BROADCASTS.com

8 Reasons to Drop Windows or MacOS for Linux Linux was created “to create a new free operating system kernel. The resulting Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history.” - Wiki link. It doesn’t cost anything. Being that it’s open source, if you wanted to do the work, you could find out how all of the mechanics of it work, down to the kernel. Think of the kernel as the center of everything that controls the operating system. Or if you’re obsessed with food like me: A popcorn kernel is where the popcorn begins before your pop it and eat it. There are users who are skilled enough to have learned all the inner workings of Linux to contribute to the Linux community to improve the operating system. Package management Think of something like the App Store or Google Play Store on your smartphone. How often do you find yourself updating individual apps on your smartphone? Not often, likely, because they get updated as a whole. Most Linux distributions have this out of the box. The big thing about Linux, is that you can try different package managers on different distributions - there are so many choices that you don’t typically have on Windows and MacOS. I’m sure some will disagree with me, but the MacOS App store sucks and the Microsoft store sucks just as bad, maybe even more. You probably don’t have to buy a “supported” machine to start using Linux. This isn’t something I can say about most operating systems. Windows is pretty good about installing on different hardware. Chances are, Linux will run on more machines though. If you have a PC at home that you are planning on either erasing or factory restoring soon, Linux will almost certainly run on it. Dual Boot If you’re just planning on using MacOS or Windows because it “comes with your computer”, maybe you could consider buying a used PC to install Linux on. Additionally, you can still keep Windows and Dual Boot (that means to install Linux alongside Windows). This way you can keep Windows for compatibility purposes and PC gaming if you’re a gamer - PC still wins in this category over MacOS and Linux (for when you absolutely can’t avoid using Windows). And then you can just use Linux most of the time. This is actually my preferred setup. Linux takes the best from both worlds. When I was MacOS user for a few months, I immediately began to miss things that were present in Windows, such as Window snapping/tiling. in MacOS, you can install programs to add that functionality, but Linux distributions, such as Linux Mint Cinnamon or Pop!_OS, have their own window snapping or tiling capabilities out of the box and it works amazingly well. Distro Hopping. USB Stick - Multiple ISOs. Ventoy. The thing I love about Ventoy is that you can make a little Swiss army knife of operating systems and choose to boot from however many ISOs your USB drive can hold. For example, my Ventoy USB has Windows, many different LInux distributions, and Rescuezilla. Rescuezilla itself is a very valuable tool in my arsenal. It’s based on Linux that includes a browser, tool to recover deleted images and, most importantly, backup and recovery abilities - do local storage, or a server. This tool is nothing short of amazing. Not locked into stupid limitations set by greedy companies. For example, It’s 2021 and the latest models of the Macbook Pro/Air max out at 16GB of RAM. That’s enough RAM for most people. But I thought these are supposed to be creative powerhouse machines. I could grab an older Intel PC and slap in more RAM and Linux will work with it just fine. Follow our Podcast If you're a new listener to the Manly Hanley Podcast, we would love to hear from you. Visit our website and leave a comment. While you’re there, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter! Follow @randrums on Twitter!