Linux as a primary OS

I’m totally loving Fedora Linux since I put it on my two machines last week. I have my desktop machine dual-booting with Windows 8… UEFI no less. And my laptop is running Fedora as well. And I have a Windows 7 VM in both primarily for running Quicken.

The whole UEFI secure boot thing is pretty new. Most distributions still don’t handle it. It came onto the scene with Windows 8-ready machines. But luckily Fedora does handle it without too much trouble.

I’m pretty sure I couldn’t run Linux as my daily-driver operating system except that anymore my PC’s are primarily “general use” machines. I don’t run any special-use software that I can’t live without. The only program I really don’t want to give up is Quicken. All the other stuff I depend on is pretty generic.

Dropbox is one program I deem essential. Other than that there are a couple of browser plugins that I use… like Lastpass and Xmarks. Of course Linux has Firefox and Chrome.

It’s weird. The longer I use computers the less software I seem to need. I’m becoming an “average” computer user. Other than enjoying the setup and configuration of operating systems and software, my needs are pretty basic. Of course there are a lot of people in the same boat. That’s one reason why Chromebooks are pretty strong sellers now. It might not be that long before all one really needs is a good browser with a few good plugins. (that’s essentially what a Chromebook is)

I guess one could argue that the lack of need for a real computer is partly to blame for dropping PC sales in conjuction with the popularity of smart phones and tablets. I personally can’t imagine that. I don’t think I could ever do without a computer. I don’t even like being confined to a laptop.