Linux, giving second chances for decades

Linux it is a wonder. In their own way, for some, but it is. About 15 years ago, I resurrected a brother's computer by installing Xubuntu on it. He wanted it to use JDownloader and chat from the browser, and the lightness of that official flavor of Ubuntu made it possible for him to use a computer that would otherwise barely boot. To this day I still recommend installing Linux in almost any similar case, and it continues to bring joy to my acquaintances.

I also remember another case, that of a friend who wanted to use his “netbook” (those 10″ laptops that are hardly found nowadays) as if it were a TV Box, I installed Linux Mint for it and it had what it was looking for. More recently, an acquaintance has been looking for something to connect to the TV and play games to relax, and once again, what has saved him has been installing Linux, in this case the desktop operating system offered by the Raspberry Pi .

I will always say it: Linux is the best at the user level

Who wanted to play on TV has a 32bit PCYes, they still exist, and the power is rather limited. Raspberry Pi desktop it's basically a Debian with Raspberry Pi customization, and what we have is very similar to what Raspberry Pi OS offers, but it's designed for the x86 architecture. I recommended this option because it's still available, because I know about it, and because many others are considering dropping 32-bit support, but there are other options as well. 32bits on desktops are something that in some areas can already be considered "vintage", another looser way of saying "old" or "obsolete", and, even so, they still work with Linux.

The best part of all this is that, while it is true that the newer titles are not for Linux (nor for macOS, it must be said), it is also true that playing with emulators is much better on a kernel operating system than developed by Linus Torvalds. In Windows we can install PPSSPP, RetroArch and a thousand other programs, but only our kernel has the drivers for different controllers in it. Thus, we can install RetroPie and not only use a DualShock 3 (PS3 controller) without installing drivers, but we can also play without the cable (via WiFi). If we also add performance, there is little left to add.

Netflix, Prime Video, Spotify...

Applications for Windows seem to be a point in its favor, but most importantly it is available as a web service. The application of Prime Video for Windows it is little more than what we see in the web version, so not much is lost if we stay on Linux. The same can be said of Spotify. The only difference in this sense is that with some applications we can download the content for offline playback, and Windows users do have it better there.

What happens is that we are talking about computers that no longer work well in Windows, or that cannot update the operating system. Taking into account that these apps are little more than webappsIt will be of little use to us that the best application is available if our team is not going to be able to move it. That's why it's better to use Linux: something that doesn't work, something whose performance makes us nervous, suddenly... moves, and we have something usable.

The three cases exposed here are some of those that I have managed to convert, but they do not always listen to me. I know people who, after trying LubuntuFor example, they thought it was too ugly, they didn't get used to it and they ended up buying another computer. So, already with something newer, they have already been happy, and they have even hinted to me that Windows is better. Of course, renewing the team when he can no longer handle it and spending more money.

With Linux this is not necessary, not so soon. So if it makes a team move decently, we can do a lot with it and save money, the strange thing is that it's not used more. But for me it won't stay.