Linux & Windows

[Defiant]

Right I've given Linux a try on my system in the past (Mandrake 9.2) and well it wasn't my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong the installation was a piece of p#ss. Everything worked including the internet straight. The thing that put me right off was most of my apps don't come in Linux format and I love to play a good game now and again.

So what I'm getting at or trying to find out is why do people use Linux at home. Again I'm not being funny here I really would like to hear your side. If you were a salesmen and had to talk a windows user around to Linux what would your sale's pitch be ?

[Bifta]

"You look like a geek, here, have a bang on this"

[Steve H]

Originally Posted by Bifta

"You look like a geek, here, have a bang on this"

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Bifta

"You look like a geek, here, have a bang on this"

That pretty much sums it up

I've tried Linux, and other than using it on an ancient worthless PC to turn it into a firewall/router/web/file server I couldn't find any desktop benifit over Windows.

[cjmillsnun]

I'm not going into sales pitch.

I'll just tell you how I got into Linux.

When I was a student, couldn't afford Microsoft products and looked on the net for cheap software.

I found this "free operating system" (Slackware) and decided to give it a go. I've been hooked ever since.

It proved useful to me at Uni as I was learning Unix at the time, so could practice at home.

BTW Linux isn't really geeky now and generally comes with enough apps to make it useful out of the box. (eg openoffice.org). With WineX you are able to play a large number of games.

[Steve H]

Originally Posted by cjmillsnun

I'm not going into sales pitch.

I'll just tell you how I got into Linux.

When I was a student, couldn't afford Microsoft products and looked on the net for cheap software.

I found this "free operating system" (Slackware) and decided to give it a go. I've been hooked ever since.

It proved useful to me at Uni as I was learning Unix at the time, so could practice at home.

BTW Linux isn't really geeky now and generally comes with enough apps to make it useful out of the box. (eg openoffice.org). With WineX you are able to play a large number of games.

So, there sales pitch should be "It's free"?

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by Bifta

"You look like a geek, here, have a bang on this"

because I keep up with the times and into IT I'm a geek

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by cjmillsnun

I'm not going into sales pitch.

I'll just tell you how I got into Linux.

When I was a student, couldn't afford Microsoft products and looked on the net for cheap software.

I found this "free operating system" (Slackware) and decided to give it a go. I've been hooked ever since.

It proved useful to me at Uni as I was learning Unix at the time, so could practice at home.

BTW Linux isn't really geeky now and generally comes with enough apps to make it useful out of the box. (eg openoffice.org). With WineX you are able to play a large number of games.

But compared to your average consumer who is bred on windows, you still need an element of geekiness to persist with it, usability is not handed to you on a plate with any worthwhile distro. Agreed, once you get into it it's probably fairly easy to use, but Windows is so much easier and that's what consumers want, I have customers who are intimidated by the amount of buttons on your average mouse, Linux would give them nightmares.

I haven't used anything other than Windows since Mandrake 8, but for me, the ability to install software without opening a console, typing su root, make, make install, configure, (probably all arse about tit) only to be given some obscure error that would fluster Albert Einstein, outweighs my curiousity towards trying any newer versions.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Defiant

because I keep up with the times and into IT I'm a geek

To the rest of the population who don't, quite probably, I don't think there's any stigma attached to the word. I'd rather be called that than a nerd.

[Defiant]

Well here's another thing. If Linux users are so happy to be without Windows (I've heard this many times) why do they use things like this ?

http://images.mandrakesoft.com/img/scr/helium5.jpg

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Steve H

So, there sales pitch should be "It's free"?

So's most microsoft software at university

Oh and geeks were the ones at travelling fairs who'd bite the heads off chickens

One simple reason to get into Linux (and Unix for that matter), is that some companies do use them, and pay good money for IT staff who can comer these OS's.

At the moment in Belfast there is a company willing to pay £25,000 - £30,000 pa for Linux/Unix Engineers.

Considering I been thinking of heading in that direction anyway, I think once I've finished my CCNA I'll look into a barebones machine and Linux/Unix.

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by cjmillsnun

..snip...

That's pretty much the reason why I got into using it (Slack for me too )

I'm just coming to the end of a Computer Science degree now, when I started I had win98 installed on my machine. One of the first things that we were taught was the use of Unix and a lot of software tools like make, perl, cvs etc that just aren't really used on windows machines. So that I could practice using those at home I installed a copy of Mandrake 8.1. Believe it or not, I actually bemoaned the lack of easy to use tools so I spent most of my time in windows.

Gradually though, as I learnt more I found that I just couldn't do a lot of the things I wanted in windows, so I searched around for a good distribution and eventually settled on Slackware which offered the best stability and compatibility with my hardware. I've now got a system that is perfectly customised to my needs with some powerful IDEs for Java and C++ programming, OpenOffice for writing up documents, Firefox for web browsing and so on. If I'd stuck with windows, I think my productivity would have dropped considerably. For instance, I'm now doing a piece of C++ coursework, that needs to compile with GCC. Using Linux, I have direct access to gcc so I know that it will compile whereas those who use windows at home for the coursework keep finding errors when they transfer it across to the schools unix machines.

Another great benefit is that I can ssh into the schools machines, and with X port forwarding on, I can use those machines as if I were sitting in the lab. Also, I have a user accont on my machine set up for my g/f. She can do everything she wants like browsing and sending e-mails, she's happy because her KDE system looks pretty and I don't have to worry about her overwriting the wrong files and killing the system.

I wouldn't try to sell Linux to your average Joe punter, but if people that I know are savvy enough to use it and are moaning about certain things in their windows systems, I will point them in the direction of Linux. As for why do people use things like VMware, well sometimes there's just no alternative, and really they are good things. By running both OS's simultaneously, you get maximum compatibility and the best of both worlds...who can argue against that?

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

At the moment in Belfast there is a company willing to pay £25,000 - £30,000 pa for Linux/Unix Engineers.

I'll be looking for a job in the next few months, don't fancy belfast though

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by philip.j.fry

As for why do people use things like VMware, well sometimes there's just no alternative, and really they are good things. By running both OS's simultaneously, you get maximum compatibility and the best of both worlds...who can argue against that?

A good argument for a linux user yes but not for a windows user. Unless you know something Linux can do that windows can't ?