[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Why is Linux so good? (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 2/27/2007 11:23:55 AM EDT
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I'm not a fan of Microsoft, I know windows is buggy as crud, but is there something about Linux I'm missing? Aside from like Linspire or something, correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't even browse the net, look and transfer pictures, etc. Ya know, most of the stuff normal people do right? Or am I totally missing something about Unix/Linux? It looks to me just like a freakin' DOS OS. I mean granted it may be more stable in server environments by a hell of a lot, but in a desktop arena can you do anything useful with it otherwise? |
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While much of the nix world works off of the command line for servers desktop environments work just like windows. For example: Solaris 10 comes with an office automation suite, a Visio type program, a project management program, a Photoshop type program, and Mozilla. |
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There are graphical desktop environments for Linux. Most distros come with one, or two. Gnome and KDE are the most popular ones. They have file managers much like Windows File Manager. You can run Firefox or Mozilla for web browsing. There are IM clients, MP3 players... all kinds of stuff for Linux. There's really not much you can do in Windows that you CAN'T do in Linux. Often, though, doing things in Linux is not quite as straightforward. |
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It depends on what you want to do and how much time you want to invest. If you want to invest a lot of time learning and don’t have any Windows critical app and don’t do high end gaming give Linux a try. You can browse the net, look and transfer pictures, and do most normal things you can do in Windows but contrary to what some will tell you Linux is not even close to as easy to use as Windows for the average users. If you want to spend the time and effort to learn you might like it… but if you are like most average computer users you will give up on Linux in the first 3 days. |
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The main problem with Linux is that it doesn't have some of the specialty software that Windows has, it has some driver issues, it has a bit of a steeper learning curve, and for some reason it seems like EVERY distro out there contains every bit of software ever conceived for Linux. It's like they're the anti-Microsoft. XP comes on one disc and has one browser, Linux the "Slim" comes on 3 to 5 and has 4 browsers, 3 email clients, 5 calculators, etc. It's definitely, IMO, not a casual user friendly OS. |
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Yeah. Unlike Windoze, the GUI is NOT an integral part of the operating system. But any distribution, besides those tailored to really obsolete hardware, are going to at least give you the option of installing the X Windows system. You'll also need a Window Manager, which basically manages the GUI and defines how things look and work. Fluxbox is my favorite. |
It's not for everyone. But it's free, so may as well play with it. |
Oh I agree... but it is better to have realistic expectations going end so you don’t expect Linux to be OS Nirvana because it is not. |
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"If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand..." A little advice: It's not Windows. Do not compare it to Windows. Do not say "I like this about Linux over Windows, and I like this about Windows over Linux". It's different. It's fundamentally different in every way shape and form. Accept that it is different, and enjoy it for what it is. |
Well... ...provided you're not running as root, there's little a virus could actually do. Why bother, in other words. Not a "virus" per se, but daemons are exploited (and subsequently patched) quite frequently. |
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Here I am again, posting from a different machine that I just CD booted Ubuntu. What more do you need to escape from bugware that Microsoft LICENSES to you. This is FREEWARE. And yes, you get OpenOffice so all your MS crapware documents work just fine and yes, you can exchange with all other MS crapware apps. MS is an anachronism. But people still pay for it. |
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Well, a noob huh? Thats OK, many ask the same type questions. Just do this (follow instructions closely)... Burn a Mepis 6 iso, stuff it in your cd rom, reboot making sure you can boot off your cd rom. Do your thing for 6 hours - surf, browse, paint a picture, copy, paste map a drive, whatever floats your boat and report back. Can you do that? Once you see you can do anything with a linux workstation and far more than Window$, fire off a teminal window and start serving anything you like on the net (if you get bored with surfing, checking email etc). You can thank me later for saving you tens of thousands of dollars over the commercial alternatives for the server side apps. Or just thank me for saving you a few thousand for the all the commercial packages you would have to buy to set up a like commercial workstation. Your friendly Senior Linux Administrator. |
And you can't get a virus on Windows unless you execute one. You can't lose your information from phising unless you are stupid enough to give out your info. The main problem is user stupidity nothing more. |
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Currently I've got Fedora 6 running on my laptop in a VMWare environment, but all I gots is a pitiful command prompt. I can login as root, but that's it. How the hell do I get a GUI interface on this thing? Like if I download one of the things you're talkin' about, how do I get to the file or if I burn to a CD or ISO, how do I get to that from Linux? --Ignorant Linux user |
Download an Umbutu VM Load http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/693 |
I didn't even go down the "virus" path with my reply. By chance do you use Internet Explorer, some flavor of Outlook, Excel or Word? If so, I'd suggest scanning for viruses, trojans, spyware, worms yada yada. I'm glad my windows machines aren't on the same local network as yours 
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try: startx |
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Dude, Ubuntu is about as easy as it gets. I made the bootable CD last sunday and have run it perfectly on all the systems, including this one. I left my other PC up running 2k and can see all the data on the workgroup, just like if I were using Win2k on this computer. The printer/scanner works just fine from Ubuntu as does the fancy dual output graphics card. It is much faster in performance than Win2k even though it is only a 1.2 GHz with 500 MB RAM. Wow, it is a DREAM. Thinking of swapping out the hard drive and running Ubuntu on it. Going to try it with an old PC...400 MHz and 128 MB RAM. |
linux is like a box of legos. you can turn it into anything you want. but its not user friendly and doesn't run windows apps. |
What he said. Plus, go check out DistroWatch to see what the top 100 Linux Distros are doing. Linux excels on the server and it's making great headway on the desktop (although I recommend some technical skill to make things easier). For you I recommend: Mepis Linux Mint (unbuntu with all the 3rd party apps like Java already loaded) Kunbuntu Unbuntu You get can get a download of "Damn Small Linux" that's less than 50mb and it will run from a business size cdrom, "in a window on your windows desktop" or from a USB drive. You may want to test drive it for a first pass. |
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My opinion (for what it's worth)- ...don't start with a tiny version of Linux, because there's too much stuff it won't do. You will not enjoy it or probably even find it useful. ...skip the live distros--get an old PC and do a full install of Fedora or something "full featured" on it. It will load a GUI by default, but you can disable the GUI if you wish. Older hardware is more likely to be supported anyway. ...if your NIC or modem doesn't work in Linux, go out and buy one that does. Struggling to get simple basic hardware to work is no fun. If you cannot even get online with the damn thing, you're going to get bored with it REAL quick. As far as how useful is it? Well, there's a few nifty programs that don't have Windows versions, but overall, don't expect anything earth-shattering. Some of the biggest open-source programs that exist are already available on Windows anyway (Netscape, Firefox, OpenOffice, GIMP), and most of the "free software bonanza" that Linux users tend to brag about is rinky-dink system utility stuff that the average user doesn't need anyway...... Have you ever wished that you had twenty different versions of Notepad? Well, in Linux, friend, you can!!! :o And they're all free!!! :O ~ |
| You can do as little or as much as you want with Linux. The caveat is that administering it takes some learning and time. You need to learn how configuration works and how to compile software, how the hardware interface layout works, all sorts of stuff. There are some good user-friendly ones that don't require any knowledge to get running (if your hardware is supported out of the box) but when you dig deeper into the internals and configuration you cannot avoid the command line because it is an essential part of interacting with certain parts of the system. And it's nothing like DOS, I guarantee it! |
LMAO! |
Now now! Not all rocket scientists know how to turn a key. |
But you can bind a virus to an image file, so opening a picture you saved from the net can infect your system. At least on Linux the virus can't do much damage unless you're using root. Whereas in Windows, you almost have to use the Admin account all the time or you can't do simple tasks. |
| Reliability is the biggest difference as compared to Windows. I spend more time with the 10% of our customers that run Windows than I do with the 90% that run Solaris, Linux, and OSX. Due to the nature of our software, most of our end users view 100+ Mbyte reports with a web browser, open 20+ windows, and print hundreds of pages from MSIE. MSIE under Windows XP will often crash in less than a day under those circumstances especially when you print. As I saw this morning with a fresh install of Windows, XP takes around 4 Gbytes of RAM to handle that while my older 512 Mbyte Linux system runs faster and more reliably. Except for the excellent installer and excellent backwards compatibility with Windows, I don't think there is any way that Linux isn't better than Windows.z |
Yep, Nuke 10% of the customers and 90% of the problems. Sad but true. |
Try Ubuntu. Seriously. I'm all for more nuts-and-bolts distros when I want to play, but for getting a computer up and running with the software I need for day to day use (office, multimedia, scientific and mathematic calculations and graphing, publication, image manipulation, etc.) I can pretty much drop in an install CD and GO. Jim |
1.) No one hacks the little guy. No publicity there. 2.) Its open source, so if you do "hack" it, you just hacked an open source system. No publicity there. You get major attention if you discover a Linux/apache problem. There are a ton of major, high volume web sites that run Linux, and if any of them are vulnerable you get a lot of eyeballs on your sploit. |
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This is what I did. Download Ubuntu 6.10 32bit , burn to cd , reboot , follow the easy installation prompts . After you reboot go online and download this program : Automatix . Automatix installs the 3d graphics driver and nonfree codecs (Some codecs are not legal in the USA because of the recording/movie industry but FUCKEM if I bought the cd/dvd I want to watch or listen to it on my pc) , lets you watch dvd's , plus a few common other programs all at once and very easily. Go to VMware's website and download and install VMware server , read the how-to on vmwares site for ubuntu , the create a vmware virtual machine and install windows 2000 or xp , with win 2000 you do not have to worry about any activation crap so you can just borrow somebodys cd . I chose xp anyway then install windows in the virtual machine . So now you have the best of both worlds , you should have a running Linux box that can run windows only software in vmware. Unless you do the game thing then you will probibly should stay on windows , but some games will run on linux : Doom 3 , Quake 3 , Quake 4 and a few others. EDIT: Some versions of VMware Workstation , the pay for versions , will let you run 3d apps in beta. |
The most important thing about Linux: It's Free:
gnu.org Compare that philosophy to the leading operating system vendor. (posted with Firefox on Ubuntu) |
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Linux's greatest strength isn't the casual desktop user. If you use Windows, and want to go through life opening every joke and movie that comes your way, and don't mind the funny errors, slowdowns, and problems that come with it, nobody is ever going to convince you that Linux is superior. If you need a desktop for scientific or engineering, Linux becomes a much better proposition. If you want to learn, and don't want to pay Microsoft every couple of years for a new OS, a new Office, new everything else... try Linux. If you want to run a server, you'd be insane to run Windows unless you absolutely have to (ie. for a Windows-specific technology like Cold Fusion or Exchange). And even then, most of the "big boys" run application cluster farms, because individual machines can't handle as much of a load, get funny errors, blue screen, need constant maintenance, etc. Putting that aside, the cost of Windows servers is just too much... the additional hardware you need for the OS, licensing, the downtime you're going to have, additional staff, etc. We use Linux for most of our servers, and Windows only where we must. The Linux servers can have uptimes in the hundreds of days. We have never once had to have someone at our colocation facility lay hands on any of them. The Windows servers are all in our offices, because we'd have to drive to the colo once a week to reboot or otherwise tinker with them. When your computer is a toy, Windows is fine. When your business depends on your computers, you run a real operating system wherever you can. |
it'll even do that www.winehq.com/ |
wine blows goats trying to run windows apps. enjoy spending time getting your app to run in linux. and to the poster above about servers. we run all windows servers. 2000 and 2003 servers specifically. they are very reliable and virus free. I usually reboot them oh once every 2 months. not to bad for that buggy windows shit. and as for having to run them yes i do. linux has exactly 2 user modes. root and user and nothing in between. file and share permissions aren't anywhere near as adjustable as windows. |
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On well... This is going downhill fast. As usual, like some kind of religion. I just use stuff that works. After many years of experience with ALL of it, I'll stick mostly w/Linux and know where TO and NOT TO use Windows. Funny, I've eliminated 90% of windows and 90% of the problems, as usual, M$ doesn't follow the rules of life. So here's the answers on a silver platter (without sounding arrogant)... For casual desktop user: use Mepis, based on a (warty) Ubuntu. Laptop w/wireless, desktop, it'll just work without any futzing around (Yes I've used Ubuntu, Fedora, Kbuntu, the list goes on, and on and on and...). KDE is my desktop of my choice. For the casual server users, RH/Fedora does well, Gentoo for the tweaks (very sharp individuals that contribute and GREAT docs to boot). If you're really bored try LFS. You'll learn plenty. Learn non-destructive repartitioning so existing stuff you're used to still works when you pull your hair out and want a break. And do write some windows scripts/batch files to backup, map drives etc just to keep a good perspective and excersize.  |
I can run about 95% of windows applications that I've tried. Those that I can't get to run, I don't need anyway because there is a perfectly acceptable linux equivalent. Linux can do everything windows can do, and a whole lot more. it is infinitely customizable, you can change ANYTHING on the fly...and rebooting is a thing of the past  ETA: linux is user friendly, if you understand how computers work. if you want a computer that works for the lowest common denominator, buy a mac. middle of the road, get a windows PC people who can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time? LINUX! 
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Linux guys: Is there a drop in replacement for MS Outlook available for Linux that will talk to an exchange server and, you know, do e-mail, shared calendars, task scheduling and assignment, etc.? So far as I can tell in my office, Outlook is the "killer app." Word processing, meh, Open Office does just about everything. But the outlook integration between team memebers is HUGE. |
Evolution. |
Woot! I'm on a mission to convince my law partnership to ditch Windows on the Secretaries' workstations for Linux. The fucking secretaries pull in so much fucking spyware and other bullshit that its just sick. We'll see how it goes. There's a time entry software program and some other stuff that will make it tough, but I'm thinking its possible. |
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Well, I'm trying to take the LiveDVD route with this laptop, as I just downloaded an .iso of the Knoppix LiveDVD. Problem is, the sucker won't burn! I'm trying to use a DVD+/-RW burner, using DVD+RW media, on a Sony VAIO VGN-N130G laptop. Are there any Vaio guys out there that can give me some pointers? I feel like a NOOB, and I built my first Heathkit computer in 1983! Way back in the days of using a tape recorder for your media, a whoppin' 64K of memory, and a screamin' 300 baud modem that you wrapped around the phone handset! 
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