Poll: As a typical desktop computer user, have you ever considered Linux to be your main OS?

[n0cmonkey]

<< No. I prefer cheaper internal winmodems to more expensive external linux-compatible modems. I have used Windows for 6 years, and am so used to Windows I can't see how I'd switch. >>



Variety is the spice of life

 

[Charles]

Vote the poll guys! How come we only see 26 votes?

My OS chart:

Windows 2000 Professional
Mac OS X
Red Hat Linux 7.1/Linux-Mandrake 8.0
Windows 95/98SE/ME
BeOS 5 Professional Edition

 

[Noriaki]

Ok.
Well I'm not Linux now because I still do some gaming....though not all that much.

But the primary use for my computer is in fact IE, ICQ, Email etc etc
I also do some programming which I think Linux is much better for than Windows...especially since my University is very heavy into Unix.

I think in the next 6 months to a year I'll be doing most of my gaming on PlayStation/PS2 (GT3, FFX )

So I'm going to try to migrate to Linux for my PC OS.

 

[Charles]

That's a brave move, Noriaki! You'll have my full support.

 

[Chatterjee]

Personally I think Mandrake 8 is awesome. A company I'm familiar with received a flier from Microsoft/Business Software Alliance &quot;kindly requesting&quot; that they check their license to user ratio and make sure it's ONE.

Anyway, that's a friggin' turn off. I don't care if I had more licenses than there are users. When Microsoft starts dominating more so than innovating by partnering up with the BSA to start cracking down on tiny 1 PERSON companies, you know their bored and just want to play GOD.

It doesn't just stop at the OS. When Microsoft controls the word processing, spreadsheet, and other arenas (all that require some trackable licenses), you know you're going to have companies getting annoyed with the software vendors playing police. With Linux, you do not have that worry. More software consultants will be advising companies to move to Linux.

Whether or not there is a learning curve for Linux, you're going to find more and more people switching to Linux nevertheless. WindowsXP will be a pain in the ass from a hardware perspective and people are going to be tired of upgrading and will want to know what they can do with the computer that's sitting in the closet. Naturally concrete drivers will be available for aged hardware.

What I'm saying is that Linux has come a long way and we're going to see more awesome development and more people getting in tune with that development appreciating &quot;moving&quot; software. Software that doesn't take a year to be updated. I love the fact that PHP is constantly updated because it means I can encorporate and use the features without having to wait for 5.0 release. But that's just me.

Mandrake 8's MandrakeUpdate/Software Manager is a fantastic app that is almost fool proof about installing new software (at least the software that comes with the CDs anyway)

As always, my .02

-S

 

[skace]

&quot;Not calling you a liar but I have never experianced that under NT 4.0.&quot;

Did you have roaming profiles under windows NT? Did a user get a local profile when the network was inaccesible? If those 2 conditions are met then the problem should have occured. Otherwise I would like to know of your secret workaround :/

&quot;Even on the weekends???&quot;

Yes, people here work 7 days a week. Makes me glad I'm not an SW engineer on a tight schedule.

 

[Charles]

Anyone here found something interesting about Ximian Gnome?

 

[kylef]

Linux will never replace Windows as a desktop OS unless it gets a decent web browser. IE is so far ahead of anything available on the Linux side that I don't see how Linux will catch up unless M$ is slapped with a court injunction. I'm not saying that there is anything inherently inferior about Linux that hurts its web browsers: but I AM perhaps suggesting that the open source model has failed to produce a web browser that competes favorably with IE or Opera.

As for the server side of things, FreeBSD has consistently turned in top numbers in terms of application performance, network throughput, and kernel memory management. Linux no doubt has some nice cushy distributions with all kinds of desktop bells and whistles, but that doesn't make it a better server OS.

This new Tux webserver that is integrated into the Linux kernel is quite interesting and merits some attention. What remains to be seen is its stability and security in real-world loads. Which will no doubt come with time.

In-the-real-world-department and reality check: My Yahoo and the MSNBC home page are two of the most requested web pages on the Internet, positively dwarfing traffic requests from other sites (classic Zipf distribution). Yahoo runs FreeBSD. MNSBC runs... well, do I need to tell you?

 

[Chaotic42]

<< I would like to move to Linux, but I know little about Linux. When i go to the store there are too many choices, I don't know which package to buy. I wish they'd make a package oriented around those who know little or nothing about Linux, that came with StarOffice, Linux, and a graphical GUI, browswer, all in one package, along with any dual boot utilities. Then I'd buy that in a heartbeat. >>



From what I hear, Progeny Debian is supposed to be like that. I've never installed
it before though. Here's the link.