Linux: It’s Not About Winning

Carnt really disagree with anything Chris has written. I was a windows user for about 8 years, downloaded the horrible RTM 1 copy of Vista, submitted bug reports with the rational that I would one day be using the MS OS, therefore it’d better be good. 3 Months into using a official release copy Windows Vista the experience remained poor, very poor. The usual problems, driver support (+driver existance!) poor performance, left with the impression it was more of a **** shiny Win XP service pack than a fully fledged, **** my pants, wow this is is impressive thing. I mean, honestly how is Vista any different than XP for Bobs sake. Anyway I could go on about that all day, back to linux.

Over 8-9 months I installed and used Ubuntu and Sabayon distros of linux (x64 weeeeee!) and being a seasoned XP user, if there is such a thing, i found them both a delight to install and use. I’d even say I have far less problems with it, with the added benefit of NO virii and NO Mallware. Additionally its completely configurable as Chris has pointed out. Just try having a Vista Box alongside say. Ubuntu running Compiz and tell me which looks nicer, which is more stable, which has better security and which is FREE.

If you use Google, your using Linux as someone once pointed out.

Ben is full of himself. Completely. He’s one of those “I use Linux! ph34r m3!” kind of people. Linux IS NOT THAT DIFFICULT. My 54 year old father, who has logged less than 200 hours TOTAL on anything other than a type writer, PREFERS and uses nothing but Linux, and gets along with it well. He has absolutely no knowledge in basic developmental skills, yet learned very easily how to compile software on his own when he cannot find a binary package.

Do not feed this garbage to people. Use Linux. Love Linux. Support Open-Source. Go FOSS.

He’s right on the “money”. I find that I have far more real fun under Ubuntu Linux than I ever did under Windows.

I also have Ubuntu Linux and at first I had to go through a learning curve similar to what we had in the 80’s with dos command lines. It took me about 2-3 weeks before things started falling into place.

I now see that Ubuntu’s design and kernel are far superior to Windows and still growing on a daily basis. The Linux community of people reminds me of the early days of computing where everyone shared resources and helped each other. Business greed has not set in yet.

All of my necessary business applications are covered with Ubuntu because 90% of all business servers have been using Linux for years. I had my doubts about this when I first started using Ubuntu. If it doesn’t run on Ubuntu I don’t need it.

Chris I disagree with you about the future, Windows is dying but will linger for some time (Gates/Balmer are too stupid to cut their loses and pull out). Linux will overtake Windows, soon. Us baby boomers are moving to Linux.

Ben (and Chris), you’re wrong. My wife and I aren’t among the technical elite, we’re high school drop-outs with GEDs. She’s into gardening and I’m a guitarist but we’re both full-time Linux users. We agree that Linux is about freedom but for us it’s the freedom of knowing we can largely ignore the warning emails we get about the latest computer threat, the freedom of owning an OS that gets better all the time without costing us anything and freedom from an EOL date at which time our bought-and-paid-for OS becomes worthless.

If you want to surf the web, write email, listen to music and download pictures from your digital camera then the transition from Windows to Linux is about as complicated as the transition from Windows 98 to Windows XP. The steep learning curve kicks in when you figure out how much incredible software is available, with no more than a couple of clicks in your package manager and you decide you want to give it a try or when you figure out that the OS is yours to do with as you please and it won’t cost you a dime if you totally trash it and have to reinstall it.

Linux isn’t just an Operating System, it’s an idea, an attitude, and maybe even a culture, I don’t know for sure, but I know it’s right for us. We’ve been tolerating elitist Windows snobs for years so we can tolerate elitist Linux snobs. No big deal.

As a distribution developer I’d say I agree with _some_ of what he says. I CHOOSE Linux because it offers me the liberty to modify the environment, because it is secure, and has far better performance when running multiple tasks. The aspect that I disagree with is the idea that Linux cannot be for the masses. I and a small team of developers are working on a distribution of Linux called AltimatOS to change this, by changing the way some things work, etc. to make it possible that people like my father (a construction worker and musician whom has never gotten along well with computers) can use it.

Hah no problem, I already used Linux as my major OS for 4 months, Then I decided that to me, even Windows is better.. not because of the freedom or simplicity which Windows doesn’t have.. but because Windows is just so much simpler in almost every way. I use Mac OS X Leopard now so forget about Linux and Windows.

I was a 20-year DOS/WIN user until I finally (fully) converted to GNU/Linux in late 2007. I still have an old computer with XP on it sitting in the corner, but I’ve turned it on once in the past two months.

In many ways, modern Linux distros are easier to use than Windows “out of the box.” Why? Because of what comes with the package. Far more software that you will use comes preloaded with GNU/Linux than Windows. Not that Windows doesn’t have freeware galore and access to the same FLOSS programs, but GNU/Linux just loads them for you when you install or upgrade. And yes, you can choose not to load any or all of them if you wish.

As far as ease — as a lifelong Windows user — the only part of GNU/Linux that took me time to learn was the file system. The Linux filesystem is so simple that it’s confusing, i.e., you keep scratching your head thinking, “That can’t be all there is to it.” Most of my time was spent unlearning a few things burned into my brain from years of Windows use.

I don’t hate Windows (just Vista), but as Ben Wright notes, being free from all of Microsoft’s silly behavior, increasingly restrictive EULAs, increasing costs, and so on have grown old. The other very nice thing about GNU/Linux is that it extends the life of my new machine. Instead lasting 3-4 years, it will last 5-7 years, even more depending on which distro you choose. Knowing that Vista was the last Microsoft OS I’ll ever buy is priceless.

Linux works for me. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it starts with a better security model than Windows. Ive got to agree with the other comments about the Free and Open Source Software community being a major reason that I’ve switched. The amazing diversity of distributions make it easy to configure a file server, or a web server, or a full-blown user desktop, or just about any other type of computer system. Usually, linux can get better performance than Windows out of old hardware. I can’t foretell the future, but there are a large number of smart people in other countries - countries where they might not be able to afford Microsoft licenses or perhaps they need to utilize older hardware. It wouldn’t surprise me if linux became much more important to the cutting edge of new developments.

10.Linux: It’s Not About Winningchris.pirillo.com8 commentsSocialRank That was the subject line of an email that Ben Wright just sent to me:I have installed Linux on 2 out of three of my computers, not because it is the most compatible operating system, not because it’s the

I’ve used linux on various occasions… it seems that whenever a new Ubuntu version comes out I take it for a ride. But at the end of the day I always end up going back to XP… don’t get me wrong, I don’t find Linux hard to use but there’s always some stupid problem that requires me to hack the xorg file or compile from source (which I can do, but really we’re not in 1985) and I sit back and think… “man, I could get around this in Windows by just clicking on an exe. file.”
Linux is like a car with a stunning engine but a cheap $2.00 interior.
Linux users always say how Linux will take over. The way it’s going, it won’t.
It needs software (frankly it has some nice stuff now, but a lot of it simply don’t cut it… and no, Gimp is not a Photoshop replacement.), it needs simple installation files and a system that tracks what you’ve installed (ever noticed how something you’ve just installed goes bye bye and disappears somewhere in the file system?) and above all, consistency!
A standard without all these buffoonery of different distros…. till these are solved, Linux will remain the real of the pale and geeky.

I am yet to see a single person approach the following issue

http://www.pissheadnerds.com/news.php?readmore=61

if you are serious about linux please actually answer the question - how would you manage a corporate network using linux instead of windows?

Linux has replaced Vista on my desktop since September - I don’t miss anything at all.

Linux - The whiners choice…

Let’s live in Mommy’s basement until our 40s and tell the world via our un-read pathetic blogs that we are l33t coz we use linux and program bash scripts and can type faster then you can read. We’re all so ubah!

/sarcasm off

I am sorry to disagree. I am a firm UNIX lover and have worked on UNIX for over 20 years. Linux falls on the same category as os but NOT for the desktop.

Linux is great where it has to but for desktops, please, WIndows and MacOS are far superior.

I have used Linux as a desktop professionally and yes I would trade it for WIndows in a second since today you can create Virtual Machines with any flavor of linux and work whatever the heck you need from the linux world right there so you get the best of both worlds while having an easier to use and far more superior _desktop_ OS

As for UNIX, I always used UNIX as the server to our development environments but we accessed it from WIndows via XWindows emulators (Xceed), this gave us the best of both worlds.

The comment by Doogles may be full of sarcasm, however he basically points out a thing that is constant on Linux users: they hear Microsoft and then piss in their pants and I always wondred , why? Microsoft is a company which produces software and they have every right to do whatever the heck they want with their licensing, if people do not like it then they won’t buy it. Aside from some very dubious practices they have had and may continue to have, this is no reason to disrespect their software which is created by developers not executives.

Any way I see it, I dio not trade my VIsta for Linux as a desktop OS, Yes I have VMS with RedHat, OPenSUSe (two versions), Ubutu and OpenBSD.

I have been an OS developer myself (Embedded RTOS) and respect all operating systems what I cannot respect is people with religious ideas about the world vs Microsoft. that is just too childish.

I used linux for a month, and I found that, when I went back to Vista, I could breathe easy. Linux wasn’t as fast as Windows, as stable as Windows, or as easy as Windows. I’m sure it has Linux has advantages over Windows, but I saw none while I was using it.