If you want to know in one line why I use/prefer linux, the answer is that it gives me “freedom”. And if you will give me second line I will say because the ‘fight’ is against ”copyright”.

Freedom : Since linux is open source, I can use it the way I want. That means that my machine will do what I want it to do. (I don’t want to give control of my machine to someone else.) And then I will be able to save myself from these “proprietary rights”.

Copyright : Todays copyright laws are killing creativity. People develop stuffs and copyright it in a way that others can not develop upon it for long time. And this long means 100 years!!!!!  So either you come up with another substitutable technology or you just use what they are developing. That means that if a technology A is made by some corporate B and if B is not able to develop A properly, people will have to make substitute technology. Not only that, if you have some idea that will enrich A, you can not implement that.  So waste of time and resources. Overall development is restricted.

“Proprietary Rights” : Let us take an example. File formats. Microsoft has proprietary rights for “.doc”. That means if tomorrow, Microsoft will say that no software other than Microsoft Office is allowed to use this file format, users will have to shift to Microsoft Office. This vendor lock-in favors producers and restricts clients. In other way its a cheap way of controlling consumer. Propietary rights  is a big concern today.

So, if you think you are a resposible person, you will use Linux. (Yeah, I agree its still not good enough for computer illiterates.)