Advantages of Linux over Windows to the average user

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

The owner/witter of this article (me, here at Zylstablog.co.nr) of this article holds all copyrights to this article. More details on copying and citation are included at the end of this article.

The advantages of Linux (Specifically Ubuntu) over Windows to the average user

This article talks about a variety of ways that Linux has advantages over Windows and a few things that Windows still has advantage over Linux. I am comparing it with Windows 7 and Vista, since they are both updated operating systems. Windows XP is not considered an “updated” operating system, and due to timeframe differences it can not be easily compared to Linux.

Focus:

  • Office
    • Running MS-Office under WINE
    • Running OpenOffice natively
  • Internet Use
    • Increasingly supported WiFi
    • Web Browser
    • Virus “Protection”
    • Email Clients
    • Instant Messenger
  • Capabilities
    • Web Server
    • Remote Desktop Abilities
    • System Compatibility
      • Resources used/required
  • Games
    • Increasing game support for programs run under WINE and PlayOnLinux (POL)
    • Built-in games
  • Security
    • More on Virus Protection
    • More on Firewall
    • OS Updates
  • Price for what you get

Office

When it comes to your office applications, Linux is actually pretty well “in there” for you. You have a few options when it comes to office suits. You can use Microsoft Office in Linux while running it under a program called WINE (WINE is not an emulator). WINE is a compatibility-layer for Linux that allows for 32bit Windows executables to be run “natively” under Linux. It provides the nessasary system files to run Windows programs.
MS-Office with WINE can not run:

  • Outlook
  • Microsoft Access
  • Excel (mixed reviews on how well it works)
  • Publisher (can start up, and somewhat create, but some files will not open)

Some other extra features of programs like Word may also not work, but Word itself and PowerPoint work at a basic level if you really need to use these programs.

OpenOffice provides all of the features of MS-Office (some more advanced and improved, some not as much). I highly recomend trying it, even if you are in Windows. www.openoffice.org

If you only need a word processor, and you do not like OpenOffice, I also recomend trying out AbiWord. http://www.abisource.com/ AbiWord used to be a higher choice of Linux users, and often came with many distributions until OpenOffice surpassed it’s featureset and capibilities.

Both AbiWord and OpenOffice are completely free, neither require registration (though OpenOffice apperciates users who register at least once). Both are actively worked on, and are frequently updated. In Ubuntu, OpenOffice will be updated along with system updates, so you don’t have to worry about installing these sorts of updates.

Internet Use

WiFi

Not all that long ago (2007-ish) Linux had very little native WiFi support. Most laptops and computers that had WiFi needed to have advanced configuration to get WiFi to work correctly under Linux. Most descent distributions of Linux (namely Ubuntu) now support most WiFi chipsets without a problem, right out of the box. Sometimes you will have to download restricted drivers, which may require that you “plug in” your computer directly to a router.

Internet Browsers

Ubuntu, and many distributions of Linux, comes with FireFox. FireFox is an open-source, very secure, and free web browser used by many Linux and Windows users. It holds a very heavy marketshare of the web browsers, and has many features and addons/plugins.

Some Linux uesrs will install Internet Explorer under WINE, or WINE-Doors. This has very little use, however, unless you visit a website that absolutely requires that you are running Internet Explorer.

Virus Protection

FireFox, in specific, is very impervious when it comes to security leaks and viruses. This is another reason why it is so popular.

Linux itself is currently considered “virus-proof” as well. Very few viruses have been written for it, and that is where its “protection” mainly comes from. Do consider, however, that having WINE installed, if you accidently download a program that looks valid and turns out to be a virus (also called a Trojan, in reference to the Trojan Horse), it can cause problems inside WINE. Fortunately, WINE is a somewhat closed environment, and it shouldn’t affect the rest of the system.

Email Clients

By default, Ubuntu comes with Evolution as a mail client. I personally recommend Thunderbird (t-bird) with the Lightning extension installed for use under both Windows and Linux. Evolution works fine as a default client for basic email use.
Windows 7 will not have a default email client (such as Outlook Express, or “Windows Mail”). Both Windows Vista and XP had built-in mail clients that worked descently. Windows 7 will recommend that users use a program called Windows Live Mail, which works okay but it is a little slow.

Both Evolution and T-Bird with Lightning Extension installed are basically duplicates of the Microsoft Outlook program, with the exception of being able to synchronize with your phone (they can sync with your Google Calendar, however).

The ability to sync with a Windows Mobile device is a major disadvantage of Linux. Apparently (though I have not tested it), PalmOS is a device that can sync with Linux without much problem.

Windows Mobile can sync with Linux if you go through the hoops to install off-the-wall software to enable synchronization, however it is not worth the time and effort (in my opinion).

Instant Messenger

By default, Ubuntu comes with a instant messenger client called Pidgin. It supports all major instant messenger protocols. To specify just a few:

MSN, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ, and Jabber. MySpaceIM is still being worked on.

If you decide that you do not like Pidgin, and you happen to be an MSN uesr, there is a program called aMSN.

aMSN is a “clone” of MSN Messenger. It’s certainly not exactly the same, but it functions just as a messenger program should. It supports all the major features of MSN Messenger as well, including voice clips and descent file transfer. (Pidgin does not transfer files well with MSN).

Capabilities

Linux makes an excellent web server, FTP server, SSH Server, and MySQL server. Setting up these types of servers is more for advanced users, but by far, Linux supports all of these the best.

Windows 7 has introduced built-in ISS (Internet Information Services) which is what Windows Server 2003 and Server 2008 use for managing web servers. It’s fairly simple to set up, all you need to do is make a site to go with it, forward your ports, and configure your power options to make sure your computer stays on. This feature can be installed under “Turn Windows Features On or Off”

Better, and more reliable web servers are run under Linux using Apache2.

Remote Desktop

In Ubuntu, under System> Preferences> “Remote Desktop” you can enable a basic remote desktop program with a password.
In order to connect to this type of remote desktop, you must have a program called “UltraVNC Viewer” installed on your other computers. The VNC Viewer (remote desktop viewer) is installed on Ubuntu by default. (Applications> Internet> “Remote Viewer”). The “home” versions of Vista and Windows 7 do not support remote desktop connections through “Remote Desktop”. UltraVNC can be installed on Windows computers as well, and is very useful.

System Compatibility

Ubuntu is designed with many users in mind. Older computers can run Ubuntu, take a look at the requirements:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

Ubuntu should run reasonably well on a computer with the following minimum hardware specification. However, features such as visual effects may not run smoothly.

  • 700 MHz x86 processor
  • 384 MB of system memory (RAM)
  • 8 GB of disk space
  • Graphics card capable of 1024×768 resolution
  • Sound card (If you want sound)
  • A network or Internet connection

Ubuntu is a great solution for users who have older computers, but who also want an updated operating system. Ubuntu is very good for kids computers as well.

My computer, personally, is a Dell with a 1.73GHz CoreDuo processor, with 2GB of RAM, and a nVidia GeForce GO 7300 graphics card with 256MB of shared (128MB dedicated) memory. Right now, while I am writing this very sentence, I am running FireFox with 7 tabs open, Thunderbird (Email with calendar), Pidgin (Instant Messenger), IRC (Chatzilla), and Rhythm Box (like Windows Media Player). I am currently using 505MB of System RAM, and am not actively utalizing any of my swap/page file. Both processors are running actively at right around 30%.

These are the specifications of my computer at this very moment, it changes contantly and varies from computer to computer.

Overall, Ubuntu does not use a whole lot of system resources when compared to other popular operating systems.

Games

Ubnutu comes with many built-in “office safe” games. Basic card games, chess, “four in a row”, and a few block-breaker style games.

As for other games, there is a progam called PlayOnLinux (PoL) which “helps” non-native games install on Linux. WINE is required for PoL to work properly. Check out Wine’s Appication Database, search for your favourite 3D games and see if they work with Linux. If the game mentions PoL, then PoL will be nessasary to install the programme.

Security

Virus Protection

It is important to say that Linux has no virus protection.

Some day, when Linux becomes more popular, it’s virus issues could be just as bad as those of Windows. Here is why:
Imagine that you are an evil computer hacker/virus programmer. Who are you going to target? The 80-90% of computer users who belong to Windows? Or the other minorities?

Obviously, to infect the most people, you are going to target Windows users, since it’s the most common executable platform.

This is where Linux’s virus “protection” comes from. It’s just not a target operating system. This is also the case for Macintosh and OS X.

A PC is safe to use when you have virus protection and spyware protection, and when you do frequent weekly scans. There are free virus protection programs such as Avast Home Edition and AVG Free Edition.

Firewall

As stated above, Linux is also a less hacked operating system. But, it does have a good firewall built in. Still, it is not advised that you leave ports open while there is no program associated with them, and also recomended that you do not DZM your computer. (You’ll know what DZM is when you run across it).

You should consider, however, that Windows 7 and Vista both include a very good basic firewall, just like Ubuntu.

OS Updates

Microsoft releases frequent security updates for Windows for free, as well as service packs. These updates will download on their own, and either install at a specific time or ask you when to install them.

Ubuntu is very similar, with the exception that Ubuntu will also update many of its built-in programs (such as FireFox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, and many of the other programs we have talked about) and, when a new version of Ubuntu comes out, it will ask you if you want to upgrade to that version, which is also free!

From what I have seen, Ubuntu updates are slightly more frequent than those of Windows, and are also often larger.

The Price

Ubuntu is Free.

Windows is not.

Using Ubuntu will save you a $150-something upgrade price. If you want to upgrade an older computer with a new operating system, try Linux. The price is worthwihle.

Try it before you comitt to it!

There are two ways to try Ubuntu:

1, download the installer CD, put the CD in your computer while you start up, and select “Try Ubuntu without Installing It”

2, Download Wubi http://wubi-installer.org/
Wubi will install Ubuntu under the Windows bootloader. When you start your computer, it will ask you which operating system you want to use. Later, if you decide that you do not like Ubuntu, you can simply go to Add/Remove Programs in Windows, and uninstall Ubuntu.

Thank you for reading,

This article was focused at Windows users, and I do in fact favour Ubuntu in it since I think it is fair to favour Ubuntu. In the end, it’s up to you. Windows is better for some users.

For example, I woulden’t recomend installing Ubuntu on your grandparents computer if you just got done teaching them how to check their email in Windows. The same goes for parent’s computers who are not very tech-savvy.

Copyright/Citation

You may NOT take this article and use it in any way on your website and call it your own. Furthermore, you may not edit this article into your own words.

You may include a excerpt of up to three paragraphs total on your website, with a citation BEFORE and AFTER the excerpt, linking back to this article exactly (not just the root website). Citation shold go as follows:

This excerpt came from:
“Advantages of Linux over Windows to the average user” – By Jesse Zylstra at www.zylstrablog.co.nr
http://66.172.101.250/wordpress/?p=133
(C) 2009 — Jesse Zylstra

You may edit the text to fit into your websites formatting, as long as it is visible and in the same order as listed above. Must be readable, 8pt font at the very least.

Normally I don’t make as much as a fuss about these sorts of things, but this article was more extensively written than my other articles.

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Google Voice Review

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

I have been using Google Voice for the last two months. I don’t believe in reviewing a product until I have really tried it out, which took me longer with my Google Voice account since I don’t get a lot of phone calls.

But Wait! I do call out a lot, and for the calls I have had in, I was impressed.

First off, Google Voice is like having my own computer secretary. My phone rings, and it asks me (based on the name the caller provides on initial connection) “Call from Someone. Press 1 to accept this call, or press 4 to send to voicemail.”

I press 1, it connects without a problem. From here, I can press the number 4 to record the conversation.

If I press 4, however, it forwards them to my voicemail where I can listen in to their call. I can press a key to pick up the call if I decide that it’s important enough.

Voicemail can be listened to on the computer, or listened in to on your Gmail inbox if you install a special lab extension. The voicemail is automatically transcribed. The transcription isn’t all that accurate, but it gives you the general idea behind the message.

I especially enjoy SMS features. No longer do texts go to my phone, they are received by my Google Voice inbox, and forwarded to my email. I can reply to SMS in Google Voice as well, it’s absolutely wonderful. This is especially useful since I don’t have a texting plan, and I have a lot of friends who try to text me.

I currently have my Google Voice number set up to only ring my house phone from 2:30PM-8PM, and my cell phone the rest of the time. It works out very well.

Google Voice builds an automatic contact list for each call I get, based on the name of my callers.

The biggest feature that has really got me to use my Google Voice number the most is the ability to call long distance on my home phone line, for free. It takes a bit of time, and it is kind of round-about, but it’s worthwhile.

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More Downtime!

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Okay, so now our router is starting to fail. What a wonder!

The router was reset completely, which so far has resolved most of the issues. If we start having more serious problems, we will introduce a second router to use for the primary server router, so that web and IRC will no longer have issues.

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Downtime

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

For those of you who /actually/ read my blog:
For approximately 2-3 days, my server was down due to a file backup overload. (A backup of a backup of a backup, since the backups had no place to go since their backup server was down was created. This resulted in so much disk space being lost in such a fast period of time that MySQL could not function).

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The Sims 3 Future EP's

Posted on September 20, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

I’d like to know what two expansion packs you want to see most for the Sims 3. Select up to two options.
This is not an official “The Sims 3” poll. All results listed publicly.

Feel free to comment on the original The Sims 3 Forum Community post, or on this blog entry.
Thanks for voting.

Original Post: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/107278.page

[poll id=”3″]

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Autumn in Eastern Washington – Associated Content

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Autumn in Eastern Washington – Associated Content.

Interesting photos of Eastern Washington’s fall colurs. Taken by your very own Jesse Zylstra!

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What was Thailand Like?

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

What was Thailand like?
Jesse Zylstra

Our first three days on our trip were spent in Bangkok, Thailand, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. We stayed in a nice hotel, and we did a few shopping things at tourist markets. The streets of Thailand are very busy, and the sidewalks are not very wide. A good amount of people in the places we stayed at in Thailand spoke at least some English (at least enough English to sell you something). The traffic in Thailand is nothing compared to India, however stop signs and traffic lights are still “suggestions” and there are few traffic laws.

Thailand did have a smell to it, since storm drains and sewage lines are shared in many places, but it wasn’t too bad. The weather was nice in Thailand, and for the most part it was partly-cloudy and not too hot out.

We arrived in Calcutta, India on July 23rd, and returned to Thailand July 27th. We arrived in Chaing-Mai. We stayed in a hotel that was right next to the Night Market, which has plenty of things to look at and is very tourist orientated. Besides the Night Market, there are other markets that were in walking distance that we looked at, its quite an area. Many of the markets were located under buildings, and were quite extensive. We also visited the Sunday Market, which was also tourist-based and much busier. The third market we went to was much smaller, and mainly a local market. It was called the Wet Market, and had quite a few interesting things to look at, from various live fish, eels, cockroaches, birds, rabbits, bull frogs, and turtles, to fruits and produce. It was quite a variety, and there were plenty of other shops nearby.

We visited two orphanages in Thailand. The first one was for Non-Tribal Thai children only. This particular orphanage adopts children and removes the parents ability to take the children back. Less than 1% of the Non-Tribal Thai population is Christian, which is where the focus of this orphanage comes from (to help Thai children grow up in a Christian home, and to teach them about Christ).

After this, we headed to the Mae-La Refugee Camp. We were denied entry to the camp on the first day for an unknown reason. The military that guards the camp has the ability to say “no” to those trying to enter the camp if they want, and they probably did it “just because”. Dr. Simon, in charge of getting us in, called around and was able to get us permission to enter. The Refugee camp was quite a ways away from Chiang-Mai, and was a 5 hour drive. The closest town to it was Mae-Sot. The camp was located in a jungle-like area, and it rained quite a bit. The river had actually flooded on the second day we were there.

We visited Tiger Kingdom, an Elephant Farm, and an Orchid farm, which were all interesting to see. After this day, we took the Night Train back to Bangkok. The Night Train is no Amtrak, however it was relatively comfortable and got us from point A to point B without having to pay that much.

The next day, we visited the Global English school, and had a quick tour of the school. Following that day, we went to a Technology school which was having an English camp. We worked in smaller groups of older students (I suppose, ages 19-23). Many of them had their nickname in English on  a name tag, and we saw some very interesting ones such as “Fork” and “M”. The students had an elementary understanding of English.
The day after that, we went back to the Global English School which was having International Day. All of the students were dressed as if they were from another country. This was our last day.

At all of the schools and hostiles that we visited in both Thailand and India, we mainly used the same activities. We had two shows which were translated, one was a short skit the other was a puppet show. After that, we used crafts to re-enforce the lessons. The crafts we had were cross bead-necklaces, “scratch-paper” which turned colorful when scratched with a stick, and paper puppets. We also sang songs that some of the children knew using hand motions.
All of this takes a very long time, but it is a lot of fun for everyone. I think we were all drained of energy by the end of each day.

I think that India was definitely the most interesting place we went to, however Thailand was a nicer place to be. The people of Thailand seem much happier and nicer, and their Government isn’t as corrupt.

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Video – Inside Scientology An Undercover Operation

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

StumbleVideo – INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY An Undercover Operation 3/5 Video by Ano….

An interesting video about some of the truths behind Scientology, essentially a cult.

It reviews some of the techniques of Scientology. This is part of a video series, however this part of the video coveres some of the extremes very well.

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What is Kolkata (Calcutta) India like?

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra
What is Kolkata (Calcutta) India like?
Published by Jesse Zylstra
By far, India is the most interesting country that I have ever heard of. I have always wanted to visit India, and this summer during a mission trip I was able to.
I went to Kolkata It is an important point to make that India is separated by different states, similar to that of Switzerland or the USA. Kolkata is in the state of West Bengal. Every state is unique.
India was a completely different world compared to the small world of North Central Washington that I live in. India defeats the strangeness of areas like Seattle and the storms of people in New York. If you look on Wikiedia, the census is 5,080,519 people. We were told that it is more likely to be anywhere from 10 million to 20 million. So many people are homeless and have no registered identification information, it is impossible to have a real count of all the citizens. The population of West Bengal is 80,221,171 people, quite a large number for one “State”.

India largely suffers from over-population, something that is starting to trouble many countries, including the United States. A large majority of the people in Kolkata live in poverty, and it seems to just be the way people live, it is considered completely normal. There are so few streets that are clean, street-side trash is just dumping whatever you want out on the sidewalk, and getting away with it.
It was explained to us that the Government of India is fairly well off, and has quite a bit of money stashed away and the ability to greatly improve the country. There are many laws, but they are not enforced, nor is there an attempt to enforce them.
Transportation is, by far, the most interesting part of India. The word “interesting” should not be interpreted as “fun”. Traffic is a complete disaster in India. All signs, speed limits, and stop lights are suggestions to drivers. There are few crosswalks, and most of them do not work, or they do not ever change to walk (or both the “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” lights are on, which is pretty accurate…) Instead, if you want to cross the street, you wait for the biggest gap and just go. There is no time to wait and see if the driver can see you
Cars honk all the time, not out of aggression or road rage, but just for the heck of it. The streets are always noisy, and the noise continues into the night. Much later (say, around 12AM) is India’s bedtime, and the streets suddenly empty out completely and it gets quiet. When I left India, it seemed so strange for things to be so quiet.
The most common ways of transportation if you do not have your own car are: Bus, Taxi, Tok-tok, tram, or train. Fortunately, I had a bus taking me about, however our group did take the train to one destination. With 19 people that needed to get off, the train only stopped for a total of 14 seconds. The last few people had to jump off a moving train.
The train is a mess. In fact, I do not understand why someone would want to take it. I didn’t want to take my camera out on the train, since there were so many people so close to you and it could be snatched up so easily. The train has seats, and on the way to our destination is was fairly empty. The way back, however, was packed full. The train has these metal handles that hang down so that you can stand on the train and not be thrown off by the train stopping and starting. I was wondering why there were so many of these handles, many of them right next to each-other. It turns out, they really pack the train full enough to use all of them. Indians do not seem to mind other people getting very close, in America, we all like our space. If our personal space is invaded, we are easily offended. The train takes invasion of personal space to the extreme. Being as we were a bunch of white people, most of the Indians seemed to stay away from us a bit and give us a little space, it definitely could have been worse.
Visually, the buses seemed just as bad, as well as the tram. A lot of the buses are not made out of fiberglass or metal like buses in the USA, they are made out of wood. Many other vehicles that transport are also built with a wood frame and interior.
The smell of India is just like the smell of a farm, double the stench with human waste in many areas. No matter where you go, the smell is always there. Its worse in some areas, obviously compact areas smell worse than larger more open areas.
I would not recommend India as a vacation destination. If you are just looking to see what’s on the other side of the fence, be my guest. Once you start to get out of the cities in India, it really is quite a sight to see.
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Free Sheet Music Guide: Pop, Rock, Country, and Jazz

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

I ran across this website quite a long time ago, its not nearly as extensive as I wish it could be, however it has many pieces for various levels for free… its a website that lists other websites with free music, and a brief description about the site.

Free Sheet Music Guide: Pop, Rock, Country, and Jazz.

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