Linux is the New Drug

It’s been five years since I got rid of the operating system made by Bill Gates’ giant company, and decided to use the Linux operating system on my laptop.

Initially, I decided to move to Linux only because I realized that my computing needs were not grandiose. I only need a laptop to write, listen to music, watch movies and surf the internet. I don’t need software to design or edit videos or photos.

After reading here and there, Linux has fulfilled these needs. Linux is also free because it is licensed as an open-source, and can be used without the need to pay like the next door’s operating system.

The longer I tried Linux, I began to learn many things. And I’m addicted to Linux (So far I’ve used 4 different Linux distributions: Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, and Kubuntu). This operating system is not created by a large company that pays its employees to write binary codes.

Therefore, of course, there are still many obstacles here and there on Linux (especially when you install the beta version). Sometimes this operating system does not support laptop hardware, the speaker does not sound out, or the laptop touchpad cannot be moved.

Robust operating system. Done by many people and communities from various parts of the world with one common interest: creating a better computing system for the world. It’s different from the goal of the giant company’s operating system, right? When all is measured by numbers (read: $).

To fix the constraints on Linux, I began to browse Linux forums that were spread on the internet. There is always an answer that exists there. In the realm of Linux, people are always available to answer your questions. The teachers who volunteer to explore the problems presented by a new user, then explain step by step the solution to the problem.

Linux is a real example of what is called altruism. I’m amazed by how the thing works: Cross-country organic community networks, willing to give their time to coding, and polish this operating system to be better and better.

Altruism is happen when someone answers every question in cyberspace forums. Helping a new user in a third-world country that she/he doesn’t even know, someone who has a name that is hard to spell with the tongue of an English speaker, someone who she/he may never meet in the real world.

This altruism is done with the belief that a good life is when other people feel the same kindness as we feel.

Linux is the new drug. And I’m definitely addicted.

That’s all.