Ubuntu at home, Fedora at work. Why...
- Because it makes my job a great deal easier than using Windows, and OSX+hardware is far too pricey when weighed against the potential benefits over Linux. All the development tools I use can be set up wiithout being brought close to tears, and they're usually optimally run on Linux. Like not having to jump through hoops just to ssh to a server, grab something from cvs or sync a directory from another machine.
- I'm also a fan of open-source, and appreciate the great community, plentiful resources and forward thinking in a lot of [application] development for Linux.
- Using a distro like Ubuntu means 99% of the things I need are just a click away. No need to go hunting for a suitable piece of software, all the best stuff's already been collected together and made available in the repositories (mostly!). ...except if you have to use yum (Fedora/Redhat), which is totally rubbish and far slower than just going to tucows/cnet and clicking 'run now' in Windows.
- Having a decent native terminal/shell. I don't get the point of 'cmd' - I must have skipped that chapter.
- System updates are as simple and hassle-free as in Windows i.e. automated, but Linux comes with the benefit of having your applications automatically patched and updated from a single point too. I like having the latest stuff with the minimum of effort.
- However, I do enjoy simply having the option of being able to compile an application from source that I go on to use. It's like having a child. The process of creating it is completely brainless, doesn't require any real effort and is usually over in a minute, but it results in a great feeling of satisfaction when you can say 'I made that' at the end of it. And it's a little bit exciting too when all those words and numbers are flying down the screen - makes you feel clever and gives you the warm glow of geeky superiority. I normally F11 my terminal and run top if any hot chicks walk past. Seriously though, terminals are awesome ways to make it look like you're doing lots of hard work (if only they could make youtube work in a textmode browser).
That's not to say I don't have issues with Linux. It's far from perfect, and probably given me more headaches than using Windows ever has. The biggest problem with Linux is that it promotes fiddling with your system, which makes it much easier to break than Windows.
I bust my first Gentoo install by rm -rfing something in /dev when trying to get my soundcard working - I had
no idea what I was doing. But, hey, at least I had complete control of it. And just last week I finally got wireless working in Ubuntu Gutsy by wiping my slower, upgraded Edgy install -riced up with one million and one dodgy libraries installed as dependencies of some applications I never used- and reinstalling (not a familiar scenario there)... and then manually disabling IPv6 support... and then removing the network manager... and then installing a third-party application that still only half works. Oh, that was after booting into Windows to download the install CD from the working wireless connection.
I still need Windows to make music, run a decent photo/graphics editor and to play games. Honestly, if I didn't have an interest in development/programming I don't think I'd use Linux. As such I never advocate it to less technically-inclined friends. They can all either afford the not-actually-that-expensive Windows licence or it comes 'free' with their new laptop/desktop and I can't see that they would benefit from anything Linux does better.
Still, for all its foibles, I do really actually love Linux and can't imagine using anything else as my main OS.
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