Why and how did I switch from a Windows OS to PureOS, a GPL Debian fork distro ?

Let’s put it straight, I won’t try to convince anyone but I’m more than happy to walk the talk and share my views.

There are many good practical reasons to prefer GPL OS & software to disrespectful patent software:

1. Free operating systems and free programs for life: which is quite an economic advantage. Besides, using the given work from a community of programmers dedicating their time to create elegant and powerful software available to everyone and easy to install (yes, it is!) is a one reason good enough to make a switch. And there are many more.

2. Privacy and security: because the free software code is constantly checked and improved by it’s developers community, it’s less likely to have unpleasant surprises such as backdoor and malicious malwares sneaking in your computer with nasty aims. Microsoft can spy with data collection elsewhere: full control is here at hands.

4. Pedagogy: a great thing here is that, because the distribution is open to all, if you feel you have a programming adventurer soul, you can have direct access to the code and dig your hands in it to get your software customized at will. And that’s a great way to improve your computing skills!

5. Package repository: It only requires a simple command to install all the software needed, and you can update and upgrade it when you decide it. No redundant updates that are setting things on your computer you would never be aware of.

It runs on almost everything: and is the default operating system for Raspberry Pi, which makes computing access quite wide !

As a conclusion and more precisely, free software means users of a program have the four essential freedoms, as defined by the Free Software Foundation:

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Now, practically :

Even if quite popular among open source aficionados, I did not consider Ubuntu or Fedora, and any other distro that was not endorsed by the Free Software Foundation. All reasons here: https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html

So, I checked the list of all GPL distros available under GPL (General Public Licence) and their specificities here : https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html

And decided to give a go to PureOS. Full description and download: https://pureos.net

To install it, I just followed the second method from wikihow: https://www.wikihow.com/Install-Debian

Easy piece of cake. In ten minutes max, I was a happy PureOs user.

Bye Windows, hello Freedom.

www.fsf.org

Nathalie Kuborn