Why Linux is The Best Free Alternative to Windows?
First of all, Linux is free and open source licensed software. This means that unlike Windows or Mac OS X, you don’t have to pay for using it.
So that’s should be a good enough reason for why Linux is a great free alternative to Windows, but what makes it the best alternative? Well, perhaps the following reasons:
- When it comes to desktops and laptops Linux is the 3rd most popular OS platform on the planet, thus it has the largest community out of any other Windows alternative out there (except OS X of course, but OS X isn’t free).
- Having a large community is a great plus especially in times when you’re having questions and need support, in that case all you have to do is just search on-line, it’s most guaranteed that somebody encountered the same or a similar issue before and your question has already been answered.
- Linux can run on almost any type of hardware you might own, especially nowadays, it’s highly rare to find a piece of hardware which can’t be operated by Linux, hence it’s a highly modular OS.
- Choice and freedom are both ones of Linux’s hallmarks, not only you can choose between different type of distributions you like, you also can choose which kind of desktop environment it would have, which version of kernel you want to run et cetera…
- There’s almost nothing you can do with Windows that can’t be done on Linux, Internet, Office, Multimedia, etc… are all available on Linux too.
Plus Linux also has a compatibility layer called W.I.N.E which is used to run Windows apps / games atop of Linux. - When it comes to performance – it’s a safe bet on Linux, it’s not a coincidence that most Supercomputers in the world are running it.
For all these reasons and more I would say Linux is the best free alternative to Windows there is nowadays.
If you’d like to embrace Linux into your lifestyle then prepare yourself, for it’s going to be a bumpy ride with a bit of a learning curve. However, at the end of the day I’m quite sure you’ll be pleased you took it.
