Linux Played a Vital Role In Discovery of Higgs Boson 299
An anonymous reader writes "Scientific Linux and Ubuntu had a vital role in the discovery of the new boson at CERN. Linux systems are used every day in their analysis, together with hosts of open software, such as ROOT. Linux plays a major role in the running of their networks of computers (in the grid etc.) and it is used for the intensive work in their calculations."
Re:The Only Newsworthy Item (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows is also as 'broken' as Linux or Apple to the Average Joe. *Most* people are too frightened to install software themselves and get their friends and family to do it - even on Windows. Now some people (especially the young) do take up the challenge and install stuff by themselves - and it turns out that apt-get/synaptic etc are actually *easier* to use than finding and installing the right Installshield/NSS program (or even Apple dmg) since in the latter you have to read all sort of crap and select all sorts of options to get it installed. On Linux the software is installed easily with a common configuration, only customizing the configuration requires any thought.
Linux works just as well as Windows or Apple provided you get a technical minded person to maintain it for you. If it wasn't for the techie Slashdotters looking after Windows machines then most people could not maintain access to a working computer. Therefore your argument that Linux is broken is really incorrect - what you ought to be arguing about is the degree of difficulty of (IYHO) 'broken' Linux vs 'broken' Windows vs 'broken' Mac.