Why Use Linux?

Guitarman0

Guitarman0

Guitarman0

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I am complete Linux noob and just wanted to know, why do you guys chose Linux over Windows or OSX? Obviously there is the fact that it is free but what other reasons do you have?

I am just curious because all I have ever used is Windows and OSX and am tempted to try Linux.

Thanks :)
 
I use it on my laptop because:
- It is free (I only have a vista license)
- Its quick
- It does everything I need for my laptop
- It is different

Give it a go. You may like it.
 
Since Linux distributions are just a collection of different bits of open source software the best thing about it is being able to security/program update EVERYTHING in one simple go. Instead of (taking Windows as an example) having to go through say: Microsoft Update, Adobe Update, Google Update, Apple Software Update, Java Auto-Updater and whatever programs just include it in the program itself.

Nothing on Windows or Mac OS X can come close to the beauty of:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y

^^Fancy way of saying update the list of packages available and update all the ones on the system without asking for confirmation ;)

Or whatever package manager/GUI method you/your distro use/s :)
 
It's free
It's a lot faster than Windows
It's fun messing about with a completely different OS, especially one that gives you a better understanding of computers
Terminal access on Windows is messy at best
 
hybrid572 said:
Also, OSX is actually built on top of Linux, just FYI.
Click to expand...

OS X is a variant of BSD, another UNIX-like operating system. It's not derived from Linux in any way.

I don't use it on my desktop because I'd rather have a usable PC all the time than something I have to fix every other week (just my experiences)
I have it on my home server though because it's what I know and I like tinkering with it without compromising my main computer. I don't know if it'd be any better than the equivalent offering from MS though, as I've never used any of their server operating systems.
 
The thing with Linux is that it allows you to see exactly what is going on within the system instead of hiding it from view. Hence you can get a better understanding of how different elements are hanging together to provide you with the system as a whole.

Combine that with powerful tools to view and manipulate this information and you can end up doing some remarkable things with it.
 
1/ Linux can be obscene amounts faster than windows
2/ If something is broken, and you're willing to put the effort in, you can fix it yourself
3/ Related to 2, you can actually read the source code to find out how it works
4/ Completely neglecting security doesn't go wrong as fast as it does on windows

Fillado said:
Nothing on Windows or Mac OS X can come close to the beauty of:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y
Click to expand...

I quite like, as an alternative to Fillado's,
Code: 
for i in update upgrade dist-upgrade; do apt-get $i -y; done

Which leads to 5/ There's usually many, many ways of achieving the same result
 
memyselfandi said:
The thing with Linux is that it allows you to see exactly what is going on within the system instead of hiding it from view. Hence you can get a better understanding of how different elements are hanging together to provide you with the system as a whole.

Combine that with powerful tools to view and manipulate this information and you can end up doing some remarkable things with it.
Click to expand...

Cost and the above are two of it's strongest points for me.

I can have a server grade OS with it's own scripting language for running batch jobs and add something like Perl if I would like too.

I can see under the hood, link programs via scripts so one will act depending on the state of another and without the need in a lot of cases to compile code.

I dislike the "it works or it doesn't" type of mentality forced in the Windows environment. Linux allows you to 'fiddle'. If you are not careful it also allows you to cause big problems for yourself :D.

A good deal of software which costs on Windows has a free version on Linux to do more or less the same thing (sometimes better, sometimes worse).

Saying that, I play games so have a PC for my main machine and Linux on my PC-Nas and torrent boxes.

I use Solaris at work so that may influence my view a little ;).

RB
 
Thanks for the replies guys, really useful :D I have downloaded three versions to test: Ubuntu, Mandriva and Mint. Will give them a go tonight. Any more suggestions?
 
russ0r said:
OS X is a variant of BSD, another UNIX-like operating system. It's not derived from Linux in any way.

I don't use it on my desktop because I'd rather have a usable PC all the time than something I have to fix every other week (just my experiences)
I have it on my home server though because it's what I know and I like tinkering with it without compromising my main computer. I don't know if it'd be any better than the equivalent offering from MS though, as I've never used any of their server operating systems.
Click to expand...

I love how mad people get when I say that Linux and BSD are basically the same thing.
 
hybrid572 said:
I love how mad people get when I say that Linux and BSD are basically the same thing.
Click to expand...
I don't see anyone getting mad, it's just that you provided a "FYI" and the "I" was incorrect. If I went onto a biology forum and said: "Humans are actually descended from chimpanzees, just FYI", it would be a similar kind of misunderstanding, and I'd expect to be pulled up on it.

It might *seem* a trivial issue, but there's no point in letting someone start out with a misconception which could lead to confusion further down the line. :)
 
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