I'm sorry but mainstream Linux distro's (Mandrake Red Hat and so on) are becoming more and more useless by each release.

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Spyro

Next time just play a game

I did.

which one............

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Forums are repetetive, the internet is repetetive, life is repetetive. Not much you can really do about it, there are 6 billion people out there, and one of them is bound to sign up every once in a while and ask a question that's been asked before. However, each time, the discussion is different from the last, opinions are stated and knowledge is gained. And that's just the people posting - there's probably 10-20x that many people reading this stuff.

And as far as going nuts, go for it, might make this place a little more interesting. Just don't get yourself banned or the fun is over.

 

[nutxo]

Originally posted by: IamDavid

Originally posted by: Haden
I think gui frontends just don't give you full power they pretend to have. Atleast yet.
But, you already know that, so why you are using such distros?

Because I'm not a Linux Guru... Yet.

Can you tell me why anyone who grew up in a windows world would even want to bother learning Linux? Before it was because Win9X stability sucked and MS was so overpriced. Now stability is basically the same. I just don't want to see Linux end up going the way of BeOS which I loved. lol

Because M$ is the man. The wpa nazis that want thier hand in everything. If I could dump windows right now I would. Someday when support for everythign I want to run is close to the windows products Ill dump windows completely

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Forums are repetetive, the internet is repetetive, life is repetetive. Not much you can really do about it, there are 6 billion people out there, and one of them is bound to sign up every once in a while and ask a question that's been asked before. However, each time, the discussion is different from the last, opinions are stated and knowledge is gained. And that's just the people posting - there's probably 10-20x that many people reading this stuff.

And as far as going nuts, go for it, might make this place a little more interesting. Just don't get yourself banned or the fun is over.

Oh yeah, thats just what we need. Another moonbeam.......

 

[Nothinman]

Because M$ is the man. The wpa nazis that want thier hand in everything. If I could dump windows right now I would. Someday when support for everythign I want to run is close to the windows products Ill dump windows completely

But that's the problem. Companies don't consider Linux support a high priority because the vast majority use Windows and people won't switch until support is there, so it's a catch-22.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Spyro

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Forums are repetetive, the internet is repetetive, life is repetetive. Not much you can really do about it, there are 6 billion people out there, and one of them is bound to sign up every once in a while and ask a question that's been asked before. However, each time, the discussion is different from the last, opinions are stated and knowledge is gained. And that's just the people posting - there's probably 10-20x that many people reading this stuff.

And as far as going nuts, go for it, might make this place a little more interesting. Just don't get yourself banned or the fun is over.

Oh yeah, thats just what we need. Another moonbeam.......

Moonbeam's posts are typically quite fun to read.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Because M$ is the man. The wpa nazis that want thier hand in everything. If I could dump windows right now I would. Someday when support for everythign I want to run is close to the windows products Ill dump windows completely

But that's the problem. Companies don't consider Linux support a high priority because the vast majority use Windows and people won't switch until support is there, so it's a catch-22.

I was going to respond to this, but you said it much better than I would have, even if I'm not as grumpy as I was earlier.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Spyro

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Forums are repetetive, the internet is repetetive, life is repetetive. Not much you can really do about it, there are 6 billion people out there, and one of them is bound to sign up every once in a while and ask a question that's been asked before. However, each time, the discussion is different from the last, opinions are stated and knowledge is gained. And that's just the people posting - there's probably 10-20x that many people reading this stuff.

And as far as going nuts, go for it, might make this place a little more interesting. Just don't get yourself banned or the fun is over.

Oh yeah, thats just what we need. Another moonbeam.......

Moonbeam's posts are typically quite fun to read.

He's one of the few people in OT I actually have alot of respect for.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Spyro

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Forums are repetetive, the internet is repetetive, life is repetetive. Not much you can really do about it, there are 6 billion people out there, and one of them is bound to sign up every once in a while and ask a question that's been asked before. However, each time, the discussion is different from the last, opinions are stated and knowledge is gained. And that's just the people posting - there's probably 10-20x that many people reading this stuff.

And as far as going nuts, go for it, might make this place a little more interesting. Just don't get yourself banned or the fun is over.

Oh yeah, thats just what we need. Another moonbeam.......

Moonbeam's posts are typically quite fun to read.

He's one of the few people in OT I actually have alot of respect for.

He seems to post in the "Politics and News" forum most of the time. I've alway liked his posts too. He's the only poster that you'll get flaming pm's for supporting though

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Spyro

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Spyro

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
Forums are repetetive, the internet is repetetive, life is repetetive. Not much you can really do about it, there are 6 billion people out there, and one of them is bound to sign up every once in a while and ask a question that's been asked before. However, each time, the discussion is different from the last, opinions are stated and knowledge is gained. And that's just the people posting - there's probably 10-20x that many people reading this stuff.

And as far as going nuts, go for it, might make this place a little more interesting. Just don't get yourself banned or the fun is over.

Oh yeah, thats just what we need. Another moonbeam.......

Moonbeam's posts are typically quite fun to read.

He's one of the few people in OT I actually have alot of respect for.

He seems to post in the "Politics and News" forum most of the time. I've alway liked his posts too. He's the only poster that you'll get flaming pm's for supporting though

Sad state of affairs, isn't it?

That's why I keep my ass out of OT most of the time, save for a few car or beer threads

 

[SnapIT]

Ok... so you think slackware is too mainstream and debian is too hard... errr...

I would say that you haven't tried either... Slackware is very basic, it is not a distro for everyone, the followers love it, everyone else hates it... it has an extremely steep learning curve while debians is not so steep, debian is in between RH/Mandrake and Slack... try it, maybe yo will like it...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: SnapIT
Ok... so you think slackware is too mainstream and debian is too hard... errr...

I would say that you haven't tried either... Slackware is very basic, it is not a distro for everyone, the followers love it, everyone else hates it... it has an extremely steep learning curve while debians is not so steep, debian is in between RH/Mandrake and Slack... try it, maybe yo will like it...

I don't think I have seen anyone actually hate Slackware. Most people that use another distro say it is, or complain about: too hard, the init sucks, no packaging system, not bleeding edge. I on the other hand see each of these as a strength in Slackware that I see in no other Linux distro.

 

[chsh1ca]

Originally posted by: Buddha Bart
wow.... from a troll posting, to a lame debate thread, to a flamewar.
and they say usenet is dead!

Whoever said that is truly naive! Btw, you might wanna take the Ted Turner Action Goggles off, this isn't a flamewar.

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I was bored.

Fair enough.

At any rate, in answer to the original question of why someone would want to use linux *on a desktop* when they've grown up in the windows world, I'll tell you why I use it, since I meet the criteria.

1) By far it is the single most developer-friendly environment out there (that I know of anyway). I can elaborate on this if needed.
2) Its stability software-wise beats all flavours of Windows hands down. Stability is not just about random crashes, but about uptime and such as well, and uptime can be affected by various things. You can upgrade pretty much everything in a box excepting the kernel without rebooting the system. Windows to this day needs you to reboot when updating/installing certain types of drivers, patches, and such.
3) Flexibility. If I want to have a 5MB install with only bash, req'd libs, and a kernel, I can. It's excellently flexible for toying with. In part, this falls under the developer-friendly category, but it is also useful for systems administration and such.
4) Free software. Perhaps the overriding factor is that I can get near retail quality software for the cost of downloading it online. POVRay is an excellent 3D Modelling and Rendering package, and it is freely available, whereas packages like Lightwave and 3D Studio Max cost upwards of $1000. The GIMP, one of the most commonly used apps on linux, offers 3/4ths of Photoshop's functionality. Sure, I may miss out on certain things with free software, but at the same time, I know what I'm going to get going into it, so I'm not disappointed, in fact, for the price, I'm thrilled at what everything can do .
5) Choice is the largest reason anyone would want to use linux. Choice about what apps come with the OS, choice about which distribution to use, choice down to what Window Manager, and Desktop to use. There are loads of options for almost everything.

If none of those things strikes you as being things you need/want in your computing life, then why did you bother with Linux in the first place? There are a number of reasons, ranging from simply trying something new to wanting to be part of the 'in crowd'.

Now, all of that being said, in the more general sense of why use it, on the server side, I think every admin needs some kind of unix experience, because like it or hate it, there is a growing trend of moving more and more services to Linux. A push sponsored by IBM, and yet becoming very popular. Three years ago, when I first started working here there were no Linux boxes here, and none at any of my SysAdmin friends' places. Now there's more than 20 boxes in use at these same places, frequently doing the tasks multiple Windows boxes were previously doing, using the same hardware. That is Linux' (and many Unixes') principal strength: Running servers.

 

[thornc]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkeyI don't think I have seen anyone actually hate Slackware. Most people that use another distro say it is, or complain about: too hard, the init sucks, no packaging system, not bleeding edge. I on the other hand see each of these as a strength in Slackware that I see in no other Linux distro.

Long live Slak!! And all the other distros.... if you don't like them don't use them!!!

Common like someone said, use what suits your needs, it's as simple as that!