[Tom Tiger]

Hi,

Tom here, Linux Advocate.

What really irritates me sometimes is the way some people think about GNU Linux. Some people (not allways microsoft fanboys) spout an enormous load of rubbish about GNU/Linux and they didn't even try Linux. So today I'm fed up with it :-).
Here are some of the most irritating Linux Myths and I'm debunking the lot.

Myth nr1. LINUX IS HARD TO INSTALL

Now this might have been true in 1999 and for some advanced distros it still is (notice the word advanced) But it is NOT TRUE no more.

Take Ubuntu, or SUSE, Mandriva, Fedora or any other mainstream distro. The install is easy. And I do mean EASY.

That's one myth down.

Myth nr2, LINUX HAS NO GOOD APPLICATIONS!

'scuse me? Now that is a load if I ever heard one. How about Apache? The webserver that so many use around the world?

Openoffice, The Gimp, Evolution, Thunderbird, Firefox, ICEweasel, Beryl, Opera, Krusader, Gaim, Kover, Glabels, Gthumb, Fspot, Audacity, Avidemux, Kino, Mplayer, Xine, Bluefish, Qcad, K3B, QTparted, VLC, Bittornado and loads and loads and loads more.... Thousands and thousands....

Thats two myths down.

Myth nr3, I CAN'T PLAY GAMES UNDER LINUX

Yes you can. ID software allways brings out a linux version of their Software. There are emulators galore that work perfectly, and if you really really want your windowsgames... well then we have Cedega. So if I want to run C&C Generals under Linux I can, and Warcarft, and Halo.... list goes on. But I do agree that NOT all Windoze games work.

But I'm still calling it three myths down.

Myth nr4, HARDWARE SUPPORT IS AWFULL UNDER LINUX

Linux supports more hardware straight out of the box then windows does. In most cases you don't even have to install a driver. It just sees and activates.
However. There are cases that hardware manufacturers don't help us Linux folks. So allways check if what you are buying is supported by Linux.

Thats four myths down.

Myth nr5, SECURITY UNDER LINUX IS STUPID I NEED TO BE ADMINISTRATOR

It is not stupid, it is called safety, for every command that might be dangerous to your system or is a possible security threat you need to be "administrator" or as we say ROOT. (Got Root?)

This has been done on every *NIX system for years.

In the whole Linux world running a system as root is considered to be stupid because you run the risk of damaging your system. ROOT can do all. So you must be carefull with ROOT.

Thats five myths down.

Myth nr6, UPDATING LINUX IS HARD TO DO

No it is not, take Mandriva or Ubuntu, it has its own update manager that checks for updates, not in the windows way but when you want it to. After which it presents you with the available updates and you can do what you want with them. And offcouse Suse has a great one (YAST) Fedora (YUM) ect... ect... ect...

Thats six myths down.

Myth nr7, WHY MUST I COMPILE A KERNEL FOR NEW HARDWARE????!!!!

Answer, you do not have to. The update systems on the mainstream distros (read suse, ubuntu, fedora, mandriva ect...) offer you the option to download a new kernel and to install it automaticly. And this is not even nessecary in 90 percent of the cases.

If you really have exotic hardware that needs a special driver you can add it to a kernel WITHOUT recompiling. (this is called Insert Mod, or insmod)

Thats seven myths down.

Keep 'em coming...

L8tr... Tom

"Linux is Userfriendly, it is just very picky about who its friends are."

[alex]

Good post Tom.

You're obviously, upon reading your post, a very strong advocate of Linux. ;)

[Tom Tiger]

It works :-) It does what I tell it to do, it doesn't suffer from spyware or mallware and it doesn't phone home to tell what I'm using on my system :-)

[Wolfeymole]

lol mate.

Stick around Tom your input is most appreciated. :)

[Tom Tiger]

Thanks :-)