It has been two years since I used Windows as the main operating system on my laptop where I did everything is connected to my job. Even now, I am fully satisfied with running Linux and macOS on my laptop and here I am going to posit the reasons for this selection.
Firstly, I read about Linux in the book of how to be a white hacker which described the internals of the world wide web. Initially, I tried to install the FreeBSD distro and was discouraged because I was a neophyte when started to explore the default preinstalled software due to the ambiguous ideas of its application to my projects. Hence, I decided to stay on Windows longer.
Secondly, I heard Linux name for the second time during my job experience as Embedded Software Tester in the automotive project and when I was interviewed for the microcontroller programmer’s position. As I was taught at University to develop firmware in Keil Uvision Windows’ IDE, building and flashing the binary files into the arm-based controllers on Linux was a conundrum for me. Therefore, I was fledgling and hesitating when the prospective employers asked me about the Unix architecture or the constituent shell commands.
As the result, I began reading vigorously guides, tutorials, and books about Linux administration to endeavor the intermediate knowledge of its fundamentals where I could extend my skills in Software Engineering. By the way, the compiler’s contents seemed less equivocal for me while I was reading the programmings’ guides such as preprocessing, compilation, assembling, and linking. So, configuring new development environments was finally as simple for me as using the terminal quotidianly. This is how I opened the way of devising Embedded Software on Linux.
Then, a few months later I was in the destitute of elementary drawing applications like Paint on Windows. I strived to use complex programs like GIMP on Linux but I did not succeed in making the chart for my mundane activities. Also, I came up with the idea to try macOS with its recommended Pixelmator Pro app and included Xcode for iOS development. Consequently, these two factors galvanized me to defer using Windows for my daily tasks and kindled the motivation to stick to the Unix environment instead of Windows.
To sum up, I am listing the aspects of why I switched to Linux and macOS.
- The essential software and utilities for ordinary tasks are bundled from the fresh start. For instance, multimedia, development tools, necessary drivers, editors, and office apps are already installed from the first launch!
- It is rather more rapid to enter the command into the shell rather than looking for a needed button to accomplish the desired functionality.
- There are no worries about malware on Unix-based operating systems as it is usually written for Windows.
In the end, if you are a freelancer, software developer/tester, or journalist, there is no doubt, why should not you try Linux or macOS in serving your daily computing demands smoothly.
