The question one may asks is: why should I consider using Linux instead of Microsoft Windows or Apples MacOS?
There is not only one reasion for that. First of all: it's completely free, which means you don't have to pay even one Cent for it. Well, you may say "this is the cheapest explanation ever". You're right in one way. However, this is an argument you can't deny. But using Linux only because it is free isn't a good argument.
Second point is freedom. Imagine you buy a shiny new car. You are excited and all is fine. After 3 years of driving the car you are wondering: "Hmm, seems like my headlights don't work anymore." You drive into a workshop and they say "Sorry man, we don't support your car anymore. You have to buy a new Motor or a new car to get full support again."
Seems strange? Not realistic? But this is what actualy happens if you buy a new PC with Windows or a new Mac with MacOS. You buy expensive hardware, but you don't own the hardware, because there is the software component. Microsoft or Apple could always say "Hey man, end of support" and you get stuck with an old operation system with potentialy high security risks. You don't really own the whole hardware becasuse you need the proprietary software to drive it. With Linux you don't have this problems. Nearly every Linux distribution supports even computers that are ten years and older. There are even slim Linux distributions for old computers. But why is that? Because Linux is developed by a great community and non-profit organizations. They are independend and making this only to develop good software and not for the money.
This yields to the third point: Security. Ok, it is no secret that Windows isn't secure. Here Linux and MacOS shares a common point: They are way more secure than Windows ever will be. It is ridiculous that Windows XP (an operating system that was released 2001) has a market share from nearly 10%. Together with Windows 7 (released 2009), which has a market share of about 45%, more than a half of all computers running old and partlfory unsupported Software. Especialy the situation with Windows XP (gets no security updates since 2014) is akward. Here is the right moment for Linux: since all Linux distributions shares the same infrastructure you always get security updates when they are ready. But not only that: since Linux is an open source project, everyone can view the source code. It is hardly possible for secret services to build any backdoors into the Linux operating system.
Besides that you can design your Linux like you want it! Like Burger King says "Have it you way". There are millions of possibilities for the look of your desktop. Have a look on my Desktop:
For me this looks quite nice. But maybe this is not true for you. Then simply change it to a look maybe like that:
or like this
You get the point, right? You can change the design to whatever you want.
There are many more points for using Linux. But I will stop here. Don't be afraid of using Linux, because you may hear that only geeks or hackers are using it. It is as simple as using Windows and MacOS. No hard install (depending on what distribution you choose), no geek knowledge necessary.
Stay tuned. I will post a beginner tutorial for installing a beginner Linux distribution soon.
