We tell people we use Linux because it’s secure. Or because it’s free, because it’s customizable, because it’s free (the other meaning), because it has excellent community support…
But all of that is just marketing bullshit. We tell that to non-Linuxers because they wouldn’t understand the real reason. And when we say those false reasons enough, we might even start to believe them ourselves.
But deep underneath, the real reason remains.
We use Linux because it’s fun!
It’s fun to tinker with your system. It’s fun to change all the settings, break the system, then have to go to recovery mode to repair it. It’s fun to have over a hundred distros to choose from. It’s fun to use the command line.
Let me say that again. It’s fun to use the command line.
No wonder non-Linuxers wouldn’t understand.
The point with us Linux fans is - we use Linux for its own sake. Sure, we like to get work done. Sure, we like to be secure from viruses. Sure, we like to save money. But those are only the side-effects. What we really like is playing with the system, poking around, and discovering completely pointless yet fascinating facts about the OS.
There are three main reasons Linux is so much fun:
1. Linux gives you complete control
Ever tried stopping a process in Windows and the OS wouldn’t let you? Ever tried deleting a file - and you couldn’t? Even though you had admin rights?
Linux lets you do anything. That’s the great benefit of usually logging in as user. If you login as the root, the OS assumes you know what you’re doing. Once you become root, everything is allowed.
2. Linux isn’t widely used
This is a paradox. We often complain Linux isn’t more widely used. But that’s one of the reasons we use it. It gives us a feeling of being a special clique. Like we’re better than “those ignorant masses”.
If Linux becomes widely used, we’ll probably switch to something else. Or at least develop an obscure distro that only we will use. Because, let’s face it, we want to feel special.
3. Linux is free (as-in-speech)
We can get the source code for all our applications. If we want to know how a certain part of the OS works, we can. This lets us tweak and play with our systems. And we absolutely loo-o-o-ve tweaking our system.
Of course we can’t tell non-Linuxers we use Linux because it’s fun - they’d stick us into a mental asylum quicker than you can say “antidisestablishmentarianism”. So we’ll keep telling them the false yet plausible reasons for using Linux. But deep inside, we’ll know the real reason we use Linux.
And maybe, just maybe, next time someone asks me why I use Linux, I’ll flash a huge smile and answer: “Because using Linux is FUN!”
That holds so true for me
An other thing is, that once you get used to the linux-way, doing something under windows feels like pain.
Nice article
cheers
Gecko
So true for myself, too, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying that’s the case for all of the linux users.
What’s the best thing about Linux distros like Ubuntu is the fact that some people develop the software and OS components for others. It’s not so much about the fact that the consumer, doesn’t have to pay, rather I see it as the developers don’t want or need to get paid for their work. It’s a form of modern charity I am happy to experience.
And besides, there ARE some more concrete key differences between linux and windows that make me choose the former. Windows requires some behind-the-scenes maintenance. What I mean by this, it’s considered and marketed as an idiot proof OS but it does require cleaning the registry, defragmenting, administering the users with their rights, taking care of the network settings to make it work, things like that. The access to these functions has been somewhat hidden and I claim that most of the everyday windows users don’t know what on earth is an IP address, for example.
To compare to how things are in linux I have iptables and ifconfig to do the job. No, they don’t have the “automagically make things work” button, which is just what makes them a lot better. What windows users do is they try clicking the magic button and if it doesn’t work they have to take their PC somewhere to repair it or call a hotline, simply because they feel like they couldn’t learn how to do the simplest things themselves.
This is the reason that I used to use Linux, and back then I thought that most other Linux users felt the same way. I don’t think it’s the reason why anymore. I think a sizeable proportion of today’s Linux users (I hesitate to say the majority, but it may not be far off) do not think that using the command line is fun. They’d rather die than use it.
This attitude is plain to see, in discussion boards and forums (where people heap criticism on anything that requires use of the command line, where people try to install a new distro of linux to check it out and then break down into tears when it doesn’t have a graphical installer) or from distro use statistics - the most popular Linux distro around these days is Ubuntu, which is geared toward hiding the command line and giving you choices and tinkering abilities.
Don’t get me wrong, of course you still can tinker and fiddle in Ubuntu and other popular distros, but it is not required or encouraged like it used to be in the earlier days of Linux. A lot of people just don’t want it or enjoy it.
You can also see this when you read a Linux user’s review of a *BSD - they tend to complain about how hard the installation was (I had to actually understand partitioning, boo hoo!), some of them even assume that X is broken simply because it isn’t started automatically on boot up. They complain about having to use something as difficult as a pkg_add command to install software. It’s quite sad, really.
Its actually not the reason why I use Linux these days.
Except for one - the ability to change a lot of the system, which I simply dont have with Windows.
Exactly this is the reason why I still use Linux.
But I am totally disappointed by a lot too. There is a growing complexity. Distributions such as Gobolinux do not gain enough attention. Projects like SLAX are great but too one-man work.
The big distributions all add up to more complexity and more competition. Users are not empowered, they are told to do what to do - it is noobie style.
I dont accept anyone telling me to not use superuser login, and even worse, if someone else wants to disable it for me, I throw the distribution away FOREVER.
Projects like Linux from scratch are nice, unfortunately they lack manpower to really make it complete (incorporate Beyond linux from scratch… right now they only stick to a FHS approach and dont really talk about pros and cons of package management IN PRACTISE, none really pursues AppDirs on it)
I think the one thing I like in Linux is that things more or less, despite my rambling here, just *work*
I discard what I dont like, and I look for alternatives. In most situations this works, except for modular xorg. There is no alternative to it
Altogether I think I am quite content - i am not enthusiastic or something, but I think it is somewhat ok.
Could be better though …
‘No, they don’t have the “automagically make things work” button, which is just what makes them a lot better.’
I disagree. The problem with Windows GUI is that it does not give you a lot of freedom in choice, but you see the problem with commandline-only?
Simple. YOU DO NOT REALLY HAVE A GUI SOLUTION.
We need to unify both the cmdline, and the GUI interface, in a flexible, empowering manner.
Saying the GUI has inherent disadvantages simply means that the GUIs that exist are not GOOD enough.
I read the article and thought that what you said is true, or very close to true, for me. I’ve been using Linux since 2001, and I am a really satisfied user. I’ve been using cdrecord for burning iso’s, mplayer for ripping films and so forth. I have encountered many problems, and worked hard to understand how to do things. I have broken my system many times, then repaired it. I’ve been booting into Slackware and been greeted with “have fun”. And that is what it has been. Now I use Archlinux and Ubuntu. Linux has become so easy that I do not think it is that fun any more. But I prefer it before any other system.
True,true!
And now, after I turned all my friends and relatives into using linux (because it’s free and secure, hehehe), I myself wil change to FreeBSD, just because it’s even more nerdy. See you there…
@anonymous, 15 March 2008 13:44
> We need to unify both the cmdline,
> and the GUI interface, in a flexible,
> empowering manner.
Yakuake anybody?
You hit the nail on the head, dude. Those reasons are _exactly_ why I use *nix.
Also, if you’re a programmer, it’s even better. Programming under Windows is almost unbearable.
Choice and performance.
You get to compile your kernel for *your* hardware if you want. This optimizes it. You can compile with or without any features you like and it’s fully optimized for your processor. The windows kernel is compiled for the lowest common denominator and doesn’t take advantage of all of the features in your hardware.
Of course, most distros also fit into this category, but you have the choice to run a distro like Gentoo or Slackware and compile your kernel for *your* hardware.
This is what makes it great for me. That and I’m a programmer. I have the ability to open the source for something like glibc and find out how things really work.
This is the “tinkerer’s OS” that can bring out the hacker (using Eric Raymond’s correct definition of “hacker”, not security breaker) in all of us.
-Viz
“Ever tried stopping a process in Windows and the OS wouldn’t let you?”
Ahem, that has never happened in GNU/Linux.
Another take on the GUI versus command line issue:
We run Ubuntu Linux on our two desktops here at home. My husband has a generic 386 system and I run a home-brew AMD 64 system. I do most of the sysadmin style work on the two boxes. My husband is an electrical engineer and a lousy typist.
I always try to find a GUI way of doing stuff for my husband, because watching my husband type is a painful process. I am faster (and safer) with a commandline to do most stuff because I am a fast and accurate typist. My husband is much faster with a GUI because he makes so many mistakes. I’ve tried to teach him bash commandline completion tricks but that doesn’t see to help.
re the recommendation of Yuakake: I use tilda, the Gnome equivalent, myself.
I couldn’t imagine putting it in better words. On Compiz alone I spend hours customising and playing with various effects. GNU/Linux all the way.
Not so fast, hacker boy…
Linux has evolved past the “you have to tinker with it to make it work” stage. Toss in an Ubuntu CD and you have a system so superior to Windows and Mac OS that the only thing the incumbents have on their side is the momentum behind their incumbency.
It’s EASY to use. It gets its job done without calling to attention to itself.
But … we can rest assured that the power of a full blown unix system is under the hood — when we need it.
YOU are the guy that calls me at 3AM because he broke “his ubuntu” and he can’t browse myspace.
You read my mind.
That’s exactly it.
From now on, I will say it: “I use linux because it’s fun!”.
Not to nitpick.. but Linux is not “full blown UNIX”.
It’s not even POSIX compliant.
I love Linux, but please get your facts straight
Hi. I liked your article very much and read it with a big fat smile on my face. Do you mind if I translate this to Dutch and use it on my own blog? Ofcourse with a link to your story. More people should read this.
Eucalypta: Sure, go ahead. Glad you like it.
Thanks.
Another great writing
It’s indeed true for me too. I even take it a step further than an average Linux users. Because I use Gentoo I compile every packet/program from source. What is the difference between that and for instance using Ubuntu (which is a binary distro)? Well, the software I install is compiled and tweaked by/for my CPU which makes it run faster. Intel and AMD have their own assembly code to make certain loops or other operations run faster. Ubuntu and other binary distros can’t use those improvements because the distro needs to run on Intel CPUs as well as on AMD CPUs.
Ubuntu users only use half of the power Linux can offer
Yes you are right! The reason we use Linux is; we are different.
Interesting. I find Linux fun too, but that’s not why I use it. I use it foremost for work.
It works exactly the way I want it to. With Fvwm2 installed, every key does exactly what I want it to. For work, that efficiency is important.
Ha, the most honest take on the Linux world that I’ve ever read. Well done. I’m a Windows developer, primarily, who uses Linux for all the reasons you mention.
Yes! Fun is totally hitting the nail on the head. I don’t think I realized this so fully before.
I think Linux gets more fun the more you can do with it. I also think it’s tremendous fun, sometimes, when things just work and are easy! That’s why I don’t begrudge Ubuntu it’s success. Linux doesn’t need to be the most common OS for it to be fun, but it does need more love than its got now. The more people that use it the better, and the easier it is, the more people will use it. And guess what - Ubuntu is just as customizable, as screw-up-able, and as fixable as any other distro, and the command line works just as well. Let’s not begrudge noobs their fun.
What’s also totally fun is being a software whore. I love trying out lots of software, all different kinds of software, and open source is a freaking gold mine. Again, I think it would be great if Linux were a little more popular, just enough so that EVERY developer felt their software and hardware needed a Linux port. More fun for me, more things I can do with Linux.
Just to contradict myself, here’s another thing that’s fun: running a Windows program with Wine. I don’t know why, but I think it’s totally cool and admirable that Adobe Photoshop CS2 runs fantastically through Wine - but it won’t run in Vista! Hah! This from a bunch of Wine developers who’ve never even been able to glimpse the Windows source code.
Compiling from source the minute a beta is released. So cool. Reporting a bug, and getting an email from the dude who’s going to fix it. Awesome fun.
Being part of a community helping each other stretch the limits of computing, no one asking for money or anything else. It’s almost like living in a idealized Socialist society, except for the fact that it’s a great idea and it actually works and no one gets sent to the gulag and you still get to be a capitalist pig all you want.
Just plain fun.
This is only half of the truth.
The other half is: windows is absolutely no fun any more.
Ron
Oh wow - big news, isn’t it? - maybe I’m just too old here, but I remember the title of the biography of an obscure guy named Linus T.: “Just for Fun”!
Kulinux
Disagree on one point:
It’s fun to tinker with your system. It’s fun to change all the settings, break the system, then have to go to recovery mode to repair it.
I use linux for work, and a little bit for play. I just want it to *work*. I don’t want it to break. There are certainly people out there who do try to break it, but they are usually involved in the software development on that platform. I’m more of a user.
Yeah there’s a reason I can take to my boss. Let’s build the company on Linux because it’s fun, and I like playing with command lines.
By the way you then listed 3 more reasons below that. Try using plural in the title.
By ‘we’ in the title of this article do you mean yourself, your blow up sex doll and your childhood imaginary friends?
those are 110% the reasons for me - a linux user for 10+ years. everything else is like you said a side affect - but VERY GOOD side affects. I’m glad to see the number 2 reason - that’s probably my biggest reason for getting into Linux. I felt special and elite
-
Actually the reason i use it is only indirectly mentioned here. In my home i have 4 laptops and one desktop. All together that is a large financial investment. I use linux because not only does it get the job done (and well done at that) but it gives me a greater sense of control. For every program and every system update i have choice. There are no 100+ meg updates which “fix” things on my computer that is not disclosed before i install it. And these same patches for linux have never modified my computer to *deny* me functionality based on the interests of the MPAA RIAA or some other corp interest.
It is my computer damn it. I paid for it. I want it to work for *me*.
Yes, because it’s fun. Compiz is awesome!
I use linux because I like e17 and penguins. Seriously.
Fun is definitely a big part of why I use it. The cost is another. It costs time, which I have, not money. There’s always a money shortage.
There is also something cool about being able to find tools to do just about anything any other OS does, for your system.
The elite/clique aspect wore off for me a while ago.
Linux users hate Microsoft.
FreeBSD users hate Linux.
OpenBSD users love UNIX.
Could just be me, but I like Linux to just work. Sometimes, namely when there’s work to get done, I don’t want to spend time messing with settings. I’d like to just open a program I need and get to work.
Linux has become stale, fragmented, and boring.
Thanks for listing one of the many reasons why I use Solaris.
All of the people I know who use Linux now are the people who told me I should give up my Amiga for a nice Windows box. I told them Amiga was more fun, that I would miss my shell and ramdisk and that I couldn’t stand how dumbed down Windows was. They told me I was stupid to fight Microsoft and wondered why I’d want to use a niche platform with no commercial support and which branded me as such an obvious geek…
I’ve gotten bored of Linux and seeing a new kernel every week, lib dependency hell, too many fragmented distros to choose from and impossible to know/learn them all to be useful for any environment.
Oh and the dreaded GUI for everything, talk about being limited and restricted to not knowing or learning anything of what’s going on and how to fix it if the GUI breaks… I can go on and on but it’s not worth it. I’ve since tried FreeBSD and OpenBSD and never looked back, never needed to either. Everything just made sense and just worked(tm). I’ve learned 100 times more and 100 times faster than I ever have with Linux. By learning with BSD, Linux is just a point’n'click windows wannabe, overly fragmented, non-standard, bloated, insecure, poorly coded kernel (or OS to some); yet too anti-anything not linux for my likings, another reason to go with a FreeBSD or OpenBSD OS rather than just a kernel. If you’re smart enough, look at the code yourself and compare - don’t just take my word and everyone else’s for it.
> …we use Linux for it’s own sake.
What *I* do for fun is tell otherwise excellent bloggers to learn the difference between its and it’s, so they’ll sound more literate.
Is Linux for losers? The link pretty much sums it up from a REAL perspective.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/06/16/linux-bsd-unix-cz_dl_0616theo.html
Hi ! I’m French and i would love to translate your post (i found it via Slashdot) and post it on my own blog. Could i do that ?
http://www.forbes.com/2005/06/16/linux-bsd-unix-cz_dl_0616theo.html
Having used Linux in business since Slackware 3, I don’t recall it ever being fun. In fact I can recall some sleepless nights over it.
Good physiological insight, and very true.
So true. It’s so fun and easy to tinker with the OS, that even in my Intro to Systems Programming class we learn through Linux and it’s many commands.
Yeeees!!!
It really, really makes me feel superior to my windows coleagues who like to spend their time fixing the same crappy things day after day via their “magic wizards”, but never knowing what is under the hood.
The reason I use Linux is (besides virus-free, being-special, fun-to-use, and al the other reasons listed) is because the programs that come with a distribution make me more productive. I have often cursed about Windows how installing tcpdump/wireshark, nmap and a compiler is a real chore.
As Linus said in the title of his biography:
Just for Fun!
“Linux isn’t widely used”
That’s so true for me, I’ve recently been thinking about using freebsd 7.0 because of the publicity and because linux isn’t a niche anymore! hehehe
This may all be true for some linux users, and it’s partially true for me, but personally, I use linux because it’s way more stable, has way less trouble running the main applications I use day in, day out. Not to mention there are no mysterious corruption problems, no mysterious BSOD caused by driver crashes.
Obviously it’s fun to tinker with a system, and be able to hack it to do what you want, but the main objective is to have a system that runs well and stable at the end of the day.
The whole GUI versus CLI issue is a non-starter for me really. Try, as a really silly example, to play Halo, Splinter Cell or Half Life via command line. Like I said, silly. But a lot of configuration is not much different than that. I managed to break my MySQL install trying to screw around with the command line, but then fixed it via the GUI. At the same time, the GUI itself is fracking missing basic things, which only can be done via the CLI, and that irritates the hell out of me sometimes.
GUI is good for quick changes, where you don’t want to leave the environment you are in, to go some place else and tweak things. And unless you have like 50 displays, I have enough times where I am already using 3-4 different windows, all hiding each other, when I badly need to see them all at the same time, without adding a CLI into the mix too, for the 1-2 things I need to do that I can’t with the GUI.
That said, most GUIs tend to be spotty, incomplete, or just a lazy attempt the make the interface pretty, without any damn thought about how people are going to need to use the program. Its a toss up.
Great post because it’s so true! Linux has truly spoiled me. When my friends ask me to troubleshoot their Windows systems I can’t help but sigh. How did I ever keep all of the software updated on Windows? Sheesh. Now I’m starting to look at my smartphone and wonder why it can’t act more like Linux.
OK I use Linux because I fucking hate M$!!! With over $200 Billion dollars in the slush fund (which the SEC knows of) he could come up with a better system…Hell I could. People are stupid…like sheep. if you can get one person to yell loud enough they will flock to him/her.
I must agree we use linux because it’s fun and we can break it, customize it, etc.. etc..
I’ve spent my last week playing with Gobolinux (http://www.gobolinux.org) and it’s a great distro which redefines the entire filesystem hierarchy.
One of the things that bore me the most in Linux is it’s very complicated filesystem tree and with Gobolinux I can easily find what I’m looking for.
If Linux becomes widely used, we’ll probably switch to something else. Or at least develop an obscure distro that only we will use. Because, let’s face it, we want to feel special.
You mean kinda like Gentoo? Yep, that goes for me too…
I agree with you, but I would ask you to please get your facts straight.
Ever tried to kill a zombie process in Linux that was hung in a syscall? Tell me how easy it is to kill it then
I like your article, just please try not to go quite so far into the realm of “zomg linux”
custimizing is the only thing you can do on linux, it has so many confusing versions, little to no apps, and is only for people who know code
as well, you dont evar get a bsod with linux
This absolutely holds true for me and the next time someone asks me why i use linux I’ll say because it’s FUN!
As to the command line, I always thought the command line was a pain. I played with it bit on Amiga and then in DOS but very little in Windows. I subscribed to the view that the command line is BAD.
But I was WRONG, in Linux the command line is FUN, it’s computery. I have recently switched to a command line podcatcher and I often install software using apt-get install - cool!
For anyone using windows who thinks command line is bad - you’re right. In Windows it IS bad. But Linux isn’t windows.
Hello!
Mostly, I have to agree with the article. It’s hard for a non-Linux user understand that some times people DO things because they like them.
In my daily use, I use a lot of OS, like Mac OS X, Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Minix and even Windows. I use mostly an OS because the utility they gave to me. But, many times, because I have more than one machine, I put the funny things on the line. It’s fun to experiment. It’s fun to test, to try and break the pc… it’s fun to know exactly what I’m doing, it’s fun to get lost on a lot of problems before run a program, but in the end, see with a smile a BIG result.
Call me crazy, but it’s fun to play with some linux problems, run over the internet searching an amount of information… and ok, it’s impossible to avoid learning a lot more things that can make improve our knowledge about things…
Open Source and customizable OS’s gave us a new world of possibilities.
Normally people which don’t like very much to search about a solution, they prefer windows, because it have always a magic key that, of course mostly don’t work without help.
I think, that, sometimes, the Use of Linux it’s like a philosophy of life, it’s “a way of learning more and more” and a way of have pleasure with the day use of a PC.
… My life without a tty/console isn’t anything LOL… it’s fun to make everything there!
Good Linuxing!
Heartwarming to so see so many that entirely agree. I too couldn’t agree more, “tinker” has always been the exact word I use for my time with my OS. Come to think of it, I gotta go work on getting my PS/Wine running right…
-AntiKaos
You should change the colour scheme for the comments on this page - the contrast is too low. This Web 2.0 style is starting to really get on my nerves - I see it everywhere now: low contrast lines, that might as well not exists, low contrast text which is almost impossible to read. Ever wonder why 99.9% of the books in the world use pure black text on pure white paper?
Songwind Apogee said…
Fun is definitely a big part of why I use it. The cost is another. It costs time, which I have, not money. There’s always a money shortage.
15 March 2008 21:16
i completely and totally agree. but you have to realize the inverse of our group are people who have little spare time and lots of spare cash so they can afford to buy the dummy-proof operating systems Microsoft shells out.
the only group i dont understand is Mac users.
Oh so right.
Linux makes computing fun again. It brings me back to the days when I first learned computing on the TRS-80 Model I/III and Commodore 64. Windows is so freakin’ antiseptic.
not a linux user, but i do agree and use freebsd for the same reasons… besides being free.
as for mac users: they are the people who are too dumb to use windows …
i mean the average mac user, not the unix sysadmin who wants a bsd type os neatly installed on a new laptop
Exactly right, and I haven’t once, in 8 years using Linux exclusively as my desktop, tried to throw my computer out the window. Not once. Compare that with the 10 years or so before that when I used windoze as a desktop. Fsck I hated windoze by the time I bailed on it. Two weeks ago I bought a lenovo laptop. I booted Vista because I was curious. Then I installed fedora 8 over top of it. Freedom baby, is fun.
It does not hold true for me.
I use Linux primarily because I am against paying again and again for the same software; Especially something as fundamental as an OS. I have bought too much outdated software as it is.
On the control aspect I do agree - I do like the fundamental control I have when using Linux.
the cute animals
the clean gnome interface
the beryl cube
the rocking kde interface
file formats like… er…html - no problems anywhere
the lovely “garbled” build-from-source script scrolling up
the live cd - “it just works” - do exactly _nothing_ for a few minutes and it works!
the data recovery - m$ crashes and knoppix saves my day and data
my old pc runs like a robust desktop - from RAM
slick, organised, clutter-free, beautiful.
[plus regular freedom/philosophy yadda yadda]
Great Black Adder reference! Made me chuckle…
The real reason people use Linux is it’s free. Had Linus Torvalds not made it Free Software, nobody would even know about it.
hey Anonymous Howard - the first link in your search returned a link for unkillable processes in bSD. The second link contained an article indicating how you would have to modify the init process and mount readonly filesystems to do the same thing in Linux.
The third was for Mac OSX.
Not exactly the point you were trying to make, I think.
I use it because i have freedom. Every time i use Windows, it keeps asking me to validate it. The wonderful thing about Linux is that i never need to ask for permission to wipe my own nose.
Denial would be a lie…
Started using Linux because I was fed up with running around fixing anyone elses MzoftBoxes. Linux can be a hazzle if I want it to be and smooth sailing if that’s desired. I keep using it because there are no reporting back to software-vendors - What’s installed is no one elses business. I get the software and use it as deemed fit and dont need anyone to tell me otherwise.
As regards terminal vs gui I believe the debate makes little sense - there are pros and cons - the point is if you dont like gui - dont use it - who cares. In my case the use of terminal increases - because its more convenient for some tasks.
Have been around the block with distros. For my next laptop (T61) it will be Gentoo with a rather limited softwareselection. I’ll play with new stuff on another machine - if I like it I’ll put it onto the Gentoobox.
LAMP is a godsend. It allows me to reliably run my business with basically no expense. Check out bellspace.net
for a css menu generator running on
a ubuntu dapper drake installation.
the thing about the command line is so true, that when I’m in windows I need a real good command line and I install all that I can for GnuWin32
Dude! You gave away our secret! and you are right… If you tell them that it is fun, they wouldn’t understand and give you that puzzled look so keep this to yourself and lets keep telling them what they wanted to hear - it’s secure, it’s this, it’s that… HA HA HA. Nice post. Thanks.
Great Post! you’re right!! i never tought like that! i would comment this post on my blog!
Greeting From Paraguay!
———
Marcelo Elizeche Landó
http://esotroblog.wordpress.com
This might have been true a decade ago. If we were really in it just for the fun factor, we’d be quitting Linux in favour of really fun operating systems like Menuet or Syllable.
What other OS out there can you actually talk to the developers and make suggestions? That’s why I use linux, after years of problems with microsoft, talking to the people that make the applications or the distro is easy. And not only that, but if you so wish, you can learn to contribute with code as well. Instead of being a back seat driver to what Microsoft and Apple design and make you use.
I smiled when I read this - it’s not the only reason I use Linux but I guess it is a big part. I am tweak-addicted and spend a stupid amount of time getting thing just right But also I always find that after I invest the time to learn a new tool in Linux, it’s usually turns out to be more powerful than the easier-to-pickup Windows choice. But what the heck ,it’s the same reason people tune cars and build model airplanes and keep bees - it’s a hobby that’s just rewarding and fascinating in its own right. Geek pride man.
Amen…it’s brought new life to an older laptop that was my favourite and now is again…
And yes….it’s fun
To Ibn al-Hazardous from Annoyamouse.
Gentoo is far from an elitist distro. It has to be the easiest distro to offer the traditional Linux functionality of custom compiling for efficiency. Gentoo should be considered extremely accessible to a *nix Sys Admin.
Right fucking on. I like Linux cause you can play, and learn. It’s like mucking around with one’s car except you don’t get grease all over you.
Tradução para o Português Brasileiro disponível:
Translation to Brazilian Portuguese available:
O VERDADEIRO motivo pelo qual nós usamos Linux
Nós dizemos às pessoas que nós usamos Linux porque é seguro. Ou porque é livre, porque é customizável, porque é gratuito, porque tem um excelente suporte da comunidade…
Mas tudo isso é só marketing. Nós dizemos isso aos não-usuários porque eles não entenderiam o verdadeiro motivo.
Continues at/Continua em O VERDADEIRO motivo pelo qual nós usamos Linux
Being UNIX isn’t cool either. UNIX is currently a castrated ghost of its former glory. Vendors such as Sun and Apple have neutered the power of UNIX syscalls such they are toothless and worthless. At least on Linux fork works.
I rub myself in the bathtub with a penguin or a markokaan. It works for me.
It just works for me. Thats about it!!!
It’s true that we use Linux because it is fun. But more importantly it’s because it FEELS right! It’s the right way of doing things, and it feels good to do things right. And that includes the ability to be creative about how things are done. The negative way of saying this is that it feels bad (depressing) to use Microsoft. It feels wrong to do things in a willfully stupid way.
I accepted blogger.com for the session only, but stopped at accepting google for they hand everything to doubleclick the spammer.
I grew up on ‘pooters’ with not only the command line, but first by handwriting the code on notepaper for typing up fortran commands on a punch card machine to make a program deck. No that was BEFORE te days of the command line. Hell it was even before the age of the LA-32 teletype input console that saved its input on punched paper tape so it could be read into the Altair 8080 later on. The Altair had a magnetic core memory considered large at the time for a machine that was the size of an outdoor privy, read out its memory on an array of ‘nixxy tubes’….four kilobytes. Yep! You heard it! Four Kbytes!
That said, I use linux because of the multiple desktops. Windows seems limiting. I can have numerous browser windows open when shutting down the linux system; when I boot up again, they are still there. I like that. If a program locks up, xkill typed in a console window and put jolly roger on the offending window, clikit and that f’d up window is GONE. Try that in windows. Windows is always doin something behind my back. Apple’s stuff does stuff behind my back as well. Take ‘flash’, that puppy is always downloading itself a soon as you go to any site controlled or influenced by the media monopolies. You can smell it when the pooter suddenly ’slows down’ during the loading of a web page for no apparent reason. You just know that some craptacular malware is quietly loading into your machine to strike. When it is ready to pounce like ’skynet’ in the Terminator movies, windows presents its deathless piece of hypocrisy like…for a more fullfilling web experience…. Guys don’t ever dare tell their brides that on their wedding night. Everything you use on windows, and even much more on a so called ‘mac’, you pay through the nose for. Not on linux. And linux apps don’t call mama like Excel, Word, Flash, ….windows progs do. I could go on, but the more I tell the truth about windows the madder I get. Suffice to say that I trust windows only to play games and nothing more. The only game I ever register a windows system in is stuff like cartoon characters, dinosaurs and other nonsense. Know all those windows so called ‘warrantee registrations’ go straight to spammers. Have wastebaskets full of ‘pre-approved credit cards for Howling Wolf, Big Byte T-Rex, and Chester Drawers! Won’t say who sent the junk. I think that I will drop the stuff in the middle of a street down in some druggie district in Detroit where junkies are cuttin off and shrinkin people’s heads for fifty cents. Serve those banks right. Yeah, and windows got its market share by being able to play games, not by being able to really work. Most early game programs for windows all had a ‘boss’ key. You played games at work while the boss was not looking over your shoulder. When you saw him coming, you pressed the ‘boss’ kwy and ‘voila’ your screen changed instantly to a fake spreadsheet. Hit the ‘boss’ key again and you were back in business.
Linux is not fun and new, it’s old and boring. Based on an ancient OS from the 60’s - UNIX. And to top it off it makes you work to do simple things, things that were solved eons ago by HP-UX, or Solaris, or AIX.
Plus it makes you compromise and use 3 crappy tools instead of one great one.
Thats why I stopped using Linux. I’m tired of re-inventing the wheel. After all, there are more interesting things I can do with my time than get my printer driver working, again…. The great thing (maybe only) about Windows, is that it just works.
I totally agree…I wonder how much homework I almost had overdue due to tinkering around too much.
Once you use Linux, you find the lack of control in most other non-free OSes restrictive, and…I don’t remembered the last time I booted up Windows.
Not necessarily. I use linux because I think that my computer belongs to me, not Microsoft or the MPAA/RIAA or whichever script kiddie manages to write the next successful worm.
Back in the DOS days, way in the beginning, DOS was distributed with MASM. This is how things should be. Suddenly Microsoft began to put layers of complexity between the user and his hardware, in the name of “user friendliness” - to the point where it took years just to understand the damned Windows API.
No sir. My computer belongs to me. It will talk to who I want it to, when I want it to. I will modify it as I will, and any third party just has to deal with this fact.
That is why I use linux.
I love the capabilites of BASH scripts, something not easily replicatable on the Windows box I use.
>Let me say that again. It’s fun to use the command line.
> No wonder non-Linuxers wouldn’t understand.
That statement reminds me of the comment to the effect that “every generation thinks that they invented sex”.
My friend, love of the command line is not an exclusive attribute of Unix users. Clearly Unix has had one of the better ones for many years but the reality is that VMS’s DCL was excellent (the composition was a weak) and AS400 CL was very good as well.
On the Windows side, well, we clearly fell down on the job for a couple of decades but the great thing about Microsoft is that we are incapable of sustained error and now we have a very vigorous command line effort: Windows PowerShell.
So I totally agree with you - command lines ARE fun.
Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
Windows Management Partner Architect
Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell
Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx
Fine that Linux is what it is. I compare Linux users to body builders. There is no practical reason to be that strong other than to look in the mirror and feel superior. I tried to be a n00b but what a pain in the butt! Wanting to be “special” is the problem with Linux. I wish there was one distro that everyone agreed was really for a n00b. That wasn’t special. That was like the people who walk for the fitness, as that is all they need… to be fit. I don’t want to body build. I want to walk a little and have the rest of my day be better for the walk. Not bulk up to infinity. Maybe one day…. probably not tho while I am interested. Maybe my kids perhaps will actually get that kind of distro. People don’t want a computing lifestyle change. I mean most people. I have to do dishes and stuff. So if it’s windose or mac I am stuck with so I can do other stuff in life, that’s what I will use. It’s worth the hundred bucks rather than pay for the maid while I learn just to set up my computer for weeks. That’s without learning to actually use the darn thing. It is really beautiful toy for all of you tho. It’s about as fun for me as learning toys are for most kids… not!
yoiright about the want to feel special. Iknow that if Linux all of a sudden became a hit I’d start using either gentoo more likely freebsd LOL.
So true.. I`ve already got hold of bsd and solaris to jump to if linux becomes widely used.. Its all for fun !
A while ago I came across an old PowerPC Mac (Performa 5260). I installed as much ram as I could find and an ethernet card and was really looking forward to playing around with the machine as I could remember how cool they seemed in their day. Only thing was the old Mac was completely useless - it just couldn’t do the work expected in 2008. Primarily, it didn’t do Internet well because all of the browsers which could be installed on it were outdated. Once Apple made the plunge into OS X everything else was left to die.
Switch over to my second older machine - a 10 year old Dell GX1 400MHz PII which I’ve now been able to beef up with a 20Gig drive and 448 megs of RAM. The machine hits its limit with Windows 2000 (much as the Mac Performa did), but I recently installed Debian Etch complete with all the makings of a LAMP server, Squirrelmail, and some blogging software and the machine is functioning to my complete satisfaction. This isn’t a production server, but I can load Gimp, Xara Xtreme, Firefox and load of other software without yet hitting a wall. All on a 10 year old Dell PII400.
I’ve been using Linux for almost 15 years now. I think the greatest thing about Linux is that it just plain works on a 10 year old Dell.
Indeed. One could say that Linux is like a fixed-wheel bicycle.
I have to agree and disagree with you:
I wanted to turn my home computer into a web server and network storage device. Linux seemed to be the only free way (and possibly the only way) to do this.
This has turned out to be quite successful. http://ankh.is-a-geek.com
And as I have gone through the process I have warmed to Konsole… but
Oh yes, there is a but.
But before I started trying to breath new life into an old desktop with nxclient and apache2 I tried to use ubuntu on my acer laptop.
It was a nightmare. I found myself struggling to use the same freeware software (VLC, GIMP etc) that ran perfectly smoothly under windows. As a desktop operating system in its own right I found linux had nothing to offer me but headaches.
So that is my overall opinion of linux: I love it for the incredible things it is capable of, but I find it lacking for basic use.
The simple fact that a bebo page will display funny and use up all of my processor power is example enough of this.
That is pretty straight!
True for me too.
AMAZING how we forget all of the incovenience, frustration, and anger that comes with the power to tinker and customize Linux to our hearts content.
Very True!!!
You Linuxians are so weird. Free-as-in-speech/beer. Huh? People care about that? If I went into the Home Depot and they said, “Here’s the schematics for your drill, FREE!” I just wouldn’t care.
I get a nervous -tick- whenever I hear Linuxians wax poetic about how we could save the world if we would only put world peace on a Linux box.
Keep up the fight. I know FOSS is putting the heat on other proprietary companies to build better products. I can respect that.
But the religion of Linux. It’s so crazy!
Well my reason for using linux (specifically ubuntu) is because of vista.
I made the grave mistake of upgrading my perfectly working xp system to vista. Since I don’t want to go back to XP and wanted to try something new, installed ubuntu and ever since using it. I still have a windows xp partition but that is only for games I can’t run on wine.
Yes Linux is fun, but the other great reason to use Linux is COMPETITION. The reality of multiple distributions means that even within the Linux community there is a battle of ideas going on. Compare that to Microsoft, where the battle is to a) catch up to Google; b) get you to switch to Vista and have to buy Office 2007 and c) try to retain their near-monopoly on the desktop (Apple and Ubuntu not withstanding).
People who complain about there being no “one true distro” of Linux should understand that having many distros is better - it forces each distro to improve, lest it lose market share.
In addition, you get to choose the distro you want: want cutting edge desktop stuff, here’s Ubuntu or one of its many derivatives. Want rock solid stable ? Here’s Debian. Want to spend lots of money on enterprise level support, try Redhat. Something for everyone. Compare that to Windows - oh sorry that hardware is not supported under Vista, time to upgrade.
Competition is good. Oh, Linux is fun too !
Linux is a PAIN! Just like any other OS you ever used for the first time! What is so good about Linux is that ANYTHING you see that you don’t like you can change. I don’t like that ever growing Windows registry. Try to change that!
I guess change here=tinker or study which people are too lazy to do these days. I have kids who ask me a simple question and I say did you read the help? I seen the Amiga mentioned. I had one! PC’s were going beep-beep while the Amiga had stereo sound built in! I sold computers to business people that needed to run a certain program and they were happy, it ran. I had an Amiga, and it ran what I wanted it to.
I told them the truth, you need a PC and sold them one.
It comes down to run what you’re happy with and works for you, stop bashing others. The kids tell me “but that is too much reading”. Then I tell them how much reading you had to do just to learn to save a file, or open a file and god forbid they ever have to read about xmodem or zmodem,8-N-1 etc. Today if there is not a link on the desktop to a Bigmac, a movie and some music, then forget it.
My daughter is the one who is going to excel in Linux. Know why? When I tell her to read and teach herself she is proud that she fixed it on her own, in WXP or Linux. But guess where she boots to when she turns her computer on? Linux! Her brother=wanna play games=Boots to Windows! She is 12, he is 15. They both have had dual boot systems for 5 years. Depends what you want to do.
I have a P.S.
When is the last time you picked up an old fashioned book and read the whole thing just to plant the seeds in your head? Then you go to the keyboard and go from memory. If you need help you kick back and grab the book and read it again. Help files are good…but it is a pain to try and read 600 pages comfortably in a desk chair from a glowing monitor!
We’re back to PAIN! Yeah, none of you who used your computer for the first time just sat down and solved the worlds problems and I can prove it. The world is still full of problems and which OS you use is not a major one that anyone else cares about.
But, wake up and smell the coffee! Windows users are unhappy except for the ones who do not want to read and support geeksquad at $120 an hour to come out and tell them that they have their phone line plugged into the Ethernet port instead of the modem! I have a totally killer XP install that I can boot to if I need to. But I have found it takes longer to reboot into Windows than it does to google a simple question. Oh no, we’re back to reading…when I could just boot into Windows and click two times, pray, and make do with the results. Virus, Spyware, Malware, UNKNOWN, update broke it, maybe it just don’t work, call someone who might know.
Nothing wrong with that…But I tell the kids, if you don’t know ask someone who does…DO NOT guess and screw it up. Well, call geeksquad the next time your new puppy chews your cord in two and let them tell you that you need a new motherboard and RAM and blah, blah blah…
POINT: I could talk all day and not change any ones mind. These kids I’m talking about are my two step children and I gave them a choice as best I could. My own son who grew up with me and is 24 calls me just to find out how to RIP a CD so he can play it on his computer. This was yesterday I am talking about and this is the result of lack of choice. He seen Me on that Amiga and thought dad was a geek and he couldn’t be a geek in school. Well, today, being a geek, a member of the geeksquad must be pretty cool.
By the way, he is a Chef…My step kids have choice…
I like (choice=fun=tinker=proud of yourself=learning=choice)
That is a little trick the other guys don’t want you to know!
Other guys=Whoever you’re BASHing today like the guy making fun of someones grammer and doesn’t know what BASH is….
“We tell people we use Linux because it’s secure. Or because it’s free, because it’s customizable, because it’s free (the other meaning), because it has excellent community support…”
“But all of that is just marketing bullshit. We tell that to non-Linuxers because they wouldn’t understand the real reason. And when we say those false reasons enough, we might even start to believe them ourselves.”
Actually, that isn’t marketing hype. I like it is:
Free (speech and beer). Why pay MS another cent; wtf with all this registration crap, transferring licenses and other non-sense.
Linux has good support; however, I believe that this is more dependent on the distribution.
“We use Linux because it’s fun!”
Yes… does there have to be only one reason? See above.
“It’s fun to use the command line.”
It is fun; it is also powerful. Automation, removal of the mundane with a quick script.
“1. Linux gives you complete control”
Yes it does.
“2. Linux isn’t widely used”
Actually, I am not to fond of that fact. More users would garner more hardware support. IE: Wireless, Open Source 3D drivers (via release specs) for video cards because we have the market share. Would ATI/Nvida turn away 100 potential customers? Imagine any start up company that releases spec’s for their 3d card. You know how fast that would be adopted in X.org? There is a push to get an Open Source Hardware working.
“3. Linux is free (as-in-speech)”
Yes… in speech and sometimes as in beer. I like both.
Linux is fun; it does have several key facets that I like; hence it makes it more appealing. The above statements are opinions and facts; facts/opinions don’t always equal fun.
Just my .02 cents worth.
I think what you are saying is true for some people. It may be true for allot of people who play with it. I’m not sure it is true for ‘hard core’ users. By ‘hard core’ I am pretty much referring to people who don’t have a Microsoft Windows or Mac OS system to fall back on. I am an advocate of software freedom. I don’t use free software because it is cheaper and I have no issues with piracy. I do infringe copyright from time to time still where it suits me. The reason I don’t pirate any software today is free software is better than non-free software. If it weren’t true I wouldn’t have stopped using non-free software years before I understood the ethics of it. The reason I checked GNU/Linux out initially was curiosity. For me like most people who use the OS today it started off as a toy to play with. I think things changed at some point as I started using it on the server for other reasons. It was the best thing to use for a long time. It may not be the most secure, most efficient, or easiest platform to use. It has been on the other hand the best rounded of these things. On the desktop GNU/Linux didn’t meet my needs for many years that I used/or toyed with it. In all those early years I certainly didn’t rely on it. As GNU/Linux improved and became more and more practical Microsoft did the exact reverse. I found that Linux solved many old problems while innovating and making my computer more useful. Many things I wanted to do were simply not practical with MS’s OS and I did allot of hacking to make things work that never should have. One summer I had had enough with MS Windows and DOS and pushed ahead. Disgusted with where Microsoft was going I spent time figuring out the few problems I had as at the time I transitioned it was a tad more dificult than today. I think it is still the most innovative fringe operating system for desktop users that is practical. It amazes me to this day what marketing, bullying, and lock in can do to a market. People are like sheap that can be hurded and proded. We are ignorant and lazy. Appearances are taken at face value and fitting in is really all we care about. When we are confronted with our mistakes we would rather deny them than stand out. Dismiss the flaws and lock up the few who dare say otherwise. We let them pull the wool over our eyes.
Linux is a great OS, and the Ubuntu distro is the perfect compromise between ease of use on the front end and power under the covers. While Mac is my every day OS and I still develop using Windows, Linux is probably the most important OS available today and I run it on several machines.
Though a little on the fanboy side (shit, who isn’t these days), this was a really good post. You’re getting some good coverage Vlad, congrats.
PS - ignore the haters.
Well done! On target.
I use Linux because a few years back Windows XP told me I was “a victim of piracy.”
The thing about working on the console is that the keyboard is a very efficient and proven human input device. I even knew a blind programmer who used to spend a lot of time chatting on IRC.
Using a GUI with a mouse requires that you actually look at what you’re doing and you have to manually do it. I find it to be quite tiring and time consuming.
I guess that it’s each to their own, but I would love to see more GUI users give it a shot. Once your used to it, having virtual terminals, gpm, tab completion and the visual editor makes what would normaly be hours of work feel effortless.
Ha, nice article. So true!!
So true… but don’t hate me, I’m so done with Linux. Too tired of Linus’s moronic rants, when all I really want is innovation.
Who gives it to me, and it makes me nauseous to say it… Sun, with OpenSolaris. A tricked out distro with stuff goin’ awn. Linus is going to find hisself pwned when all he’s got to show for himself is a new driver, and Sun’s showing up with ZFS, DTrace, MySQL, etc.
Someone needs to tell Linus to start innovating, and stop preaching 1990’s hate rhetoric.
While I think of it, I think it’s a little irresponsible to claim that we like Linux because it makes us feel elite. I often get accused of this myself, when I try to tell Windows users why I prefer Linux.
I first used Linux out of curiosity, and I realy didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I downloaded the boot and root disk for Slackware 1.3. I got “boot.bin” and “root.bin” on my Windows 95 desktop and thaught “What the hell am I going to do with these? Where’s Linux.exe?!” It was only a toy, I never thaught I’d use it as my main OS, but after just a few weeks I was very impressed. I was impressed with the way there was an answer to just about any question I had in /usr/doc/HOWTO, impressed with the fact that just about any important system file was human readable (even with instructions!), impressed that I could, if I chose to, build my own boot kernel and put it on just about anything and impressed that people, from pimply faced students to very busy university proffessors would take time to write all this cool stuff for me for free!
To anyone who resents Linux because they think it’s elitist, just try it. There are so many people who will give you free help, and you’ll find that the Linux community is anything *but* elitist.
Nice and humble article.
Apart from fun, its all about work for me too. I use Linux because it makes me money!
Hey, this is so very true for myself. This really hits the nail on the head!
Nice! I read it with:
lynx -dump http://blog.anamazingmind.com/2008/03/real-reason-we-use-linux.html | sed -e ’s/[Ll]inux/OpenBSD/g’ | less
Nice peace of writing. I learnt the ins and outs of linux installing(and re-installing) Gentoo about a million times, I got to know linux pretty well. I like my software the way I want it and that’s what I get.
Dave
Get a life dude… or a gf, or both. 12 years ago, I used linux by first time (red hat). I got bored quickly… bcos of all that stuff that everybody knows: lots of dependences to install anything, hardware incompatibility, etc. Before linux I used Unix, which is just perfect, but very expensive. Anyway, I came to realize that I just want to get my work done. If I want to get fun, c’mon man, there are better ways to spend our lifes. Cheers!
i am linux user and i am fscking proud of it!
True !
And for all this reasons, I want to play with apple now.
Don’t reveal the truth !
“This is a paradox. We often complain Linux isn’t more widely used. But that’s one of the reasons we use it. [...] If Linux becomes widely used, we’ll probably switch to something else.”
Probably to BSD.
Anyway, that’s exactly how I’m feeling about it.
What do we have to do then ? Hope that Linux doesn’t become widespread ? That’s kind of sad … This should be reported as a bug.
I don’t use a keyboard or mouse for just the same reasons. It’s just plain fun to input bits into the computer using morse code. I was thinking about upgrading my system to use an assembler, but I’m afraid that would really keep me from the raw power of the system.
If you use MS Windows for some reasons you must have Linux as well. There are so many situations where Linux have saved my Windows installation. Let me give you some examples:
1. Once I somehow got a filename in Windows containing a “?”. There is no way to remove that file in Windows.
2. Some partitions are impossible to remove in Windows. Almost all partitions are impossible to create in Windows.
3. Backup in Windows is a horror with locked files and Windows backup using its own format. Going over to Linux, Windows’ backup is easy. You just copy all files you want to backup.
4. Have you ever got stalled when Windows’ pagefile is corrupt? In Linux just do rm pagefile.sys.
@anonymous, 16 March 2008 09:26
> 12 years ago, I used linux
> by first time (red hat). I
> got bored quickly…
12 years is a long time, dude.
> Anyway, I came to realize that
> I just want to get my work done.
So, just install a decent *and* recent distro and start working, no problem there.
(With my favorite distribution, Sidux, installation on a blank system takes about 20 minutes, including updates and installation of missing software. Well, if you have to backup stuff already installed on the computer, it will take about half an hour longer or so.
There’s still enough time left to get a life or a gf or a bf, or a combination of these.)
We? WE? Stick to I. I hate it when people try to claim to represent me and my choices. I love Linux, I hate CLI, and yes I have had to learn some over the years but LIKE it no, no, no. This article is funny to me, because IMO one of Linux’s strengths is it’s individuality. If you don’t like Distro A, try Distro B. If you don’t like CLI (like me) there is probably a nice GUI front end for you to play with. I love Linux because it doesn’t try to put me in a box, unlike this article. We? No, there is no We here
It sure is a “we” as I feel that way too.
While what this article says is true, there are those of us who view computers as a tool to get something done. If the operating system that you’re running doesn’t allow this (or at least not quickly), then you’re better off with another one that does, including Windows! Many Linux users are too snobbish to admit this.
The point of the article is something that non Linux users have known for a long time: Linux is for people who want to screw around with their computer. This is exactly why most non-Linux users don’t use Linux. They see their computer as a tool to do a job quickly, and are unwilling to spend a week figuring out how to do it in Linux.
I’ll admit that there are things that various incarnations of Linux are much better suited for. Unfortunately I don’t do any of those things during my work day, and so Linux is an improper tool. Many people feel this way.
So at this point, Linux is not something that the general public will run, and won’t be until this obstacle is overcome. If Linux ever becomes the right operating system for people to run, they’ll do it.
The problem really stems from the user/designer paradigm that Linux systems are based on. Linux is good at doing what engineers and programmers want to do because engineers and programmers are the ones that have the expertise to tweak Linux. So why do other operating systems have easy interfaces for non technical users? Simple! Programmers make money by selling programs to these people. There is no economic incentive for Linux to be developed into this general a tool.
Finally, this is not a bug, it is a feature. Linux releases will continue to be good at what their good at, and bad at what their bad at. So in the end, it will serve it’s purpose as a great tool for certain kinds of jobs. Linux users should simply keep in mind that non-Linux users haven’t been tricked or cheated into not using Linux. Linux may simply not be the right tool for the job they’re trying to do.
What’s with this idea of changing to something else if Linux becomes popular. I *want* Linux to become popular so that I don’t have to buy Windows.
If you want something unpopular, try QNX. Even better still, go back to CP/M.
It’s about I started signing these too =)
Stuart
(there you are)
Another important reason why I use linux is because it works!
You can install a box, configure something on it and forget about it. The only problem you might run into from time to time is hardware related..
True, true, true
To the person who posted at 12:19.
One of the jobs that Linux is excellent at is providing services to the desktops of people like yourself who are too busy to be interested in such things.
I think you’ve every right to be too busy/important/whatever for Linux, but I think you should remember that you’re probably indirectly using Linux every day of your computing life.
Linux is a very usefull tool, for more than just enthusiasts. =)
Stuart
That is one piece of prime fact. Well said!
You write that one of the reasons you like to use Linux is because of control and stability.
I agree that control is important. Extremely important.
So how about even more control, and even more stability, in a gratis, open source operating system?
Think Linux? Think again - OpenSolaris is here to try out. More control, more stability, more innovation.
Somebody wrote in the comments that OpenSolaris is passing Linus and hate rethoric and drivers by with innovation. And they were right. There’s a fun OS that has put the bread on the table for so long on top of everything else.
OS is the heart of everything therfore it can’t be left to a single company. It must free.
The other reason is that when a suddenly need an hex editor I only haw to do: sudo apt-get khexedit
On Win I would haw to go on the internet, find a programme. I would have discoveded after installing it that it is only a trial version that will stop in 30 days.
I would be interested to try OpenSolaris. In my experience Solaris has been absolutely rock bloody solid (but only on the SPARC platform (yeah, I’ve been out of it for a while)) but it was also very expensive. I think about $35K a year per machine for the maintenance contract.
Will it still be as good when it’s free?
Stuart
I dont use Linux cause its fun. OSX is fun. Linux is nice, free, rock solid stable, transparent and whatever you want, but fun and with high usability is OSX