago.”
So what, a simple bug that was introduced with the introduction of the feature. Yeah, Linux had it working for 10 years. I have four virtual desktops and I use only one of them. And most of the *nix people I know do the same. Guess this shows something. Hardly a selling point there (for any OS).
“Would they now? Fortunately for Linux, uninstalling software is done in a clean way and doesn’t leave a shit-ton of crap in your registry.”
Fortunately, upstream projects oftentimes don’t provide packages, but just the source code with a makefile. Unfortunately, they don’t bother with implementing uninstallation procedures in the makefile, so you just can’t “make uninstall” in many cases. So don’t you dare install the compiled software in the system directories. That is unless you enjoy searching your whole /usr for every file installed, naturally in different directories.
“Oh, so the problem of viruses in Windows is completely fixed, solve, basta, finito? That’s news as well.”
No it’s not. But the virus argument for Linux is just a sign of shortsightedness. Why people don’t bother with viruses for Linux? Because Linux has less than a 1 % market share. It simply doesn’t pay. It’s not that Linux is such a great system that it’s impossible to write viruses for. Make it 20 % and you’ll see viruses popping up.
“Does that mean the problems with spyware, adware, etc. is fixed as well? Well, great. Oh, but maybe you don’t know about them because you’re protected, right? How much did you pay for this protection? Are all users well protected? Is the average user well protected? I guess not because otherwise, all these crapware problems would have gone away by now, right?
”
This goes hand in hand with the virus thing. Again, it’s not rentable to do it for Linux, when you have a much larger user base in Windows.
“Well, now I understand why you don’t like Linux that much, that’s because last time you tried to install it was 10 years ago! Got it. By the way, last time I installed Windows, it took me a whole day to go, fetch, and install all the device drivers for my hardware. And reboot after installing each one of them. Last time I installed Ubuntu, I spent 10mn in front of the screen, went away for 20mn, and everything was working and ready to be used when I came back.”
Well it’s not that idyllic. Just look at the state of wireless device support, crappy X monitor setup, PRINTERS, the list goes on. It’s not just about the hardware, but about software as well. I wouldn’t say it’s 10 hours, but it definitely doesn’t make your life easier in _most_ cases when transitioning from Windows.
“Well if it takes 5 hours and I can’t use my computer during that time, yes. Oh but didn’t you just wonder whether anyone cared? So why are you still doing it? ”
Well, here’s a big surprise for you – ext3 fragments. But linux just doesn’t care.
“if you work for the book/printing industry”
Not universally true. Actually, you’d be surprised at how often TeX is used to typeset publications and books, and indeed there are quite a few publishers that use it solely for their books (along with Linux
), at least in our country. I myself use TeX for all my document-preparation needs.
“Linux isn’t perfect, but what this website says is that it’s better than Windows for most users.”
That may be your wishful thinking. Meanwhile, the rest of the world slowly migrates to Apple, including myself. And why? Because Apple is doing things the right way. Even Mark Shuttleworth can see that. But go ahead and throw your Apple-hating comments and Linux zealotism on me, I don’t care.
Don’t argue with a guy on an attention deficit. That blog was fun ’till it ended up in dumb bashing ans mac loving.
I think we need people like the LinuxHater to point fingers and laugh at us. He makes some points that are valid between all the ranting and I choose to read them and I strongly agree with some of his views. I believe his blog is far more useful in teaching us how to manage expectation and perform honest OSS advocacy. I use linux and choose to do so after weighing the pro’s and cons. His views may be extreme, but for the sake of debate, I hope he keeps on hating. The more we improve OSS, the less he will be able to say. At the very least, I am entertained by it.
Why that’s noise about that, anyway? Honestly, I do not understand word ‘hate’ – I translate it to ‘envy’. Who’s to blame that you do not like / use win / linux? No one, but yourself.
If you want to try something, than try. Download any distro you want, install it thru virtual machine (virtual pc if you use win) and see if it suit your needs.
There is no such thing: linux is better than win and vice versa. It’s just: I like it more than… or… it suit my need better than…
As MCSA, I use WinXP and Vista everyday in the office, while at home I use both win and linux. Depending on the job that have to be done, I boot one or another OS.
That’s the whole truth.
Yes my Win freezes and crushes, so what? Press F13 and continue from the last thing you did. There is problem with drivers? Find the way to run around it.
Too many security patches and kernel bugs? Download and install the latest version. And so on.
If you like something so much, stick with it. If you’re curious by the nature and want to try the new thing, than try it. You don’t like neither Linux nor Windows? Try MacOS, QNX, Unix, BSD or sell your PCs and servers and do something else. But please, do not ‘hate’: you will poison your brain and blood if you didn’t already. I’ll pray for all of you guys.
All the best to all of you
A.Nebitno
I completely agree with all your counters manu…especially with the one to “10 weekends to setup” thingy. Last weekend I formatted my dual booting lappy. Got ubuntu up and running with all my fav sw (including office suite etc) within an hour while windows is still sans office, a lot of other sw and a few drivers after spending better part of the day…
Don’t feed the trolls. It’s pointless arguing which os is better, survival of the fittest will win out in the end.
Just ignore the damn weblog. Talking about it it’s just giving him what he wants. Attention.
He doesn’t like GNU/Linux? Great. I don’t like his choice for OS either.
We can’t all agree …
No one OS has it 100% right … because every single person is different. I regularly use all three OSs (XP/Vista, OSX, and Linux (RedHat and Ubuntu)) and love each of them for different reasons.
IMHO, Linux needs to get more good press and I applaud your site for doing just that. MS and Apple have HUGE budgets for advertising and can get their word out just fine.
Also, forgot to mention how QUICK your site runs … must be running on a Linux server.
Some responses to your retorts: =)
“All of Google runs Linux.” On the servers this may be true, but I suspect that isn’t the case for desktop machines.
Linux protects your computer. ” Does that mean the problems with spyware, adware, etc. is fixed as well? … Linux still has problems with this. There’s something wrong with that protection when apps like WordPress can easily be compromised.
Last time I installed Ubuntu, I spent 10mn in front of the screen, went away for 20mn, and everything was working and ready to be used when I came back. Bully for you. Last time I installed Ubuntu I spent a day trying to get the partitions sorted out for a dual boot. Last time I upgraded (to Hardy), my PDA and IDE stopped working.
I agree with many of your points, but it’s worth noting there are still problems: both technical (poor hardware support, installation issues) and cultural (we OS people spend too much time duplicating our efforts instead of building usable systems).
The best way to handle Linux haters is to simply not respond. As Thomas Paine once wrote “Arguing with a person who has refused all reason is like administering medicine to the dead”.
““All of Google runs Linux.” On the servers this may be true, but I suspect that isn’t the case for desktop machines. ”
You’re right. Google lets their employees run any desktop the want. They understand the concept of freedom in choosing your OS.
People often suffer great difficulties with their computers. This gives the opposition an opportunity to point and laugh or say I told you so or what a piece of crap your OS is. These are technical discussions (in a way). It makes sense. Operating systems are very technical by nature. But there are other issues these “technical” discussions often overlook. Microsoft is the biggest desktop target for malware. Apache (an Open Source project like Linux which means the bad guys have access to all the source code) is the biggest malware target in web hosting software. If Apache suffered the way Microsoft does in security, the Internet would shut down. It’s normal to pay for an operating system (and yes, you pay for it even if it comes on your computer) and then buy some more software so it can be safely run while connected to the Internet. It’s normal, but idiotic. Now with Vista, you can buy that security software from the company that gave you an incomplete OS in the first place. I hope other sectors in corporate America don’t catch wind of this new business practice. Can you imagine buying a car and then purchasing the tires from the same company who made the car as an extra? But the company tires do work better for some reason than the aftermarket ones… gee, I wonder why that is? Hey, it’s their product, their business, nothing wrong with that. Yup, nothing wrong indeed, if you’re a Microsoft stockholder. They’re the real focus of the company efforts, not you the end user.
There is another difference. I often hear both sides say Linux is free, as in beer. It is. And of course Windows isn’t free. And it stops there. The point being missed is that Microsoft has to sell you their software. That makes it a whole different animal than Open Source Linux. It impacts the user experience more than anything else. With Open Source, the end user can be, and often is, a co-developer. Everything is transparent.
Linux and Open Source are really just getting started in a new level of acceptance. It will never be ready for the likes of those who agree with the Linux Hater. I think that works well for me. I try not to wish ill on anybody. Sometimes I just can’t help it though. I often encounter ignorance, hate and fear from bloggers regarding Linux. I could not think of a more miserable existence than to be stuck using Microsoft’s operating systems. They are. Revenge is sweet.
Don’t you really understand what the purpouse of the LinuxHaters blog is?
The man has a deep knowledge of the linux world (both technically and socially) and he is making a very good work to spot what is wrong in it.
The answer of this post match exactly the description of the FOSS zealotry that LinuxHaters paint in every post!
I think they’re laughing a lot reading this, because it means they are completely right in what they write!
One way you know Linux is taking off is by the amount of time people are taking to talk crap about it.
Since there’s more people who hate Vista than Linux, I am guessing Vista is taking off faster than Linux. At least there’s more people using Vista than Linux.
I support Linux 100% but I feel that people should make an objective decision for themselves after reading The Truth about Linux.
stupid reply : “All of Google runs Linux. So Google doesn’t do anything? Well that’s news. Nasa probably doesn’t do anything either? The French administration doesn’t do anything? Oh wait, that was a bad example.”
Why would everyone need to have space mission control station in his bed room?
You know what, i got windows and linux (ubuntu hardy) on my laptop… once in a while i’m just making fun to press shutdown button while O/S is loading both to Windows and Linux… after three times ubuntu won’t load anymore its wrecked… well linux is just better on server and just stay there… because its crap on desktop!
Hmm, you would probably believe that http://www.shelleytherepublican.com/ is actually written by real Republicans too, wouldn’t you?
The Linux Hater’s blog is *brilliant*, and this is coming from a Linux user. It is satire, and very good too. I consider it to be a form of ‘tough love’: there’s no way that this person can know so much about the platform if he doesn’t actually use it himself. It’s a very unique way of pointing out flaws with the system: some people raise bugs that frequently get ignored for months or even years at a time, while this guy chooses to write in this way.
Which is getting the most attention?
Actually, there exist a variety of very effective anti-spyware/malware tools and anti-virus apps, many of which are free to home users.
Silly Rabbit…. Linux is for SERVERS !!!
He doesn’t hate Linux “just because”. He is damn right about most things actually. And Linux zealots continue to prove him right with their standard responses. This guy and his blog is what is needed to wake up, not fanboys that never see nothing wrong with the system.
agrees with mountain king… Most of the stuff the writes is right on the money, he’s definatly a linux user thats for sure
about viruses you said that you can keep your windows clean if you don’t install anything in IE and don’t open any attachment that outlook… I don’t even need to install any thing to burn my windows in hell of viruses. My friend comes to my house and give me you say a MP3 player or a webcam or a USB Flash disk and when i connect it to my USB port boooooooom!
Viruses come trough autorun.ini file in root directory of flash disk in to my PC and can do pretty much anything with my PC and all my documents.
Can please explain to us why and why microsoft did’nt disable autorun feathers of medias or at least just for USB Flash Disk? Why you hard drive partitions can have theire own autorun.ini file? why windows didn’t lock harddrive write commands in autorun applications to avoid viruses that want’s to copy their content into hard drive? is this all about a cooperation between microsoft and hackers and even antivirus distributors to help themselves make mony of peaple PC’s affected by just an autorun.ini file?
excuse me for my bad english writing. thanks.
excuse me dreames the comment i’ve posted above is just my comment in Linux Haters blog but i think it may be wonderfull here.
Russ Brown is right, this blog looks pretty much like Shelley The Republican. But STR is much funnier, have you see their post on Firefox and the Book of Mozilla :·D ?
Although the site is a nice effort. All I could think was “thank you Capt. Obvious.” It’s just the same thing I have seen over and over again for the last 8 years. It’s free, it’s better, it’s this, it’s that…yeah.
I have been using and administrating *NIX servers/clusters/stations/what have you for what seems like too many years now. It’s really quite boring once you get the gist of everything. As a desktop it works well, but it’s just and operating system. It’s not going to change the friggin’ world.
“Fortunately for Linux, uninstalling software is done in a clean way and doesn’t leave a shit-ton of crap in your registry.”
… yeah, cause you have to manually go and delete everything yourself. Wake up pin head.
Too many windows? Use workspaces. “Yes. Spaces.” Oh, you mean that Mac OS X thing? So if I got two windows A and B on space 1, I put window B in front/focus, then I go to space 2, then back to 1, woops, now A is in front of B. And this is the newest version of the OS, released this year. Linux got this right 10 years ago.
Urm.. let me try that. Hurmm.. no, that didn’t happen. Do you use OS X or are you referring to something you read?
Don’t pay $300 for your operating system. “But spend 10 weekends setting it up“. Well, now I understand why you don’t like Linux that much, that’s because last time you tried to install it was 10 years ago! Got it. By the way, last time I installed Windows, it took me a whole day to go, fetch, and install all the device drivers for my hardware. And reboot after installing each one of them. Last time I installed Ubuntu, I spent 10mn in front of the screen, went away for 20mn, and everything was working and ready to be used when I came back.
I installed Ubuntu a few weeks back, not 10 years ago. It failed to detect both my ethernet and my usb ports as well as my Windows partition. Lalalala
Mac is the best. It is a strong solid platform that has been around since 1980. It’s got its 4% of market share (in the US) at a rapid pace of 0.14% per year and I am sure it’ll climb up by 2 more percent in the next 10 to 20 years.
http://iGamerShop.com – Video Game Blogs.
Nasa i don’t know but i can confirm to you that french administration do nothing at all and even less in It, a lot of open office and that’s all lol
Good rebuttal. I used to think Linux Hater had good points, but he’s gone from constructive critiquing to useless slander. He sounds like a scorned lover.
By the way, I just installed Fedora 7 on an IBM Thinkpad, and the amount of diddling to get things working? None! Just a little for the modem, but everything else, sound, USB, suspend, network, WIFI, works. IBM had to install a secret partition with a heavily modified version of Windows, to acheive the same effect. Linux did that without having to eat 3G of my hard drive space for an ‘install image’.
Oh, and it runs really, really nicely too! I just hate the repositories. I wish you could just install software straight from the software vendor. The only gripe I have with Fedora, is the distro’s go out of date too, too quickly. At least with windows, you can still install and run new software for many years. But apart from that, I can’t see any other advantage to running windows.
Always the naysayers but in the end, Linux is simply for people with brains.
@Linux, there are different tempers, Linux is simply for people who have a lot of time to spend their brain on learning the OS. most of them cant understand they are subjected to intended wastage of time, which is not the most productive thing to do