2 Years With Linux

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

This day marks my second year using Linux 100%. Didn't even once go back to Windows.

 

The main reason I left Windows, was the price. And the fact that 90% of my software was already open source.

 

I started out like most of you, Ubuntu. I tried different distros, and settled for a good year with Debian and its derivatives. (Crunchbang, Mint Debian, etc.)

 

Debian just, works. Apt-get... Greatest thing since sliced bread... Plus that Orange and Haggis uses it also.

 

Using Linux for so long, I get to repairing Win 7 on my Mom's computer. Took like 20 minutes to install. Oh, and then 100+ updates.... Takes a good 3 hours after many resets. :angry:  I can install Linux like 10x in that time...

 

Then about a year ago, my Dad started to like it, he asked me to install it along side of his Windows install. A few months later, he wiped his Windows partition out. It just is 10x easier with no antivirus, no malware to worry about, no defragging. He can easily reinstall Linux and be back to his humble self in about 10 minutes...

 

It just.... works for us....

[simonlang]

could not have said it any better. glad you are happy and convinced. :)

[torrentthief]

a lot more people would switch to linux if adobe creative suite and microsoft office were released on linux. microsoft has office on android and adobe has photoshop coming out on chrome o.s so it wouldn't be too difficult to release those on full blown linux if they wanted to. gimp, inkscape, libreoffice are okay alternatives but they can't compare to the real deal.

[Jaybonaut]

No defragging?  Fill me in.  I've never used Linux.

[Max Norris]

Almost ready to switch my primary desktop over myself. I've been using Unix and Linux for decades, but never as my primary OS, typically work remotely via SSH or a Windows X server. Biggest roadblock for me was gaming, way too many don't run well in Wine or a VM and not a fan of frequent dual-booting, and so far Steam's offerings are still very slim versus Windows... but just not playing much anymore, not really going to be a big deal now. The rest of the stuff I need to work with on a daily basis I can easily do in a VMWare box (namely Visual Studio and it's ginormous ecosystem, etc).. last time I used a *Nix OS as my primary was back in the late 70's and early 80's. Think it's long overdue. Probably switch over when Plasma 5 settles down and is fully stable/supported/etc.

 

No defragging?  Fill me in.  I've never used Linux.

Somewhat -- under "normal" circumstances it's quite resistant to it and smarter about how it lays files out, usually would rarely have to do it, if ever.. typically a non-issue until that partition creeps up to ~90% full or so, then there's just no avoiding fragmentation.

[Jaybonaut]

Then again, I'm a gamer, Twitch streamer, and Youtube content creator, and recording WINE output sounds like a nightmare.

[Guest]

No defragging?  Fill me in.  I've never used Linux.

 

You defrag under Windows? What are you using, XP?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Games were bit of a letdown for me also, but after Steam was going the Linux way, I'm like, if I ever get back into gaming, I have an alternative other than Wine.

[Jaybonaut]

You defrag under Windows? What are you using, XP?

 

Not consciously.  I use the scheduler in Win 7 on some of my drives.

[Shaun N.]

Then again, I'm a gamer, Twitch streamer, and Youtube content creator, and recording WINE output sounds like a nightmare.

 

 

I wish I could push to be 100% Linux but im too much like Jaybonaught. Oh and I have an AMD card and the drivers are a little ###### atm, next card is an Nvidia for sure.

[DoDonpachi]

It just is 10x easier with no antivirus, no malware to worry about, no defragging. He can easily reinstall Linux and be back to his humble self in about 10 minutes...

 

It just.... works for us....

 

Just vulnerabilities like Shellshock which went undiscovered from 1989 to 2014.

 

In all honestly i respect your OS choice as someone who uses Linux, OSX and Windows, however its always painful to see Linux users churn the same excuses about Windows out. If your capable of using Linux your likely have enough common sense not to get a Windows PC infected with malware.

[T3X4S]

Funny, I have Win7, Win8.1, and 10 TP - no AV, no defragging, no malware & I can install in 10 minutes (6:30 is the fastest)

And if I want to install a driver, tinker around with some settings - I dont need to do some rube-goldberg CLI

This battle will go on for a while, but until Linux is ready for mainstream - I will not give it any more of my time, and I used to have mint in a VM

[COKid]

And if I want to install a driver, tinker around with some settings - I dont need to do some rube-goldberg CLI

 

To each their own. A lot of the fun I have with Linux is precisely because of the Rube Goldberg aspect. :)

[simonlang]

Just vulnerabilities like Shellshock which went undiscovered from 1989 to 2014.

 

In all honestly i respect your OS choice as someone who uses Linux, OSX and Windows, however its always painful to see Linux users churn the same excuses about Windows out. If your capable of using Linux your likely have enough common sense not to get a Windows PC infected with malware.

 

but most people capable of using linux won't bother with windows anymore. the problem afaik are the windows only users, time and time again i had to spend hours to fix and clean their stuff, because they just click on a .exe file downloaded from some nice looking websites and it ends up in a mess.

the about 70 updates you have to install on a fresh win7 are also a fact and i find it hard to accept in modern times that such stuff won't downloaded and installed during the installation. i like to fire up a webbrowser while it's installing and browse the web. always possible with linux, yet not implemented with windows.

there are just many little things you start to value if you use linux longer, it really runs nice, fast stable and as KDE proves can look quite good with virtual desktops and effects are awesome.

[Ice_Blue]

The day that I can set up Linux on a random computer, and have it work out of the box, including recognising my (any) wi-fi adapter, without opening a terminal session, and do any driver upgrading without using the terminal, is when I will think about using Linux on a daily basis.

 

As it is now, Linux remains a geek OS.

 

This is why the "Year of Linux" is just your wet dream.

 

It ain't goin' nowhere.

[Gone]

I'm glad for you, but it seems for the rest of the world (excluding servers and certain hardware-specific applications), Linux is still useless.

 

I have used Ubuntu (for a year), Lubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat (back in the text days), Slackware, Mandrake, Knoppix, Suse, Crunchbang, and my latest favorite CentOS.

 

Ubuntu has been the easiest to setup as of lately and even its beginning. I like CentOS because it is pretty much useful out of the box when choosing specific applications upon installation. Nothing will ever compare to Windows XP and 7 any time soon, unless the whole world switches at once.

 

I have application specific needs that are both web based and regular stand-alone that are not available for Mac or Linux. I am a mechanic and have a subscription to a technical website which only allows the use of an outdated version of Internet Explorer (some problems in compatibility mode), which unfortunately is one of the better sites for info. They don't update their software because their user's apparently don't care and don't update their computer. A tech computer is only for looking up technical documentation.

 

Netflix. This is the real only reason I have yet to switch as of recent, as it relies on Silverlight. Microsoft does not provide any Linux/ Unix based version and thus I can't watch Netflix. Don't say go to Hulu or any other site, I use Netflix because I choose to. All my attempts at compiling a third party "Silverlight" for linux have succeeded in compiling, and failed in implementing into my web browsers. I am not going to run a virtual machine to watch movies.

 

Specific android modification software (the sweet, painful irony). It is best and sometimes only available on Windows, though the android SDK is available on all three platforms.

 

Those are my uses, go ask people that use computers at work for a living for anything other than typing text documents, spreadsheets, and browsing the web. Many companies use custom software written specifically for an outdated version of Windows, and anybody who has any business experience knows the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Requesting a port of a reliable application requires time, money, and a lot of debugging. Add that to the cost of a new linux system (yes it cost money to implement the software even if you do it yourself, as you are taking away from other task). The software may be free, time and custom setups are not.

 

Then you have companies that host a server on Linux or a BSD and use a Windows client....

[Max Norris]

Netflix. This is the real only reason I have yet to switch as of recent, as it relies on Silverlight. Microsoft does not provide any Linux/ Unix based version and thus I can't watch Netflix.

Just tossing this out there, and don't quote me as I don't use Netflix anymore, but could have swore I read somewhere that they're switching from Silverlight to HTML5.

[Unobscured Vision]

Netflix now works on Ubuntu (and, I assume, Mint) using Google Chrome natively and without hackery. :yes:

 

Gaming is getting better all the time on Ubuntu too. The AMD drivers are improving too, but I'll be the first one to tell you they aren't where they need to be.

 

Microsoft Office stuff works fine using the web-based interfaces. No need for native support anymore.

 

Admittedly there are still niggling little problems, as with everything else -- but we'll tell you honestly about them, ahead of time; and there are usually ways to fix those problems. Do you need to get your hands dirty? Occasionally. That's the best way to learn. It's MILES better than it used to be.

[HawkMan]

but most people capable of using linux won't bother with windows anymore.

 

 

Stop talking absolute BS. Guess what, I'm capable of running Linux, heck back when I was at uni and had spare time to waste VMs weren't feasible like today, I even install one of the first versions of that non package based Linux, the one that required you to print a 100 page manual to use diligently during install(no note slack crap).

 

Still today I don't even bother running it in VMs except every now and then. I've tried using it on some of my mediaboxes to save money, but its been more hassle than its been worth, so they where replaced with windows, since my time is worth something to, and I have better things to spend time on than tinkering with my OS. Especially when I can install an OS that just runs, works well, doesn't get viruses, easily works together with everything else, maintains itself and is more stable than any of the many many distros  I've tries. Its called windows.

 

I'm glad you're happy with your choice of Linux, but stop spreading BS and FUD and pretending you're part of some elitist club of special people.

 

 

Gaming is getting better all the time on Ubuntu too. The AMD drivers are improving too, but I'll be the first one to tell you they aren't where they need to be.

 

 

 

Well sure if indie games is what you want to play...

[Decebalvs Rex]

There are already new games for Tuxers, hot titles like Borderlands the Pre Sequel.

I wonder, how does Ubuntu feel like on a good SSD? I dislike it on a normal HDD, seems clunky to me! Also , any news on Unity? Perhaps some changes?

 

No chance I would use Linux as my main OS or for any productivity tasks but tinkering with it in my free time is fun!

[Max Norris]

There are already new games for Tuxers, hot titles like Borderlands the Pre Sequel.

Depends on what you're after, just looking at Steam there's a huge difference in the number of titles.. if it's a gamer-only setup I'd reconsider.

 

I wonder, how does Ubuntu feel like on a good SSD? I dislike it on a normal HDD, seems clunky to me! Also , any news on Unity? Perhaps some changes?

Just personal anecdotes here, so take it with a grain of salt -- boots up quite fast on an SSD and overall performance is good.. ish. Where it falls flat on its face is Unity. The menu is still stupidly slow (this is on a 6 core 4GHz system with 16GB), they keep making it less configurable with each release, and on top of it you still get some of the dumbing-down carryover from Gnome. (Nautilus, etc.) The GPU acceleration feels a little sluggish too, this is on a reasonably fast AMD with the Catalyst drivers mind you, seems a lot smoother on other desktops however.. it's just Unity that feels sluggish. I mostly like Ubuntu as a distro in general... as long as you're using somebody elses desktop to drive it.. the derivatives tends to run a lot better for me.. have had very good results with KDE, XFCE and Cinnamon. I'm mostly a fan of KDE myself, that one runs very well and doesn't try and dumb things down as far as flexibility goes.. an absurd amount of options you can mess with to get it "just right." Again, that's some opinion and also based on my particular setup so don't take it as gospel.

[HawkMan]

There are already new games for Tuxers, hot titles like Borderlands the Pre Sequel.

I wonder, how does Ubuntu feel like on a good SSD? I dislike it on a normal HDD, seems clunky to me! Also , any news on Unity? Perhaps some changes?

 

No chance I would use Linux as my main OS or for any productivity tasks but tinkering with it in my free time is fun!

 

that wasn't an astoundingly long list of AAA games there ;)   not to mention that borderlands will be just ore of the same of what you already played in the first to, which is ok if that's all you want. but it hardly makes linux game friendly or linux stem an astounding success. 

[Joshie]

Just vulnerabilities like Shellshock which went undiscovered from 1989 to 2014.

 

In all honestly i respect your OS choice as someone who uses Linux, OSX and Windows, however its always painful to see Linux users churn the same excuses about Windows out. If your capable of using Linux your likely have enough common sense not to get a Windows PC infected with malware.

They're the same excuses because they're coming from the same people that used them ten years ago. It usually betrays a bit of a disconnect from what Windows is actually like today. Very similar to the Mac user who still thinks BSOD jokes are fresh humor.

 

I enjoy using Linux on the systems I have it installed on, but two facts say the most about it: (1) I only bother with it on obsolete computers, and (2) Windows is still the more enjoyable environment out of the box. The Linux community has spent 20 years not deciding whether Linux "just works" or "can be what you need if you just RTFM and customize it". So far, its only examples of everyday-user success are when products bury the kernel deep beneath a proprietary, commercially branded product or ecosystem. On its own, it has nothing to offer consumers.

[Krome]

Dang it I am trying to get the 1TB SSD drive but someone is postponing my order process and it's slowing this.  Once I get the 1TB SSD, I can start the darn *nix path.  I want to experience this *nix OS once again and see what happen, but not till I get this drive. :/

[ichi]

On its own, it has nothing to offer consumers.

 

Hey, I'm a consumer too  :D without going into technical details it does at the very least offer the envy looks from some coworkers and customers (some of which don't even know what it is) when they see how I work using it.