Linux

janis · Post by **janis** » 22 Jul 2006 00:12

Today I installed linux

It's so much better than windoze, I'd highly recommend it.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 22 Jul 2006 08:27

<< Has Linux.

What version do you have? I have Ubuntu Breezy Badger,

And yeah... it's sooooo much better than windows.

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 22 Jul 2006 13:13

I've been running Gentoo for the last 4 years and ran Debian for quite awhile before that.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 22 Jul 2006 16:12

My dad runs gentoo.

It seem to run slower than Breezy...

I think he runs Dapper now.

Pengu · Post by **Pengu** » 23 Jul 2006 20:39

I've been running slackware for 10 years. Who needs dependency checks? I was a debian user for all of a week before I went back to slackware. After seeing it through so many kernel upgrades, I can attest that slackware is stable as a rock. Almost more stable than my mac.

Good choice on the switch. Which distro are you using janis?

janis · Post by **janis** » 23 Jul 2006 23:19

I'm using Ubuntu at the moment

Not sure how stable it is but that will soon become apparent, it's amazing to see how far linux has come in the last 10 years

NotHisRealName · Post by **NotHisRealName** » 23 Jul 2006 23:24

How compatible is it with most other programs?
Can you do away with Windows altogether and just use Linux?

janis · Post by **janis** » 23 Jul 2006 23:31

I'm currently dual booting(running both linux+windows) but there are addons which allow you to run both macintosh and windows programs. But sooner or later you could probably just do away with window$

Post by **Zac Miley** » 24 Jul 2006 11:56

Ubuntu has only a handful of games that are compatable with it.

So if you're a gamer, either dual boot, or just don't get Linux.

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 24 Jul 2006 19:34

I think getting Linux and doing away with the games is the optimal solution ;-]

janis · Post by **janis** » 24 Jul 2006 19:44

Indeed, but you can use Cedega if you still want to play windows games

jon · Post by **jon** » 24 Jul 2006 20:09

I would like to hear some responses from long time linux user about why they are so fond of it.

(Aside from reasons like using as a developement plateform or a server.
I would also like people to leave out issues like stability as in my opinion xp is stable)

Also why linux and not BSD?

Looking forward to the replies.

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 24 Jul 2006 20:52

Well, putting aside the fact that I do a lot of development, there are a number of reasons why I feel it'd be painful for me to try to use Windows.

--Complete lack of a decent command-line interface. Sometimes, there are things that are much easier and more natural to do from the command line. There are few things far more useful than being able to SSH into my computer from wherever I am.

--All of the software I want to use runs in Linux. In addition, things like LaTeX are just more clumsy to work with in Windows.

--I'm going to bring up stability even though you mentioned not to. I feel confident that I could leave my desktop on for months at a time and not have to worry about it needing a restart. I don't think I've ever known an XP machine like that (although it could be due to small sample size).

--I don't have the energy to deal with the whole spyware / anti-virus stuff you need to do in Windows. I spent a few hours hardening my machine at the beginning and that has been enough.

--I also think there is something to be said for the Free (Libre) software ethos.

--Why Linux and not BSD? For me, it was Gentoo's package management support in addition to (Linux's) overall better hardware support. Gentoo made it easy for me to run the software I needed to. For example, I was able to install NCBI's BLAST software with a single command.

To sum things up, the main reason why I'm so fond of Linux is that it lets me do what I want to do with a minimal amount of resistance.

janis · Post by **janis** » 25 Jul 2006 00:39

wolfpac444 wrote: --Complete lack of a decent command-line interface. Sometimes, there are things that are much easier and more natural to do from the command line. There are few things far more useful than being able to SSH into my computer from wherever I am.

Yeah, this is a great point, if you are a programmer a command line is really helpful/powerful tool.

wolfpac444 wrote: --I don't have the energy to deal with the whole spyware / anti-virus stuff you need to do in Windows. I spent a few hours hardening my machine at the beginning and that has been enough.
.

How did you go about doing this?

Texta · Post by **Texta** » 25 Jul 2006 22:19

I've got Ubuntu (frapper, x64 version), but I haven't installed it yet. <_<

JoFa · Post by **JoFa** » 25 Jul 2006 23:22

If I wasn't fortunate enough to have a Mac, I would be running Linux. Windows makes me puke.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 26 Jul 2006 11:14

janis wrote:Indeed, but you can use Cedega if you still want to play windows games

Cedega doesn't work for all games.

In some cases, the game will play, but the graphics/sound will be screwed up.

kyle · Post by **kyle** » 01 Aug 2006 17:14

My grandpa has been a huge computer geek since their invention and currently he's hooked on linix. I'm also into computers - I build my own pc's, make my own programs, and mod the games that I want. Years ago I used to run windows millennium - the worst os know to man. I suffered constant freezes and crashes which occasionally lead to a reformat, until one week I got bombarded and said enough was enough. I installed windows xp and I haven't had any of the above problems for the last two years. Overall I'm very happy with windows xp.

A few months ago my grandpa gave me a laptop so I decided to try suse linix on it. At first I was really impressed with linix, it was a lot like windows - only free. Unlike windows, linix came with all of the basic programs already installed.

But after a while I realized that linix was a major downgrade for me. I had to forget about all those lovely win specific programs. There are win/lin conversion programs but often times they would launch a program only to run it unstably. So I had to find and download a ton of win counterpart programs for linix. Not to mention that many nitch win programs lack a lin counterpart.

Switching from windows to linix is like reformatting your hard drive and re-installing everything from scratch. Basically, if you already have windows xp and your happy with it; then there are more reasons not to switch, than to switch. However, if you don't like xp then by all means give linix a try. You can co-install it with windows on the same hard drive and after all, it’s free.

janis · Post by **janis** » 02 Aug 2006 03:09

Isilwar wrote:
janis wrote:Indeed, but you can use Cedega if you still want to play windows games
Cedega doesn't work for all games.

In some cases, the game will play, but the graphics/sound will be screwed up.

could that be due to a lack of hardware graphics + sound support?
I've seen newish games run fine when hardware graphics is available.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 02 Aug 2006 10:04

Yeah, probably.

Stupid feeling time.

BUT - I know for a fact that some games just are not compatible with Linux, even with Cedega/Wine. Like Guild Wars...

There's actually a petition for it to be put on Linux. You guys should all sign it.