Why I Use Linux by slaveofone
There are many good reasons out there which, had I known previously, would have compelled me pretty quickly to abandon Windows for Linux. There is, for instance, no thrill as big as downloading several dozen different types of legally free software which individually do almost if not the exact same things as their non-free counterparts whose combined price tag would number in the multiple thousands. Every time I open Synaptic, I feel like I’m going on a shopping spree… What kind of really expensive software do I want for free legally today?
But the primary reason I use Linux is actually very simple. Because I’m Libertarian. I believe there is no greater good than liberty and no greater evil than the oppression, coercion, or slavery of our own natural rights and authority. I don’t accept Nissan controlling how, where, or when I drive my car and what I can or cannot do with it. Then why in God’s name would I let Microsoft control my operating system or tell me how I can and cannot use my software? Of course, there is a price involved: you have to learn a new way of doing computing. But nobody ever said liberty costs nothing. The question is what are you more willing to pay for: liberty or slavery?
Most people do not realize that when they laid down those several hundred dollars for Windows, they were not actually purchasing the operating system for their own control and ownership, but a license which allows Microsoft to maintain ownership and, therefore, to have control, authority, and right over the person using it. Using any Microsoft product is allowing yourself to be enslaved digitally for the opportunity to use that product. Some people might be fine with that slavery and chose it for themselves. If so, great! This Libertarian stands behind your decision, whatever that happens to be. And I will stand beside you against anyone who tries to deny your right to your decision. But I cannot abide selling myself into digital slavery.
Linux is everything that digital enslavement under Microsoft is not. For a long time I neither knew I was enslaved nor knew what it meant to be free of that slavery. But now that I have digital liberty, even thinking of going back to my old Microsoft shackles is repulsive. If this liberty were the only advantage to Linux, it would be enough reason for me to leave everything else for it. There just happens to be a great many other advantages as well.