Why Linux is better than Windows for a desktop computer
Feeling free is a good reason why you should use Linux
Feel free with Linux. 'Free' definition - not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes (from Oxford Languages); not limited or controlled (from the Cambridge Dictionary).
Fortunately for the public when it comes to operating systems there is a choice. Enter Linux! An operating system of the people, by the people, for the people. No control, no agenda, free to use and change, no forced account opening with any entity, no surprise changes in policy that restrict, change or force your use of the product, no selling of your profiles, information, comments or views, no monitoring or censoring your every move and so on. That's how it should be, and that's how it is with Linux. Enjoy your freedom, don't take it for granted, choose Linux!
There are other great reasons to use Linux that may be more important motivators for some of you, so please read on below for a few of them, and there are also other uses not even mentioned or explored here.
What is Linux?
The philosophy behind Linux and the open source software movement
There is a philosophy or movement in software that believes software should be free. It's really about creating, sharing and using. It's called open source software because the lines of source code (programming) are open to see and you are free to use and even adapt at will. Most of us will be happy using open source software just the way it is, with newer versions being released regularly by the open source community and available to us all for free!
Linux is a perfect example of this, it's a full fledged operating system (OS), available in several distributions or versions to download, install and use for FREE, on most any computer, PC, desktop, workstation, server and more! Why pay for an OS increasing the cost of your computer, when Linux is free? Not just the OS, you can also use free open source software programs or apps that run on your free Linux OS, you don't have to pay for software again! It's a wonderful thing and at CurrentBuild Computer we love open source software and want you to know about it, make the most of it and save! Come join the movement!
You save $200 when you buy or build a new Linux PC
Linux is free to download and install by anyone which we do for you on a new PC and pass the savings to you! By choosing free Linux for your operating system you are taking $200 off the price of your computer compared to if you choose to install Windows 10 Pro!
Linux is such a great OS it should be compared with the Pro version of Windows 10 not the standard version. As just one example, if you want full disk encryption free Linux has it. At last check the retail price of Windows 10 Pro is around $200! The retail price for Windows 10 Home is around $140! The price for Linux is $0! Yes, zero dollars.
Windows is one of the most expensive parts of a PC, especially for mini and mainstream PCs. Even Apple is giving away its latest operating system as a free download if you have certain Apple hardware. But before we get too carried away about Apple's generosity, let's remember Apple's software and hardware price is bundled together and in our opinion they come at a premium price. Free Linux sounds just great! Especially when it's so good.
You actually save much more than the $200 above, because you save on anti-virus software, Linux really doesn't need it or you can install free ClamAV antivirus and free Gufw Firewall, and you save on all the free pre-installed software applications, and on all the other free software you can install anytime, which we cover below.
And now look who's promoting Linux - Microsoft will ship a full Linux kernel in Windows 10! What do they say, if you can't beat them join them, welcome Microsoft to Linux!
Choose Linux and we'll pre-install your choice of one of the more popular Linux distributions on your new computer.
Linux on a new PC will surprise you it's so good
Have you seen what the new Linux distributions look like and how they perform? You will be surprised how easy and good they are to use. Graphical, intuitive, responsive, fast, powerful, fun and free! You'll wonder why no one told you before! You will be in very familiar territory, you've used Windows you can use Linux! Here check out some cool screen shots from Linux Mint. Choose Linux, save big on a new PC, and enjoy!
Check out our quick review how to choose the operating system (OS) for a PC.
Linux comes with a ton of free pre-installed software
Linux on your PC also comes with a ton of free pre-installed software programs making your new PC ready for use immediately! Free applications including LibreOffice a complete office software suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office document files, Firefox Internet browser, video and music players, photo editing software, email programs, utilities and much more. By the way this is all useful software, not a bunch of bloatware and adware forced upon you that you sometimes can't even delete!
Linux has it's own 'app stores' except all the 60,000+ apps are free
Additionally Linux has libraries of software online called repositories from where you can download even more software apps called packages, yes for free! For almost any software need you can think of, for example Chrome browser, Skype, games, even server software! Here's just Linux Mint's packages list. Think of it as Linux's free app stores where you don't get an email receipt thanking you for your payment every time you download something! Linux Mint has a one click install for more than 48,400 free apps from its Software Manager or free 'app store'! It's really time to get Linux on your new PC and get to play, or maybe even work!
Plenty of choices of Linux distros or flavors
The great thing about Linux is that you have many choices. It's kind of like ice cream flavors, there's not just vanilla, that would be boring to say the least! People like different flavors of Linux for a variety of reasons and it's not just for the look and feel of it. Some Linux flavors, officially known as distributions or distros for short, are packaged to focus more on certain objectives over others.
We give you up front the option of ordering either of the two more popular Linux distros to be pre-installed on your new PC, Linux Mint or Ubuntu. These popular Linux distros more than provide you what you need from your PC. Enjoy! If you want another Linux distro for any reason, for example Debian, openSUSE, Mageia or Fedora or any other distro, let us know we'll install that instead! They're all great and all free!
Sleek, beautiful, easy to use desktops
Many of the Linux distros also offer different choices for their desktop environments! A desktop environment is the part of a Linux distro that you see and interact with on your monitor. Wow how many choices are there in Linux! These will rival any OS in style, look, functionality, features, performance, flexibility and of course ease of use.
As some examples you can get Linux Mint with the choice of Cinnamon, MATE, KDE or Xfce desktops. Ubuntu uses Unity and Kubuntu uses KDE. See what we mean - freedom and flexibility!
You know the beauty of Linux and open source software is anyone with a vision can create something beautiful and share it. Want a different desktop environment than the one we include on our standard ordering options just let us know, we'll install that instead! As stated, they're all great and all free!
The power and flexibility of Linux
We haven't even talked about what's under the hood. There's a beast lurking there. The power of the terminal, the shell, the command line, the console, whatever you want to call it. Most of you will be using the graphical user interface but just know it's there. A simple example, to convert multiple scanned jpg picture files into a single pdf document file with multiple pages took three words in the terminal! $ convert pics*.jpg brochure.pdf . Wait till you explore and discover the power of the shell! Hey you could become a coding maestro! Write up a few scripts to automate mundane tasks!
Unbelievable online support for Linux
The online support for Linux from the worldwide Linux community is just fantastic. Ever have a question connected to Linux, just search Google with a short phrase on your question with 'Linux, Ubuntu or Linux Mint' included in the search terms, and you'll get your answer! More than likely someone has had the same question, posted it somewhere online and the answer(s) are right there. It's really quite something.
Linux is known for its great security
It seems like every other day Windows is releasing a security patch, it's constantly under attack. With Windows you have to install anti-virus, firewalls and who knows what else. With Linux while you have those options, it's not essential. Plus you have this global community of Linux programmers who are like a force on constant vigil watching over the security of the OS ready to jump in with a fix anytime with immediacy.
Dual booting and Virtual Machines with Linux
By the way there's no risk with getting Linux now, only savings. After all you're really just paying for the hardware when you get a new Linux PC, since Linux is free.
If you want Windows later for any reason you can always buy a copy and install Windows so you can dual boot Linux and Windows. You can choose which OS to start when you boot up, or make one OS the default that automatically boots up.
Or you can install Windows inside Linux in a virtual machine (VM) using free vitual machine software. You can use KVM or VirtualBox, and there are others, for your VM software. You still have to buy the Windows OS as you would expect. One advantage of using a VM with Linux as the host OS and Windows as the guest OS, over dual boot, is that if you want, you can have full disk encryption (FDE) using free Linux to do the encryption without having to pay for the more expensive versions of Windows that have the encryption capability.
Most likely however after using Linux, very soon you'll become comfortable with it as your only and preferred OS.
Gaming on a Linux PC using Steam with Proton, and Wine
You can also install Steam on your Linux PC, which is a software distribution service, and play games built for Linux or ported to Linux that you can buy and some games are free. Steam Play now uses Proton, a compatibility tool based on Wine and additional components, that also makes it possible and easy to play several popular Windows games on Linux. ProtonDB is a data base that reports which of these games work well on Linux.
A short article that covers installing Steam with Proton, and Wine, on Linux from the Linux Journal, July 4, 2024 - Running Windows on Linux? Yes, It's Possible with Wine and Proton!
And of course as stated there are games for Linux in the free Linux 'app stores' or repositories that you can download anytime!
Another option, you can run many Windows programs, and not just games, on linux with Wine. Wine is a compatibility layer of software, also free! You most likely won't need Wine because there's often an equivalent native Linux program that's free.
Linux for AI (Artificial Intelligence) & ML (Machine Learning) Development
Linux and other open source software is a force in AI and ML development. Hone your skills, develop apps and further grow the AI and ML movement in a Linux workstation environment, for free without expensive outlays for propreitary software.
Create a free Linux installation DVD or USB flash drive
Want to check out Linux in more detail for free? Try Linux for free on your own PC! Just follow our instructions on how to create a free Linux Installation/Live DVD or USB flash drive from which you can test run or install Linux on your own computer. You'll see how great Linux is! A Linux Installation/Live DVD or USB flash drive can run Linux from your DVD drive or USB flash drive without having to install it on your hard drive, and without disturbing your current OS installation. Just set your BIOS to boot from your DVD drive or USB flash drive. Give it a complete test drive if you want!
You can also use the same Linux Installation/Live DVD or USB flash drive to permanently install Linux on your hard drive. You can reuse one free Linux DVD or USB flash drive to install Linux on as many PCs, workstations and laptops as you want!
Buy a Linux installation DVD or USB flash drive
If you can't create your own free Linux Installation/Live DVD or USB flash drive as described above for any reason, and want us to send you a Linux DVD or USB flash drive we can if you're in the USA. Just pay for the cost of shipping, handling and the DVD or USB flash drive itself. Choose the Linux media and distro you want from the drop down menu and we'll ship the latest version we're currently pre-installing on our PCs. If you want another Linux distro than the options offered, or any other customization of the distro, let us know in the comment box we can most likely do it.
Open source hardware
On our site, like open source software, we've tried to be as open as possible. We like to call our hardware 'open source hardware', while the hardware is not free, you can see where it's all coming from, it's all in the open. The manufacturers and parts we recommend in our current builds for a PC are listed for you. In most cases these are manufacturers we have prior experience with and are very satisfied with their quality and performance, thereby pre-screening them for you.
Build a Linux PC
You could read our guides on how to choose PC parts or simply choose from one of our current builds for a PC and buy the PC parts from any supplier worldwide or buy a PC parts kit from us here in the USA. Then follow our free step by step instructions to assemble a PC and download and install a free Linux distro. We would be delighted that we might have helped the open source movement and DIY (do-it-yourself) enthusiasts in a small way.
Buy a Linux PC
You can choose to buy a Linux PC, fully assembled with Linux pre-installed, from CurrentBuild Computer, as your preferred Linux PC manufacturer that would also be very cool. Here, check out our different PC models - Sense PC, Sense PC 2, Sense mini PC, Sense mini PC 2, Sense mini PC 3, Dream PC, Dream BIG PC, Speed WS, Speed WS 2 and Speed AI. Thanks and enjoy your Linux PC!