Getting to know the Open Source community better

Windows Version History.svg
Windows Version History.svg
Windows Version History

I am getting to know the Open Source community better. I have to agree with one YouTube video Linux SME. Open Source isn’t a community, more like an unfriendly alliance.

Take for example one of the most popular and well-known versions of Linux called Ubuntu. It is run by a company that many people in the open-source community feel is not trustworthy and helpful to the movement. I am not here to argue the pros/cons of them, but simply to point out that one of the problems with Linux adoption is the strong opinions and infighting that happens between people who believe in different ideas of what Linux represents.

For example, remember Linux Mint that I just loved because of the cinnamon desktop? It is built upon Ubuntu, which means that when you use that distro you are indirectly supporting Ubuntu. This is not the reason that I am using OpenSuse. I think that OpenSuse has enough technical benefits to justify its position. I always want to use the best OS/software to do the job, and right now for me, OpenSuse is the bomb.

Now has Ubuntu been helpful in the open source community? Sure, but they have also harmed it. Again this is not a discussion on its merits but rather just a broad overview of why Linux can give some IT pause. They don’t want to get involved in drama, and IT people fear being EOL because a developer/community stops supporting it. The old saying in IT is no one ever got fired for buying IBM. I have seen this mentality often in my career. Often people are afraid to take risks because they feel they could lose their jobs or damage the company. However it is also true by not taking a reasonable risk, you fall behind your competition who is taking risks and saving money and time. So you lose either way.

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Again I am not trying to convince anyone of anything, just share what I know. There are versions of Linux that go End Of Life. No one wants to have additional costs or expenses. What is incredible to me is that the same OpenSuse Tumbleweed I am using originally came out in 2010! Because it is a rolling release it just updates and you don’t have to go through the major migrations that we have done with other platforms. According to Wikipedia in 2010 Windows 7 was the Windows OS that was most popular/new. That means that in the time this has been easily updated we have seen, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Windows 11. You can’t directly update from Windows 8 to Windows 11, or from Windows 7 to Windows 11 so that means that we have had to do two updates just to keep current with Windows 11 since 10 is EOL.

Now I don’t know about you, but does it make sense to do this if we don’t need to? Why be forced to upgrade every few years and for what? To have to relearn how to use our computers? To have just as questionable security as we did back then? I like that the machine prompts me for a password when I am going to do something critical. It reminds me “Hey be careful here”. I could also change this if I wanted, but I don’t. It’s easy to type in my password.

If I had known about OpenSuse Tumbleweed years ago I would have started using it earlier. Then I wouldn’t have spent thousands of dollars buying new computers, OS, and applications. When the status quo is to spend money when you don’t have to, why would you accept that?

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