OMGUbuntu: 'Why Use Linux?' Answered in 3 Short Words (omgubuntu.co.uk) 269
Linux-focused blog OMGUbuntu's Joey-Elijah Sneddon shared a post today in which he is trying to explain why people should Linux. He stumbled upon the question when he typed "Why use" and Google suggested Linux as one of the most frequent questions. From the article: The question posed is not one that I sincerely ask myself very often. The answer has, over the years, become complicated. It's grown into a bloated ball of elastic bands, each reason stretched around and now reliant on another. But I wanted to answer. Helpfully, my brain began to spit out all the predictable nouns: "Why use Linux? Because of security! Because of control! Because of privacy, community, and a general sense of purpose! Because it's fast! Because it's virus free! Because I'm dang-well used to it now! Because, heck, I can shape it to look like pretty much anything I want it to using themes and widgets and CSS and extensions and blingy little desktop trinkets!"
Because Windows Sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Nuff said.
Re:Because Windows Sucks (Score:5, Funny)
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It was. Beginning in Feb., the updates made it unstable and caused application to not open. I had to remove the updates and disable updating, so security took a hit.
I ended up removing Windows 7 from my desktop and laptop and installing Linux Mint 18, Cinnamon edition on them. I haven't regretted it one second.
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Ahhhh yes. FUD.
It is a fact that Microsoft has been pushing shit updates to Windows 7 for a while now. I haven't looked at updates in the last week or so, but there was a while there where they were stuffing their spyware (aka "CEIP" and "telemetry") into updates left and right, including a couple of so-called security updates. Some of their updates did in fact break software. This information is all readily available if you search for things like "which windows 7 updates do I need to avoid".
Since the rate of updates has
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No. Vendor. Lockin. (Score:5, Insightful)
No. Vendor. Lockin.
Re:No. Vendor. Lockin. (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure, but we're now replacing that with ecosystem lockin on the Linux side. Thanks, systemd.
Linux was a free-as-in-speech, *and* free-as-in-beer version of Unix... The Windows devs who've invaded seem to want to bring lockin back by standardizing the Vendor layer across their own userland middleware, and FreeDesktop locked we shall be.
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Well, try running a kernel or bootloader not signed by Microsoft on new Restricted^WSecure Boot systems. The requirement for the user's ability to disable Restricted Boot on x86 has recently mysteriously disappeared, wanna guess what's coming next?
Another thing: Windows bootloaders are signed with a key named "Microsoft Windows Production PCA". There's a different signing key, "Microsoft Corporation UEFI CA" that OEMs merely "should consider" including. Guess which one keys of distributions who begged to
Which PC form factors have Restricted Boot? (Score:2)
The workaround for Restricted Boot, which I define as UEFI Secure Boot that a PC's owner cannot reconfigure, is to buy a different make and model PC without Restricted Boot. But that fails if all close substitutes also have Restricted Boot. So which PC form factors are more likely to have Restricted Boot? Is it mostly, say, laptops smaller than 12 inches or with a detachable keyboard?
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And once you boot one of such kernels in Secure Boot mode, you can't insert unsigned modules, kexec unsigned kernels or access (even as root) a number of facilities that could let you gain control over your own machine.
Number of people who give a crap about that: you.
Re:Because Windows Sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows may suck, but they own the hardware driver market, and they still have significant software applications that are Windows only.
You can "get by" in Linux by picking and choosing your hardware to be supported, you can "get by" with open equivalent software, sometimes. Then there's games...
For basic web browsing, document writing, and other daily use tasks, I agree, Linux is better. Taken in the big picture, No... even though Windows sucks as an OS, it still provides access to a wider universe of valuable things.
Re:Because Windows Sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
>Windows may suck, but they own the hardware driver market,
Linux supports more hardware than Windows supports at one time. Linux even supports that pre-XP scanner that you had to throw out because Microsoft changed the driver model and the manufacturer said "well, the customers will just have to buy new ones."
>driver installation on linux vs windows
It's laughably easier on Linux. Indeed, there aren't these "driver disks" or ridiculously large "driver packs" with bloatware, Flash, Adobe Reader, and Ask toolbars and other totally unrelated junk.
>no games
Funny, Steam has plenty of games.
>but my (obscure game)
Ah, the last refuge of the Windows shill - windows is a game launcher.
>wider universe of valuable things
I find that the software available from the repos is surprisingly good /and/ is not laden with "appeal to the lowest denominator" graphics nonsense (virus scanners on Windows with animations to demonstrate to the user that it's "doing something" as a particularly egregious example). This nonsense is rife throughout the "windows universe of valuable things."
>daily use tasks Linux is better
Indeed. And less common tasks too.
--
BMO
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...I find that the software available from the repos is surprisingly good /and/ is not laden with "appeal to the lowest denominator" graphics nonsense (virus scanners on Windows with animations to demonstrate to the user that it's "doing something" as a particularly egregious example). This nonsense is rife throughout the "windows universe of valuable things."
This, exactly. Just today I was doing some work for my old boss and had to use an old Windows laptop. I kept being interrupted by Norton telling me what a wonderful job it was doing, and Windows asking me if I wanted to disable some IE6 plugins to speed things up - and I wasn't even using IE at the time. It was such an annoying, distracting clownshow, reminiscent of a young child starved for attention and saying 'look at me!'. I've been spoiled by Linux - it (mostly) does what I want, it stays out of the wa
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And I agree- especially with my Win10 boxes recently re-installing Windows Store launchers to my taskbar, reactivating Cortana, and turning "helpful tips" back on - GTFO! But, again, these OS failures don't diminish the ecosystem. The Linux ecosystem is growing, and getting more an more useable as a professional platform (yes, it always was used in _some_ professions, but I'm talking more about the mainstream than the cherry-picked examples).
Lots of forces keep Windows in-play, many of them unsavory, but
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The Linux ecosystem (or more exactly, open source) is a black hole that eats voraciously and has become so big that Windows is just including it as a subsystem. They can't block or ignore it any more. The more software is contributed in open source, the more powerful attraction it has.
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>but my (obscure game)
Ah, the last refuge of the Windows shill - windows is a game launcher.
Hey, I play pretty much exclusively obscure games and I resent that.
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Linux supports more hardware than Windows supports at one time. Linux even supports that pre-XP scanner that you had to throw out because Microsoft changed the driver model and the manufacturer said "well, the customers will just have to buy new ones."
While true, it's just not very useful. What is more valuable to the average user, good support for the latest GPUs or version of the software package they use heavily, or support for a 1990s era scanner that can be replaced with a much better one at minimal cost?
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No workable Linux drivers for my RME Fireface audio interface
Your what?? You'd better stick with Windows then. Have a nice day.
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I don't have very special needs and gaming is about the only thing tying me to Windows. I could buy a console but I think that PC gaming is better, also I don't want to lose the investment I've made on PC games over the years.
That WAS true in 1998. Other way around now (Score:2)
1998 called and wants their argument back. The driver thing WAS true in 1998.
Pick any version of Windows from the last 6 years and any enterprise Linux and you'll find the Linux supports more hardware, and more often does so out of the box, with no driver disk/download.
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Photoshop, Autocad, Outlook - depends on your industry, and yes, there's Gimp, LamerCad, and any number of office replacements, but those really aren't cutting it in the larger corporations - the ones with deep pockets who pay for software...
Are people really fed up with Xbox? (Score:2)
The average person the street gave up on all the windows drama and just got a Xbox or Playstation [...] People are fed up with microsoft
If "[p]eople are fed up with [M]icrosoft", then why did they buy an Xbox 360 instead of a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox One instead of a PlayStation 4?
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buy a playstation and a cheap Linux boxen, no fancy hardware needed, except a good CPU and lots of ram [...] Hook those two units up to a switch able input display
You appear to recommend a PlayStation 4 game console as a substitute for a gaming GPU and Windows license on a desktop PC. So where does that leave laptop users? Does the PlayStation Vita have a good selection of games?
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Easy, you no longer use you laptop to play games. Besides you either use a table for the laptop, hence the playstation is not a problem or end up with slowly baked smelly neither regions ;). Personally I just want a well behaved operating system, that is not too intrusive and minds my own business and works to keep it that way and it seems M$ is completely and totally incapable of supplying that. So either some inconvenience or take the probe, I'll go with the inconvenience and your choice is the same, the
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The new Skyrim ads look pretty impressive. So do the Blizzard titles.
The situation is improving. 40 years ago, Atari 2600 was the AAA games environment....
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Re: Because Windows Sucks (Score:3, Informative)
And yet the majority of web servers run Linux... I'm not sure how that's security by obscurity...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Public_servers_on_the_Internet
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Re:Because Windows Sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux is a major server OS (arguably the largest), very big in embedded systems, and completely dominant on smartphones. Hackers are spending very significant time working to find exploits.
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Not really.
Security through obscurity is not security.
Nothing is security; security is a process that results from multiple aspects and layers of application.
Security through obscurity alone is not security. Obscurity, either in the hidden sense or in the rare sense, is one layer of security.
CUPS supports PostScript (Score:2)
I thought both macOS and X11/Linux used CUPS for printing, and CUPS supported all PostScript printers, and laser printers were more likely to support PostScript. In addition, HP explicitly supports CUPS on Linux through HPLIP. Or are 11x17 color lasers the exception? Or what else am I missing?
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I recently purchased an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fn from my local office supply store.
I was expecting a fight to install the drivers and configure it. A really quick google search suggested to install hplip. I typed 'emerge hplip' (I use Funtoo [funtoo.org]) on the cli and it installed. I ran hp-setup and selected Network Printer and it auto discovered, and auto set it up.
On Windows I would have had to find the install disk, or go to the HP site and download a 500MB package just to install a printer driver. I don't actua
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If an HP printer is connected, the openSUSE installer detects it and installs hplip without even needing to be told to do so.
This has been the case (for me, at least) for at least the last 5 years.
I use linux because (Score:5, Insightful)
* it has bash plus coreutils and all the other command line toolset
* its software is free as in beer (this is what made me try out linux)
* its software is free as in software (this is what made me stay on linux for so long)
* all the things I do with computers can be done with it, and when there is a case I can't do it on linux, I can always fire up the windows VM (happens very very rarely)
* it has working package management. updating software is no nightmare. Windows has to force its customers to update it, because its a nightmare.
* most support issues are talked about and you find something you can instantly do not where you have to download this little exe then execute it (and god knows what it may contain). Maybe this will get worse if/when linux adoption reaches the non technical people, its very hard to find such things for android for example.
many other things I have forgotten, but I will surely miss when I have to use windows or mac.
Re:I use linux because (Score:4, Insightful)
* its software is free as in beer (this is what made me try out linux)
For almost all practical purposes so is Windows and you can get all the good Linux software on Windows and Mac too.
* its software is free as in software (this is what made me stay on linux for so long)
Like it or not, users in the vast majority don't care about that and it won't draw them to Linux. As far as the software is concerned that same free software like Blender, Gimp and LibreOffice are available on Windows and Mac too. No exclusivity to Linux.
* it has working package management. updating software is no nightmare. Windows has to force its customers to update it, because its a nightmare.
yep! But remember Windows has Chocolatey and Mac has Homebrew, this covers many of the free software options and for proprietary software you most often need to go through their updaters whether you're on Windows, Mac or Linux anyway.
It's great that it does what you need but you have to remember that above anything else a computer is a tool to run the programs a user needs and while Windows and Mac run pretty much anything Linux does the same cannot be said the other way around and most standard applications in industry support Windows & Mac but not Linux. It might be more secure and/or more stable and free of charge and open source but none of those things matter if it doesn't run the applications I need.
So it's a chicken and egg problem, if you want people to use it they need their applications to support it and to do that you need users. So what you need to offer is some disruptive innovation, some great feature that draws people to Linux, something so good that they would be willing to temporarily forgo the lack of applications and work through the kludge of dual-booting or VMs until their programs supported Linux as a first class citizen. But for the entire life of the hundreds of Linux desktop distributions none has ever offered the user such a feature(s).
Now you can pretend this isn't true, mod it down and fantasize about how desktop Linux is simple held back by a big conspiracy perpetrated by Microsoft and Apple but the fact is it has succeeded incredibly in pretty much all other markets including those in which Microsoft and Apple participate - and it dominates! Server? Dominates! Embedded? Dominates! Mobile? Dominates! Desktop? Utter failure!
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So what you need to offer is some disruptive innovation, some great feature that draws people to Linux, something so good that they would be willing to temporarily forgo the lack of applications
Although I'm a rabid Linux fan I have to say that your post made a lot of sense. But I'd add to the above, in view of Windows 10 integrated spyware, "Or Windows has to become so bad that people will be driven away."
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For someone that switched their business to linux, these are all excellent points. However, linux is missing and lacking critical commercial software which makes switching difficult. Cad software, PLC programming software, well, just have to run it in VMWare, which is nothing unusual, most people in this profession will run those things in VMware regardless of Windows or Linux. The licenses on these software is just too expensive to lose, VMWare helps a lot there.
Also, I've noticed employees having trouble
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Why the hell do all the linux PDF's viewers not have OCR?
Two guesses: Patents, and not enough ability and interest among corporate or volunteer contributors to produce a high-quality OCR engine as free software.
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Instead I do everything Windowsy inside a VM on top of Linux.
So instead of maintaining one operating sytem you maintain 2.
Win!
Seriously, getting a Windows box infected is tragically easy even with 3 virus scanners simultaneously installed. Sometimes you don't even have to do anything.
Your not wrong. But if regular windows users ran linux desktops in the hundreds of millions they'd get them full of crap too. And it would be drive by malware ads taking advantage of flaws in the browser, and ransomware there their user account etc. They'd disable the firewall to get quickbooks to connect. And sony would install a backdoor/rootkit at the factory as part of some horribly misguided attempt at providing remote firmware update man
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Windows is already shipping with lots of crap. Compare that to linux, where only very few parts are crap.
Re:I use linux because (Score:4, Insightful)
Windows is already shipping with lots of crap. Compare that to linux, where only very few parts are crap.
In large part because it's not mainstream. If it were mainstream then logitech and razer and your printer and adobe and so forth would tart the place up in no time...
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Maybe, maybe not. The reason you get all that bullshit on a Windows machine is because the OS ships with a barebones driver set. So, if you want the drivers for your hardware, you get to go to a vendor webpage (or use the CD) and download a 300MB installer. That installer is practically malware. And the more driver installers you run, the more malware you are adding to your system.
Contrast that to Linux. Normally, you plug something in and it works great. If it doesn't then you probably should have re
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Contrast that to Linux. Normally, you plug something in and it works great. If it doesn't then you probably should have researched your purchase better.
Because Linux isn't mainstream. If linux were mainstream all that crap that doesn't work great... well now there's a 300MB malware installer for it from the vender. And they'll be actively sabotaging the open source drivers by tweaking their devices just enough every hardware /software revision to break them so that the path of least resistance is the proprietary malware blob.
Linux is free from all that commercialism garbage because not enough people use it to attract them. As mac's have grown more popular.
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Again: Maybe, maybe not. One of the few drivers you might actually install on a Linux machine is the proprietary NVIDIA driver for your graphics card. It has been quite a few years since I've used that driver but, it never installed anything gnarly. Just the driver and a simple configuration tool. And these days you don't even need the proprietary driver unless you plan to run games. The clean room, open source driver works fine for normal desktop use. That open source driver, which is now a part of t
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nvidia's presence on linux is what it is because its not a mainstream OS.
Consider Nvidia's geforce experience software for windows, which now requires you to create an account to get the automatic driver updates.
If Linux were in Windows position in terms of Marketshare. Geforce experience **would** be a linux app. Its not a necessary app for Linux ... its not even a necessary app on Windows.
But it would be the same borderline malware it is in windows, if it existed for linux. The only reason it doesn't exis
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Well, I guess I'll trot it out a third time: "Maybe, maybe not". Part of the reason the situation has gotten so bad on Windows is because Windows has never really shipped with a meaningful driver set. So, it's normal for people to tart up their system with driver malware. Linux has basically always shipped with every driver it has supported and, in many, many cases the vendors of those devices have not written those drivers.
So, yes, I'll agree that vendors are going to want to install their malware on a
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You have to see it from the PC vendor's point of view.
First and most importantly, they want people to like their products and not call their tech support line. If they shipped a Linux OS which locked out third party drivers, they would get a high rate of support calls and returns. So they definitely won't do that.
Secondly, they want to make money. Margins are thin in the PC/laptop market, so they make some extra cash by bundling adware. Trial versions, links to paid services, that kind of crap. They also pr
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I actually had to download and install some drivers for the color laser printer I just bought (a Brother workgroup printer), because Linux Mint 17.3 didn't have that exact model listed. It's a pretty new printer so maybe that's why. Anyway, Brother had both RPM and .deb files, and the two packages together take up about 4.5MB installed. After I installed them, they "just worked" and I was able to use my printer no problem.
Linux is already mainstream enough that manufacturers are providing drivers for it.
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Normally, you plug something in and it works great. If it doesn't then you probably should have researched your purchase better.
How should someone inside Staples looking for a new laptop or a new peripheral "have researched your purchase better"? It's not like there's a penguin on the box. Not everybody wants to buy a laptop without first trying its screen and keyboard and end up stuck owning something ergonomically unacceptable, and same day delivery from a web shop is often cost prohibitive.
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How should someone inside Staples looking for a new laptop or a new peripheral "have researched your purchase better"?
Most people seem to have cellular internet access nowadays.
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Not necessarily.
Some VMs simply update with the rest of the host OS software applications and the win version & SP environment variables are a selectable variable within the VM application. The various virtual OS flavors in this type of VM typically do not update themselves independently.
Strat
Anything kernel-mode needs an EV certificate (Score:2)
What can't be done with Regedit can be done with a custom app that I can build myself.
Unless it requires something at the driver level. Windows 10 64-bit can no longer normally run drivers developed by individuals. Instead, it requires drivers to have been digitally signed with an EV certificate, and I'm told EV certificates are available only to established corporations and LLCs.
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Windows has a GUI that does everything,
No it doesn't. You obviously never do anything more advanced.
Clickbait (Score:3, Informative)
2016 (Score:2, Informative)
2016 and if I upgrade my kernel to 4.7, no wifi...again. Fucking Linux still sucks.
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Or maybe it's 2016, you're fiddling with stuff you don't completely understand and forgot to put the wifi firmware in place for the new kernel...
Re:2016 (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: 2016 (Score:2, Insightful)
Using kernel.org kernels directly instead of the distribution supplied one is bleeding edge and is not something that you should do unless you know how to fix problems like the one gp encountered.
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Using kernel.org kernels directly instead of the distribution supplied one is bleeding edge and is not something that you should do unless you know how to fix problems like the one gp encountered.
Exactly. And, especially in the case of wifi, you might need to update the driver firmware to match the new driver version. It's not at all surprising that a wifi driver stopped working after pulling kernel source and building it yourself. It's not the fault of the kernel or distros, it's that wifi vendors normally ship firmware and someone unaware that a new kernel might need new firmware may blame the kernel on their own ignorance.
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I got one of those Belkin wifi cards that are USB powered and plug into the ethernet port.
Then you occupy two USB ports, one for the Ethernet adapter (which many laptops omit nowadays) and one for the USB-powered WLAN adapter. And you still need a driver for the Ethernet adapter.
Because Unity rules! (Score:2)
Why use Linux? (Score:5, Funny)
So that your nerdy friend will stop bugging you to use a *real* operating system, and start bugging you to read the fine manual! :D
Three words? (Score:5, Informative)
It's not spyware.
It's not Microsoft.
It respects you.
It's your computer!
Try it today!
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It doesn't easily run the games I want to play.
Finding new friends with whom to game on Linux (Score:2)
Forgive the "jumping off a cliff argument", but if all my friends are playing games not ported to X11/Linux, how should I go about finding new friends with whom to play X11/Linux-compatible games online?
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If I switched to Linux today, and refused to buy games that won't run on it..... ....I won't get to play those games. ...... The last thing I am going to do is build my life around duties imposed by some random person on the Internet.
When you got to "some random person on the internet" I immediately thought of Satya Nadella. I guess you did not mean me to think him or similar control freaks cases in the mould of Cook, Gates, Balmer and Jobs. However I am not sure what person or "duties" you are referring to.
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Burma Shave.
--
BMO
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But it's not virus or malware free. And has bugs that go years without being fixed.
That's worse than Windows, how, exactly?
For the Lulz (Score:2)
Use FreeBSD Instead (Score:4, Informative)
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"Good enough" was coined by Bill Gates back in the eighties. Windows sucked then and it sucks now. But perhaps your definition of good enough differs from mine.
Because PRISM (Score:3)
"National Security Agency"
"Secret Intelligence Service"
Who wants code by private sector teams that allowed 5 eye nations to get all the plain text for years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Are the three words... (Score:5, Funny)
... "I love systemd"? I bet that's what they are.
Been using Linux since 1.something, and Really? (Score:2)
Why use Linux? Because of security! Because of control! Because of privacy, community, and a general sense of purpose! Because it’s fast! Because it’s virus free! Because i’m dang-well used to it now! Because, heck, I can shape it to look like pretty much anything I want it to using themes and widgets and CSS and extensions and blingy little desktop trinkets!
Security - unless you screw up one of a million subtle things. Control? Not only does it allow you control, it _requires_ that you understand how to control every damned thing (90% of the time it just works, then the other time everything is broken). Fast? Unless you configure something wrong. Virus free? Granted. Can make it look any way you want to? Well, yes and no - you can make it look many different ways, but you end up swearing at whoever forbade the particular combination you actually wanted
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There's a simple and obvious fix for that: don't use GNOME. Most of the other DEs I've experimented with respect your decisions about how you want your desktop to look and don't reset everything to their ideas of perfection with every upgrade.
I use Linux because... (Score:2)
... it's an efficient server platform and offers a *nix environment with an easy-to-grok underpinning that a human can eventually understand, until systemd entendrils itself everywhere because non-determinism is cool now.
Ohhhh... You mean "Why do I use Linux on the Desktop?"
I don't. I use a Mac laptop and a Win10 PC desktop. I want to get work done and/or play games, not fiddle with crap.
OSX is better for laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
I have been a hard-core LInux user for over 15 years, running it on desktops, laptops, everything, completely eschewing the WIndows ecosystem (except for some occasional Wine use). Then I moved to an employer that is 100% OSX based. Running Linux on a bare metal Macbook was not an option due to the necessity of running security software mandated by their compliance department (along with a security token for MFA that doesn't work with Linux).
So I switched to OSX and run Linux in a VM, ssh'ing to it as needed.
I was reluctant to make the switch at first, but now am quite happy with OSX as my main OS -- everything works, the laptop sleeps and wakes up as it should, the integrated touchpad and camera work flawlessly, it switches from a single monitor to my double desktop monitors without a problem, then switches back to the laptop display when I unplug. Presentation mode works well when I plug in the projector.
While running running Linux on my thinkpad, I've experienced lots of problems -- sometimes the laptop would fail to suspend -- I'd pull it out of my backpack and it'd be hot with a nearly dead battery after continuing to run while the lid was closed, sometimes it would fail to wake up and I'd have to power cycle it. Sound was a recurring problem, I'd have to restart the sound daemon at least once a week, and plugging in an external monitor was always an exercise in finding out where my windows scattered to and hoping that it found the right resolution for my monitor.
On the server side, I'm a big fan of Linux, but on the desktop, I'm become a fan of OSX.
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And then there are the MS Office applicati
3 Words for Linux (Score:2)
I'm a fan (Score:2)
and now a haiku.
Linux is better,
Microsoft ruined Windows,
Liberated user!
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Damnit, I can't even haiku right
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Change the last line to something like "User is now free" or "Free all the users", and you're golden.
Dear Microsoft (Score:2)
Spying on your users is bad. You really should not be spying on your users. Yeah, I can turn the spying off. But you turning it back on everytime I get an "update"? Fuck you.
Remind me
linux is set to conquer the desktop (Score:2)
for all those who need "themes and widgets and CSS and extensions and blingy little desktop trinkets".
for those that need excel. not so much...
I use Linux because (Score:2)
1. It suits me
2. Tux is cute
3. Microsoft Windows Sucks
4. Macs cost loads
5. Tux is cute
The main reason (Score:2)
The main reason for using Linux is security; and control! The two main reasons are security and control; and privacy! The three main reasons ... no, amongst the reasons are such items as ...
Sorry to any Monty Python fans...
Here we go again (Score:2)
You don't 'use' OS; you use whatever software you need to do whatever you do.
If a Linux distro does it for you, great - it's cheaper and often easier to keep operating acceptably than Windows.
If it doesn't, well, tough luck.
To this day, it mostly doesn't.
Workspaces. Workspaces. Workspaces. (Score:2)
Invented on Linux's crappy UI and still the most awsome and useful UI paradigm invented since the UI. The only problem with it is it has been dumbed down since 2009 for no reason I can tell other than to make it easier for Windows, then finally Mac users to use.
I know people who start using Linux see the default Linux UI experience as not much. But it used to be a lot more configurable. I liked customizing my own UI experience because I wasn't building a comptuer for everyone else, I was building it for m
Four words (Score:3)
"because it's better" are four words.
Re: Horrible Advice (Score:2)
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You have a very narrow definition of phishing, it commonly includes sending people files pretending to be a trusted source.
So? Such files are generally malware that will only run on Windows.
How accessible was Win32 in Windows RT (Score:2)
And as long as Win32 exists, so does non-UWP development.
Not if the executable loader offers no access to the underlying Win32 subsystem to apps that aren't first-party. That's what happened with Windows RT. If Windows RT allowed Win32 access, developers could flip the switch in Visual Studio from Win32/x86 to Win32/ARM, recompile, and ship. But instead, Microsoft chose to lock down access to Win32 in Windows RT and allow only what are now called UWP apps.
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone who can use a GUI can use a terminal. Many people don't want to because it is not sexy (I understand them) but it is actually more straightforward than a GUI. Think of it as giving orders to your computer.
Anyway, now, most Linux distributions can be used without a terminal, just like Windows and OSX. The terminal is still there for power users, but then again, just like Windows and OSX.
I still think that Linux on the desktop has many shortcomings but the terminal is not one of them.
Re:Why not use Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
You haven't worked with normal users much, have you? It can be a shock how little most people understand their computers and how they work. They simply memorize the actions needed to accomplish specific tasks, and that's good enough for them. The big blue E icon on their desktop means "the internet", until it drives someone they know who's a bit more knowledgeable insane, and they replace it with a Fox or round primary icon, and then THAT becomes "the internet" for them.
I'll put it bluntly. No, normal users should stay away from the terminal, nor should they *need* to use it for daily operations. If they're interested in learning how to work at a command prompt, that just means they're probably on the verge of becoming a power user. That's not a bad thing, of course, but it's not what most people want to spend their time doing.
Figuring out how to use a terminal requires a non-trivial learning curve. That's because there's no intuitive method of command / feature discovery, unlike with a menu, toolbars with tooltips, and dialog boxes that show you all the options in a visual, hierarchical format. There's a reason GUIs are ubiquitous in nearly all computing platforms today, with the possible exception of headless servers, embedded systems, and other specialized systems.
I'm a programmer, so yes, I'm comfortable with various shells, but I think some people seem to overly fetishize it, like it's a badge of their geekdom or a symbol of their arcane power over a computer. The command line is just power and flexibility at the expense of user friendliness. Once learned, it's a very handy tool in your arsenal, and can be more efficient for some type of operations. Don't pretend it's anything but that, or you're just fooling yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, since the command line interpreter on Windows was so unimportant that Microsoft wrote a completely new one (PowerShell).
>get rid of Terminal
Get rid of yourself.
--
BMO
Re: (Score:2)
Because of the Terminal.....You want Linux to become more mainstream? Get rid of the Terminal
You do know that Windows has a terminal? And Windows power users use it.
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously? When have you ever asked Siri a question and gotten the right answer *the first time*? I'd wager 80% of those questions are repeats because Siri kept fucking up. That seems to be its failure rate for me, anyway, especially when I'm trying to dictate messages while driv
Re: (Score:3)
i'm stuck with windows because it'd be far too much work having to reboot any time i want to just play a game if i dual booted.
Have two computers. With so many people replacing their desktops with tablets you can buy a very good used desktop PC for peanuts (I have four). Use one just for Windows games and be ready to re-install when it gets malware. Keep your serious work, web surfing and data on a different PC under Linux.