Why do you use linux - Page 3

Linux for -
1) Schoolwork, school's server are all solaris/linux, easier to use SSH with X-Windows not to mention free development tools (compilers, editors, IDEs) all under linux so I could work on my stuff without using the schools server. All that stuff would cost a fortune under windows.

2) so much free software
3) I can apt-get all that free software =]
4) very very small convenience, i love multiple desktops =]
5) it started out as kinda "i just wanna learn command-line and bash shell stuff" for school, work, experience. a lot of the jobs at school require experience using *nix. then i just came to like it.

I do use windows though for -
1) GAMES =]
2) software needed for classes that aren't ported to linux and can't run under wine.

I would use MAC OSX-
if i had a powerbook. I wouldn't mind getting to learn all the 3 oses. but still linux is my primary.

About games, some of them work very well on linux. U2k4/doom3/world of warcraft (cedega). It is also good server/office station
linux sucks at graphics, vector graphics otherwose gop works. Also flash editor like macromedia flash mx (not flash player) and also dreamveawer don't work

wtf? how does linux suck at graphics and vector graphics? inkscape is a really good tool for vector graphics, performance under linux is better than in windows and KDE/Gnome support svg's as icons/backgrounds.

i was just always just tried of seeing windows everywhere, first of all it wasn't that great, the mac OS switch wasn't worth it i don't want a new computer and the mac OS is fully bloated with crap, linux is nice clean, truly customizable, and most linux apps will work with any distro and with any Desktop manager, theres no need to download windows blind and all the other themeing software for windows, there are is hardly any way to get a virus on a linux box unless your really stupid and install it as root...LINUX is just plain uber...

Ubuntu Forums is fantastic.. I always get a quick reply. Maybe it was specificly your question and not the average time it takes to get an answer or reply?


Windows-Only-Never-Tried-Lin*x Users:
I know what you're thinking... you never tried Linux before... all you know is Microsoft... Linux scares you... you think it's too advanced... you hear things don't work often... why things don't work sometimes... you think M$ has made it easy for you... you see things like M$, Vindows and Windoze and XPee... but you take for granted the expression people are leaving... you think it's too good to be true... you think you can't do it... you think you'll fail...

Question: Ever heard the story of Plato's Allegory of the Cave? its concept is simple... you don't know until you've stepped outside of the world you know and enter a completely different world. Linux is the light here - the way out of the cave.

The support from the communities of Linux users and developers are amazing.. you don't find that often in a product... a product that's free. Linux has been around for quite awhile yet the improvements on the system's and distro's as a whole are greatly increasing. You may see things like people struggling for help and lost as certain crossroads - realize this, those people are making the choice to find out for themselves the source of their problem and/or success - they're not paying someone on a support line that may or may not include a tough language barrier. It's a nice achievement to say you wholeheartedly configured your system the way you like it, completely.

Most of the responses in this thread from Linux users have been right on. You think you can't do something in Linux... think again.

It's not that it "sucks" as you so put it, it's that DirectX, and technologies such as D3d and OpenGl are more focused on Windows as that's what your average teenage gamer is running on his/her PC at home.

Can you have the might of the latest adobe indesign in linux? or dreamweaver mx. In working on getting them to work ....

OT: THen again if you look at Plato's analogy a different way...

Ignorance is bliss, the person that left the cave and the world of shadows was tossed into a world where they didnt belong. They were completly happy there, and there wasnt a dramatic increase in happiness when they left and grew accoustomed to the new life, nor could they ever truly return to the old life creating yet another dimension to that.

Has absolutely nothing to do with the current topic, well maybe it does. Linux is not for everyone, but one of the greatest things about it, it gives you a CHOICE. It is not nor will it ever be the best at everything, it is not the answer to all computer woes. But it CAN be better at many things, however it will take work for most people, a period of adjustment, and frustration as you get used to a new way of handling things, and a new level of control over your computer.

Unlike the analogy though you have the choice between the two worlds, which is why Linux is such a great thing to the general world at the moment. It allows you the freedom to choose.

Seablade

Dreamweaver actually, I had heard over their past couple of version has been taking linux into consideration in a backwards sort of way. They were making an effort to ensure they used code that would be somewhat supported by WINE in order to allow their products to be used on linux with them not having to do anything really.

Adobe, I honestly wouldnt be surprised in the least on either them or dreamweaver to see much better support for them in linux in about 2 years. Why? Because the BSD based Mac is moving to an Intel based platform, and porting between the two will be much more possible, not nessecarily a given, but much easier I believe.

Seablade

its easy enough to port to linux. the problem is that its not hard enough not to port. once linux gets a few more percentage points in market share, well get all the apps in the world ported over.

And Microsoft be sure will take care so that won't happen. As long as microsoft has an intelligent chairman like bill gates we won't see many things ported on linux

>As long as microsoft has an intelligent chairman like bill gates we won't see many things ported on linux

It has much less to do with Bill Gates than you might think. Right now Windows is responding to Linux, not the other way around. Linux doesnt operate on your typical buisness strategy. Yes it has a small market share, but it is growing and Microsoft is still deciding how to act. Right now all their responses have been to counter something that Linux has that causes people to switch, typically by copying the idea. Well that and to Slander Linux though they have most definitly laid off that SOME now.

In as far as porting to Linux, it is still kind of difficult, especially depending on how you program. You can program things to be portable, and it is downright simple. However most people write things that depend on Libraries provided by the OS, causing it not to be portable. For instance D3D and such. As I said though since Mac is based on BSD the majority of those libraries are in fact fairly portable, the problem comes in that situation from choosing things like what type of variable you use and the like as different architectures will have different sizes for types of variables, Big-Endianess and Little-Endianess and the like. That is stretching my experience with programming as I havent ever done any porting work, I usually mainly program for a single platform myself if I program at all.

As I said though in a couple of years when the Intel based macs starting hitting the market things may very well change. The major reason you cant port between them will dissapear as the architecture changes.

Seablade

Gee that's an easy question

I use Linux because I can.

HehHeh I like that answer

Seablade

and it's sooo true lol...

I switched to linux (ubuntu) because, honestly, I was very bored with XP. I dont see XP as a challenge like I do with linux. I love a good challenge! Then again after installing ubuntu on my 700m it hasnt been that challenging!
I am enjoying the learning curve and have found linux to be a lot more rewarding after tweaking and configuring things than XP could ever be.

I guess its like jumping off a high bridge into a river...it looks scary, your mates have already taken the jump, and you KNOW its not that bad, you take the plunge, enjoy the rush and want to do it again!!

hell, after years of dual booting, right now i am single booting ubuntu


...oh and because i can

Heh if you want a challenge... go LFS

And then dont blame me when you are commited

Seablade

Im learning linux so i wont have to spend 130 dollars to buy pro and only be licensed to put it on ONE computer. i think its crap that i bought pro for my old compaq, then had to pay for it again so i could get it on my new sager. (i dint buy the retail, its 130 for the OEM version of XPpro. OEM versions cant be moved from one computer to another). that and c'mon, EVERYBODY has windows. think how badass you'll look with fluxbox or enlightenment, hell even KDE running in the middle of class!