Why was I ever afraid of Linux?

[busydude]

I know the hardcore audience hates Unity, but IMO it's what's needed if Linux is ever going to get any mainstream acceptance.

The irony is that a lot of people hate the idea of Linux going mainstream.

I don't think few can have it both ways.

 

[Away]

I know the hardcore audience hates Unity, but IMO it's what's needed if Linux is ever going to get any mainstream acceptance.

I don't mind Unity myself, just waiting for 12.04 to be released before I move up.

 

[Broheim]

The irony is that a lot of people hate the idea of Linux going mainstream.

I don't think few can have it both ways.

those people are doing it wrong and should go with one of the BSDs


btw, does anybody else always read fsck as fuck?

 

[Puppies04]

btw, does anybody else always read fsck as fuck?

What the fsck you talking about?

 

[Broheim]

What the fsck you talking about?

file system check

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Linux runs on all my machines except the one I use for games.

Currently up is one HTPC running Linux Mint 12 with XBMC, one laptop running Mint 12, and one server box running Ubuntu 11.10 -- although I do have the desktop environment installed currently.

I have another old Pentium III that used to be my server and ran Ubuntu with no desktop environment. That was a first for me in a long, long time -- running totally at the command line. Webmin is a useful tool if you're running an Apache server, as well as PhpMyAdmin. In fact, that box didn't even have a monitor, keyboard or a mouse at all. I just stuck it in a closet, and if I couldn't do something with Webmin I'd just SSH to the box from whatever workstation I was at.

 

[Lithium381]

I loaded linux on my wife's laptop when she kept getting infected with all sorts of uglies on windows. did fedora first and recently put mint on it. It was a little frustrating at first getting the webcam to work with skype and all that jazz, but that was my first bout into linux, i'm amazed at its power and have been using it on my systems ever since. i keep one windows box around cause some things i can only do there, but i really like the linux base.

 

[BladeVenom]

The only reason I use Windows is because I freaking love video games.

Locked into Windows. It's the only reason MS is still around.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wait till you need to install something that's not part of the apt/yum package. That's where things get harder.

But overall I find Linux has improved to the point where a lot of stuff is actually easier to do than Windows, especially the server administration stuff. The bonus is that it's free, and you don't need commercial software to do simple tasks like backup a mail server.

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't used Windows in over a year, but I probably will when Bioshock3 gets released.

GNU/Linux has some fun games. Not as wide a choice as Windows, but I'm tired of console ports anyway. I like the Bioshock series. It's at the highest level of game art.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Linux is incredibly powerful if you know exactly what you are doing. You can strip down the OS so it does X and does X really efficiently and reliably.

As a desktop OS, as long as you have pretty common hardware it won't give you much grief. But if you start to attempt to change things too much you hit an incredibly steep learning curve and spend your time on your still working windows machine googling error codes and finding obscure forums that may or may not have the answer.

Yeah I have had some bad experiences..

 

[Lean L]

I loaded linux on my wife's laptop when she kept getting infected with all sorts of uglies on windows. did fedora first and recently put mint on it. It was a little frustrating at first getting the webcam to work with skype and all that jazz, but that was my first bout into linux, i'm amazed at its power and have been using it on my systems ever since. i keep one windows box around cause some things i can only do there, but i really like the linux base.

Yes true it is really lightweight but windows is still the way to go with user computers. There's no need to figure out anything with windows since there is a standard defined already. With linux UIs you are at the mercy of the distribution team.

Having said that, I love linux but would not recommend anyone to use it as a user computer. It's best for servers with no UI but a shell.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

does anyone else see the big timewarp on the first page?

 

[lxskllr]

Yes true it is really lightweight but windows is still the way to go with user computers. There's no need to figure out anything with windows since there is a standard defined already. With linux UIs you are at the mercy of the distribution team.

Having said that, I love linux but would not recommend anyone to use it as a user computer. It's best for servers with no UI but a shell.

GNU/Linux desktops are just as easy as Windows. A standard?! What standard is that, the Windows standard? What you're saying is Windows looks like Windows, which isn't particularly a surprise.

 

[busydude]

I like the Bioshock series. It's at the highest level of game art.

I could never get into that game. Played 2 hours of the first one.. and did not get back.

 

[Jodell88]

There's no need to figure out anything with windows since there is a standard defined already.
You haven't used windows 8

With linux UIs you are at the mercy of the distribution team.
Wrong

Having said that, I love linux but would not recommend anyone to use it as a user computer. It's best for servers with no UI but a shell.
Disagree. I can no longer use windows for work because I find the lack of workspaces to be appalling.

My thoughts are in bold.

 

[Lean L]

GNU/Linux desktops are just as easy as Windows. A standard?! What standard is that, the Windows standard? What you're saying is Windows looks like Windows, which isn't particularly a surprise.

Yes and that is pretty important for any GUI. I'm simply saying that any distro can change their gui at any time and it would not be a surprise.

Linux's strong suits are the command line, simple apps, and piping. Seems backwards to use that for anything other than a server.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Linux is incredibly powerful if you know exactly what you are doing. You can strip down the OS so it does X and does X really efficiently and reliably.

As a desktop OS, as long as you have pretty common hardware it won't give you much grief. But if you start to attempt to change things too much you hit an incredibly steep learning curve and spend your time on your still working windows machine googling error codes and finding obscure forums that may or may not have the answer.

Yeah I have had some bad experiences..

I spend all my time googling for error codes reading messages from 2002 and beyond on obscure boards just to get Windows 98, etc, etc, working. I just set up a partition with XP sp2 so I could play Mechwarrior 2/3/4 again. I havent played those games since about 2002. D:

*ps. If you want to play any old game that was meant for win9x using compat mode on XP, do not even TRY to do it with SP3. Only SP2 will work.

 

[Lean L]

My thoughts are in bold.

You have a dual or more?

You can expand the taskbar to all screens and have only the programs on that screen show on that taskbar. This is not native unfortunately.

Or were you talking about the multiple workspaces concept in linux?

 

[lxskllr]

Yes and that is pretty important for any GUI. I'm simply saying that any distro can change their gui at any time and it would not be a surprise.

And you can change right back. There's nobody telling you what you can and can't do with your system like there is with proprietary O/Ss

Linux's strong suits are the command line, simple apps, and piping. Seems backwards to use that for anything other than a server.

GNU/Linux's strong suits are absolute control, and freedom. If you want to install it on 10 different computers, you can. Install it to a thumb drive so you can use it on foreign machines? Gravy. A monkey could do it. The only limitations are technical. You're free to change any portion of the system to make it work for you, and you're free to give or sell your changes to someone else. There's no black box where you don't know what's happening. If you think your system's spying on you, you can look at the source code and see; not that that happens with libre software, unlike its proprietary counterparts...

 

[FelixDeCat]

And you can change right back. There's nobody telling you what you can and can't do with your system like there is with proprietary O/Ss


GNU/Linux's strong suits are absolute control, and freedom. If you want to install it on 10 different computers, you can. Install it to a thumb drive so you can use it on foreign machines? Gravy. A monkey could do it. The only limitations are technical. You're free to change any portion of the system to make it work for you, and you're free to give or sell your changes to someone else. There's no black box where you don't know what's happening. If you think your system's spying on you, you can look at the source code and see; not that that happens with libre software, unlike its proprietary counterparts...

I dont know why but it seems like you know a thing or two about this matter. I will defer to your judgement and declare you winner of this thread. ()

 

[zerogear]

Debian. F yeah.

 

[lxskllr]

I dont know why but it seems like you know a thing or two about this matter. I will defer to your judgement and declare you winner of this thread. ()

I'm just a dummy, but I've had a growing interest in libre software over the last few years. It's the one place in life you can have true freedom. Yea, with GNU/Linux you sometimes have to put a little more work into things to get them going, and you may not be able to run your favorite Windows software, but it's hard to put a price on the liberation it gives you. You're only limited by your own mind, and there's nobody artificially restricting you.

Btw, you may notice I write GNU/Linux, and not just Linux. Richard Stallman has pushed for that forever to give credit to the GNU system which made up the building blocks of the modern GNU/Linux distro. He promotes software freedom, as opposed to the Linux people who just promote open source, and by calling it GNU/Linux, it draws attention to his cause.

That's not my reason for doing so, though it truly is worthy. My reason is due to my irritation with Android. Android is also "Linux", but it doesn't come with the freedoms a GNU/Linux desktop has. Yea, you can hack around the restrictions, and it's more free than IOS, but it isn't the same, and by calling everything "Linux", it sets people up for confusion and disappointment when they hear of the powerful Linux on the desktop, and then buy the gimped Android, and wonder what the big deal is. Android is the best of some not so great choices, but it's no GNU/Linux :^)

 

[Jodell88]

You have a dual or more?

You can expand the taskbar to all screens and have only the programs on that screen show on that taskbar. This is not native unfortunately.

Or were you talking about the multiple workspaces concept in linux?

I used a laptop so I only have one screen.

Yes, I was talking about the multiple workspaces concept. I normally have three workspaces in use at one time. I use gnome 3 which centres around the use of workspaces. I only have to use a keyboard shortcut to switch between workspaces. In Windows I cannot do that without possibly the use of extra software.

 

[Modelworks]

I started using linux with redhat 3, it almost made me never want to use linux again, but it has come a long way since then. I prefer puppy linux now as it is easy for people who have never used linux before and runs on just about any pc no matter how old.