I have just finished reinstalling yet another luser’s windows machine after they demolished it surfing porn with IE or opening e-mail attachments from stan_the_hackerman@l337d00dz.org, and I have come to a decision.

Windows is not more usable than Linux is, and if you disagree with that statement, you are a fucking idiot. Why?

It’s quite simple, really. After you have finished installing Windows, you need to install drivers for your hardware so you can have basic functionality such as a decent resolution, sound, or network access. After that, you need to install the applications that you will be using. The major ones that people use (Office, Photoshop, Macromedia Studio MX) all come on CDs, so you are required to play disc jockey between reboots.

When you finish installing a modern distro (such as Fedora, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, Slackware, etc), you probably won’t need to go and install any additional drivers. You may wish to install nVidia’s proprietary drivers, but it isn’t required to get a decent screen resolution. If you have some obscure bit of hardware, you may need to compile a module, sure. But for the most part, once Linux is installed, you don’t need to even think about drivers.

And during the installation of any modern distro, tons and tons of applications will be installed for you. Image editing programs, office suites, media centers, messanger clients. You name it and it’s probably already there. And if it ISN’T there, you can probably download a package and have it installed with one quick command. No CD changing, no rebooting. Just click-click-click boom. You now have AbiWord. You now have gAIM. No fuss.

Linux’s two major DEs also have a good deal more features in them than explorer.exe does. Glancing at my screen tells me this. I’ve got something that checks my e-mail for me, a dictonary applet to look words up really quickly, a weather applet giving me the current condition and temperature, a clock, six virtual desktops, and a system monitor.

I didn’t need to get any of those things from some shoddy web company, they came with GNOME. There is not an ounce of spyware on my computer (nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be), yet I have all of that.

I don’t get why people tell me Windows is just easier to use because it isn’t. It’s a pain in the ass.

Yea. Just had to get that off my chest.