Episode: 2040
Title: HPR2040: Why I Use Linux
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2040/hpr2040.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 13:36:12

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This is HPR Episode 2040 entitled, Why I Use Linux, and in part of the series, How I Found Linux.
It is posted my first time post Matthew, and in about 5 minutes long.
The summary is a short description of why someone would stumble onto Linux, and not want to leave.
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Hello HPR listeners, my name is Matthew, and I'd like to do my first HPR podcast on Linux,
and why I use it, how I came to use it.
I guess the first thing to say about why I use Linux is that I use my computers mostly for programming,
and for doing things like keeping spreadsheets from a household budget,
neither one of those things is particularly fancy or flashy thing to do,
and there are Linux distributions that allow you to do simple things like writing programs,
and keeping a budget, and they do those things well, and it's free,
and I don't have to have all that extra junk that seems to be attached to other operating systems.
I don't have a particular ideology that keeps me using Linux, but I use it because it works for what I need it to do,
and every time I use some other system, I miss being in Linux.
I miss the tools that are available in Linux, and that's why I keep coming back to Linux.
It's not that I don't believe in the things that let's say Richard Stollman says,
it's just that I can't fight that fight. I have other things to do,
and that are more important to me, and that I'm better at.
So those ideological reasons aren't why I stay with Linux.
The first Linux system I used was on a laptop that I had originally used with Windows 95,
but as time went on, that computer kept slowing down and slowing down,
and the only thing I could do to keep it going was to replace Windows with a Slackware distribution,
which I used for a while with the Windows or the X Windows system,
but then I eventually just turned that off and used it only as a console,
which was fine. That kept a performance going,
and I still had all the tools that I needed to do what I wanted to do, which was program.
I had a free compiler, GCC, I had text editors, EMAX, VI,
and I could connect to the internet using a modem,
and I could check my email using Pine, and that's really all I needed at the time.
I did not know what I was doing at all with Linux at the time,
but my roommate had it, and he walked me through all that stuff,
and it was a little bit of a chore installing it and keeping it up on those systems back in those days.
That was 20 years ago, I suppose, and so it was a good thing I had help,
but nowadays it's so easy to install that I can do it myself.
I guess the reason I think that Linux works for a person like me is that I have specific things that I'm trying to do,
and I'm not just using it as an entertainment device, my computer,
and I think a lot of people use their computers just that way to entertain themselves,
and I'm obviously interested in what I'm doing on the computer,
but I feel like I'm more creative and productive type of use.
I think that Linux and the people who make Linux systems are addressing those kinds of needs.
It's not that they don't have the ability to watch YouTube videos or whatever it is,
but it's just that they are focused on how they can make their system,
their version of the Linux system, the GNU system,
and to something that someone can actually use for a particular purpose.
That's not what systems like Windows and Mac do.
They are trying to appeal to a large population so they can make a lot of money,
and obviously that's not what is going on most of the time with people making distributions of Linux.
They're trying to solve a problem, and I think that's why I end up using Linux
or why I end up finding that Unix Linux is the best system for me
because it's made by people who are trying to solve particular problems,
and I'm doing that too.
I think that's why it works for me.
I think that's enough to say on that for now.
Thanks for listening to this, and I hope it was useful for somebody or at least interesting.
And I hope I can make another podcast for HPR sometime soon.
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