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Why do you use Linux?


Guest Nawal
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I got into Linux because I was becoming bored of Windows, and also I learned about M$ sometimes disgusting business practices&ethics on the internet. Also, I loved the philosophy of the Open Source model. And, hey, Linux was free!

 

So I downloaded a number of distro's, most which wouldn't recognize my hardware very well. Then I tried out Mandrake 9.0, and that worked so well that I ordered a boxed set of CD's (Powerpack - still have it). Actually some things still were bad, like if I plugged in an USB device, the system would freeze (due to no good support for USB 2.0 yet... something to do with OHCI / UHCI if I remember). However, when Mandrake 9.2 came, this was solved!

 

After using Mandrake for a while (and discovering this very forum because of it), I stopped using Linux frequently because it didn't seem to offer me much extra value over Windows XP, and there were still some problems related to hardware detection for my PC.

 

Then I tried out new distributions, mostly LiveCD's. When I tried the LiveCD for SuSe 9.0, I was immediately sold: it looked good, detected all my hardware (possiblity because my PC had mostly popular German hardware components in them... ), looked good and was easy to configure. So I bought SuSe 9.1 boxed set, skipped 9.2 (didn't see the value) and bought 9.3 boxed set as well. Currently I'm running SuSe 10.1 that I got from a promo DVD from LinuxFormat. Now that the package management nightmares for SuSe 10.1 are over, I'm finally getting very comfortable in Linux.

 

Coming from a background as a power-user in Windows, it wasn't easy getting used to all the differences in Linux. But I'm glad I stuck with it, because right now it is a really awesome operating system. Except for games, there is not much I'm missing, in fact games are the main reason why I boot up Windows now.

 

Funnily enough, the reasons I now use Linux are very different from the reasons I started giving it a try. I now use Linux because of it's incredible range of high-quality (and usually free) software, it's security (go on the net without much worries), it's ease of use for file management compared to Windows and its amazing amount of customizability (thank you KDE).

Edited by Darkelve
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  • 3 weeks later...

I started using Linux once in my mind Windows got boring. I felt like I reached Jedi Master status in Windows and needed to move on to more chalenging pastures. I bought Mandrake 7 and left it in the box for 6 months, but one day I just said I'll just install it and if I can't get it working, I'll go back to Windows. I had no clue at the time that the boot manager would conveniently set up the dual boot environment. As an engineer, a good chalenge is always a good thing.

 

Well needless to say, Mandrake 7 was pretty interesting. Some things worked perfectly, others not at all, but surprisingly most of my hardware was complient. It didn't matter though, because as long as the internet conection was working, I knew I could get the rest working. What really amazed me most was the fact that when I installed Linux I discovered this whole other world on the internet of Linux and Madrake and Red Hat Users. :huh: I bought the Linux Administrators guide which focused on Redhat, but surprisingly everything worked with Mandrake also which I learned was the result of Mandrake being based on Redhat at the time.

 

From there I noticed that every question I asked got answered and people were genuinly excited to help you. They ended most of their responces with things like we're a communitty and we have to stick together, so share whatever you learn as much as you can so that we can get things working. It was kind of like they were happy to see they weren't alone in discovering the wonders of a Linux and they wanted to get the word out. Back in those times, the distro wars wern't raging, although the desktop wars were (KDE vs Gnome). I started on Gnome because it had the Guerilla icons and it looked prettier at the time, but we used kde at school, so I got confortable using both.

 

Needless to say Mandrake 7 turned into 8, 9, 10, 2005, 2006, Redhat 7, Fedora 3, Suse 9, Debian, SLED, OpenSUSE, and by the end of the week Mandriva 2007. I noticed that there wasn't much of a virus threat when using Linux, and as a computer engineer, Linux was a programmers dream world. Mostly the thing I liked most in the early days were the constant challenges of getting everything working. Then, something new would come out and I'd rush to install it, destroy my perfectly working setup and start the quest to restore everything all over again (especially new kde releases). :wall:

 

Today I've probably forgotten more than I know when it comes to Linux, but most everything just works now for the most part anyway and there are so many communities that every answer you need in out there. There are more fanboys today (Ubuntu), but I suppose I was the same way at one time singing the wonders of Mandrake, so i suppose Ubuntu is doing a great benefit to the Linux community by expanding the user base even if they are somwhat different from the earlier Linux adopters I remember. I still try to come around and answer questions when possible and I still primarily use Linux 98% of the time. Now that Wine is pretty stable, i can run Macromedia Studio, Photoshop, office 2003 and Utorrent from the windows world when absolutly necessary, but I don't really use those much with the exception of Dreamweaver and Utorrent. Gimp is comming along so I try not to use photoshop just for the challenge when possible and for everything Else, Linux has outstanding alternatives. Linux is the playground of the tinkerer, but with each distro release, I'm finding it harder and harder to work up new chalenges for myself, because the open source communitty is a highly skilled bunch hat takes competin with Apple and Microsoft very seriously. I still keep an XP partition around to help family members, but I've converted my girlfriend so all in all, i'd say i use Linux, because it accomplishes everything i need it to do and every now and again it forces me to learn somthing new, which is always a great thing! :thumbs:

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I started using Linux at home when I just got fed up of windows crashing/losing work/needing re-boots/generally completely pissing me off. I literally couldn't stand it any more.

Amen brother.

 

For me:Being able to fix things when they "break", I enjoy the learning curve (I used OS/2 Warp prior to discovering Mandrake 7.0), I've never lost all the data on a system since switching to linux only, all the free and useful software, the amazing speed and power increase (my laptop battery life doubled when I installed linux on it).

 

RANTS: I got sick of so-called support consisting of "Have you rebooted windows? OK, reinstall everything." being the response to every problem.

 

The only complaint I have about linux is the hardware companies continue to ignore the linux community. I actually had HP support tell me that they didn't support linux and if I wanted my laptop repaired (A malfunctioning volume button - hardware not software) I'd have to reinstall windows first. Needless to say I won't be buying anymore HP hardware. Too bad, cause I really like my laptop.

Edited by oshunluvr
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i started using linux for a very evil reason, i wanted to teach our new pompous, techie-wannabe network admin a lesson that he barely knows a fourth of what he claims he knows so he should stop flaunting it on my face.

 

ok, so it lasted for 2 days. after that i liked what i can do with linux and as my dependency for pirated software (i live in a 3rd world country, earning almost basic wages since i was just fresh from college) dwindled so i liked it even more.

 

almost everything i can do in windows, i can do in linux so it has been my main system ever since. and i still cherish the distraught look in our admin's face when he as looking for the rogue machines (yep machines, i had a colleague who dualbooted with solaris) in the network. :twisted:

 

oh and the fact that when a worm infected everybody in the office, my solaris buddy and me were the only ones whistling while continuing to work. :cheesy:

 

ciao!

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I just got tired of windows, so I moved to linux. I was aware that that it possible I might tinkering with it before getting it to work, but it didn't scared me as I like to fool around the things.

 

The first I've about linux was from an old friend back in 97 who used Linux to more shadow-ish tasks (like blackhat hacking and such), so it sparked my curiousity.

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Well, I have a pirated copy of XP Pro that I use in virtual PC on my Mac for one reason: to use Internet Explorer to check web pages I am making. I don't apologise for that fact and I don't care. I can't run IE 6/7 on my Mac, so I have no other way and I don't use Windows for anything else.

 

But now with WGA it's painful, so I deleted it.

 

I've also been playing with Vista RC2 and I'm not impressed. It's slow. Really slow. Even on an AMD 64 system with a really good ATI graphics adapter and lots of RAM. It's also ugly, obtrusive and annoying in the way it asks you a million times before allowing you to do anything.

 

So why do I use Linux again? Because Windows just plain sucks and OS X isn't available for my home PC :P

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Well, I have a pirated copy of XP Pro that I use in virtual PC on my Mac for one reason: to use Internet Explorer to check web pages I am making. I don't apologise for that fact and I don't care. I can't run IE 6/7 on my Mac, so I have no other way and I don't use Windows for anything else.

 

But now with WGA it's painful, so I deleted it.

 

I've also been playing with Vista RC2 and I'm not impressed. It's slow. Really slow. Even on an AMD 64 system with a really good ATI graphics adapter and lots of RAM. It's also ugly, obtrusive and annoying in the way it asks you a million times before allowing you to do anything.

 

So why do I use Linux again? Because Windows just plain sucks and OS X isn't available for my home PC :P

 

If you use IEs4Linux, you don't need Virtual PC for Mac OS or Linux; you can run IE 4,5, and 6 natively. It definitly comes in handy for checking web pages. It also includes flash 9.0 so all of your web content should be displayed just as you expect it.

 

IEs4Linux

 

:thumbs:

Edited by guppetto
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Well, I have a pirated copy of XP Pro that I use in virtual PC on my Mac for one reason: to use Internet Explorer to check web pages I am making. I don't apologise for that fact and I don't care. I can't run IE 6/7 on my Mac, so I have no other way and I don't use Windows for anything else.

 

But now with WGA it's painful, so I deleted it.

 

I've also been playing with Vista RC2 and I'm not impressed. It's slow. Really slow. Even on an AMD 64 system with a really good ATI graphics adapter and lots of RAM. It's also ugly, obtrusive and annoying in the way it asks you a million times before allowing you to do anything.

 

So why do I use Linux again? Because Windows just plain sucks and OS X isn't available for my home PC :P

 

If you use IEs4Linux, you don't need Virtual PC for Mac OS or Linux; you can run IE 4,5, and 6 natively. It definitly comes in handy for checking web pages. It also includes flash 9.0 so all of your web content should be displayed just as you expect it.

 

IEs4Linux

 

:thumbs:

Ah, I had heard about that proggy once, but I couldn't find it again! Thanks guppetto!
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Well, I have a pirated copy of XP Pro that I use in virtual PC on my Mac for one reason: to use Internet Explorer to check web pages I am making. I don't apologise for that fact and I don't care. I can't run IE 6/7 on my Mac, so I have no other way and I don't use Windows for anything else.

 

But now with WGA it's painful, so I deleted it.

 

I've also been playing with Vista RC2 and I'm not impressed. It's slow. Really slow. Even on an AMD 64 system with a really good ATI graphics adapter and lots of RAM. It's also ugly, obtrusive and annoying in the way it asks you a million times before allowing you to do anything.

 

So why do I use Linux again? Because Windows just plain sucks and OS X isn't available for my home PC :P

 

Lets face it, OCR is crap in Linux... its really about the only thing it seriously lacks... sure Gimp isn't photoshop... but its acceptable at a home level... so I needed to OCR a whole load of contracts and legal docs...

 

Fine I BUY Omnipage.... ouch ... then I try it under wine... well it won't work ... OK... fair enough... so having a valid 2k license I try and intall it under vmware... (I don't know anything about windows security so non of my windows virtual machines have internet access) BUT .. it won't install!

 

Why .. because Caerre used the MS dev studio and the installer *needs* IEx.x.x - I don't have access to IEx.x.x not to the windows installer V x.x.x nor can i without connecting my quaranteened virtual machine to the internet and agreeing to a MS EULA simply to install a 3rd party product. or going through a completely unreasonable process of proving my copy which I was forced to buy in the first place is genuine...and agreeing to wholy prohibitive and unreasonable terms in the EULA.

 

Are Caerre even aware of this? I doubt it they just used Visual Dev studio which requires IE as a dependancy for no other reason than to force users to give information to MS.... It is NOT USED in any way.... I hacked the registry and started the install ... it goes past detecting the IE version... I replace the registry with the one with IE removed... and it all works....hence IE was not needed in any way shape or form...

 

To paraphrase... closed source is a cancer that spreads... it infects everything it touches... like Frontpage or .net its sole aim is to lock you in ... MS have been prevented bundling IE so they pass this to 3rd parties, probably without their knowledge... and even if they have that through blackmail and coercion.

 

Seriously who would have thought that buying a comercial product to run on my legal version of Windows would require me to accept installing IE and accepting the EULA's...Huh

 

This is just one example of why I won't go down that route....

If you run Windows everyday its probably not noticable .... that you are incrementally getting deeper and deeper into codependant software and this is on several levels... Adobe are nowhere near as bad.... they tend to do everything independantly but Macromedia were not the same ...I hear you need specific versions of the installer etc. for macromedia products although I didn't try this....

 

In the same way I have a client who runs a quarantinded Windows laptop ....we recently discussed and antivirus for it...

 

So his Linux (internet facing machine is running CLamAV) .. cool... and OS... but the Windows version (itself OS) requires a specific version of the Windows installer.... this version OF THE INSTALLER requires dotnetfx.exe ... this itself requires something else (I gave up at this point) .. you might wonder why use CLamAV not Norton etc. ... simple Norton is cripped so that you can't install virus updates without connecting to the internet.... wheras ClamAV lets you just copy the updates

 

Luckily the source code is available so I could compile ClamAV....

 

The point is just to install using the Windows installer forces internet connections which my client doesn't want to do... and agreement to many EULA's....

 

This is just a lock-in which is written in MS dev studio....

 

In the old days I had Win98 and tons of "cracked" progs I wasn't happy about this but....sometimes you just need a prog to open a file to save as....

Since moving to an OpenSource OS I have zero cracked progs, Im 100% legal and happy with it. The only cracking I have to do is to get round the occasional Windows prog I use but not to illegally install it but to install it without for instance having IE installed or a specifi version of the installer which requires visiting the MS downloads etc. and agreeing to EULA's...

 

In effiect Im happy with the Caerre EULA.... (fine) but why should installing some SW I buy require me agreeing to 3rd parties EULAs (i.e. Microsoft) this is totally unreasonable....

Who is to blame?

Well Caerre are partly to blame but I doubt they even realise... the problem is they use the Vis dev studio...and the deps are pre written in so that MS can claim you don't need IE or MediaPlayer installed but iof you don't you can't install 3rd party SW....

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originally, I used it for curiousity, and a desire to tweak further.

 

now, I use it because I believe in *free* software, love the environment, and the ironic simplicity once you learn how it works. unlike windows, I can commandeer my computer to operate in any way that I wish, with full freedom of my hardware and software.

 

James

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I use because it is stable, doesn't need restarting, I can modify it to my needs and I can tell it what to do, not the other way around.

And like iphitus I believe in free and open source software.

Edited by solarian
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