proving my sister wrong, why Linux can be better

[Simon Veteran]

I just got out of a debate with my sister who tried to prove that Linux was obsolete, useless, non-user friendly, insecure and unstable. Also, she tried to prove that Windows was the server standard.

While I know all of this is not true, I'm not good at fighting back. So, can you guys help me prove to here that Linux is not nessecairily better than windows, but ha its advantages.

I did an article called Linux vs. Windows, and showed my self that Windows and Linux are even, but its not easy to prove to someone who's bussiness lost "everything" because if Linux.

[Morgan]

First off its FAR from obsolete, it's probably one of the most updated operating systems in the world. Useless?? Umm wrong again. It's extremely useful. Non-User friendly...again, completely wrong. Comes with a intuative GUI. Insecure...ok, she just needs to be shot in the skull. I'm done.

[raid517]

Well ask your sister to post here why she thinks Windows is better than Linux.

We will see then how long she lasts.

We can't argue with her if we don't know what her arguments are - and we certainly can't ague with her by proxy. (Which mean through you).

But it will be interesting to debate with a girl who thinks she knows about computers. I'm not saying it never happens, but it's still pretty rare.

GJ

[Simon Veteran]

Well, her boyfriend is what my friends refferred to as a "Windows notsy", so I might not be able to win, even if I'm right.

[jimbo11883]

Dude get them both to join Neowin and come to this topic... should be fun! :woot:

Seriously though, some people just need schoolin' yo.

[j79zlr]

Uh, hmm, well there is really no way to argue that Windows is more secure than Linux, just take a look at security advisories:

http://secunia.com/product/339/ That is for Getnoo, note that there are lots of patched, I should all vulnerabilities patched, but that is because they include all software available in their numbers, e.g. Windows doesn't include Mozilla vulnerabilities, but these numbers do.

http://secunia.com/product/22/ Hmm, almost a quarter of the known vulnerabilities are unpatched, some for years.

Unstable? Not really, well it depends on what you are doing with your box, to be honest I find neither my Gentoo 2.6.12 kernel box or my XP Pro SP2 box to be unstable at all.

Obsolete? Lets see, Windows hasn't really undergone any major changes since WinNT and to a lesser extent Win2k. That is over five years since any real changes have been made, OSS and the linux kernel are constantly evolving.

User friendliness, well if you grew up using Linux, windows might seem to be kind of difficult as well, I find linux easier to manage than Windows, and I've used both for several years.

Server standard? Really neither are, most really large servers are still running some form of true UNIX, like Solaris, AIX, HP-UX et al. As far as web servers, take a look at the Netcraft server survey:

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html

Looks like about 70% running Apache, 20% running IIS. I would assume most of those servers running apache aren't running Windows.

[Marshalus Veteran]

Has she ever actually used Linux on a long term basis?

[spvath]

Uh, hmm, well there is really no way to argue that Windows is more secure than Linux, just take a look at security advisories:

http://secunia.com/product/339/ That is for Getnoo, note that there are lots of patched, I should all vulnerabilities patched, but that is because they include all software available in their numbers, e.g. Windows doesn't include Mozilla vulnerabilities, but these numbers do.

http://secunia.com/product/22/ Hmm, almost a quarter of the known vulnerabilities are unpatched, some for years.

Unstable?  Not really, well it depends on what you are doing with your box, to be honest I find neither my Gentoo 2.6.12 kernel box or my XP Pro SP2 box to be unstable at all.

Obsolete?  Lets see, Windows hasn't really undergone any major changes since WinNT and to a lesser extent Win2k.  That is over five years since any real changes have been made, OSS and the linux kernel are constantly evolving.

User friendliness, well if you grew up using Linux, windows might seem to be kind of difficult as well, I find linux easier to manage than Windows, and I've used both for several years.

Server standard?  Really neither are, most really large servers are still running some form of true UNIX, like Solaris, AIX, HP-UX et al.  As far as web servers, take a look at the Netcraft server survey:

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html

Looks like about 70% running Apache, 20% running IIS.  I would assume most of those servers running apache aren't running Windows.

586505715[/snapback]

very well said

[markwolfe Veteran]

I did an article called Linux vs. Windows, and showed my self that Windows and Linux are even, but its not easy to prove to someone who's bussiness lost "everything" because if Linux.

586505413[/snapback]

I am interested in this part.

What do you mean by that? What does one "lose" to Linux, unless you are a Microsoft account manager, and a business you had as a customer decided to switch to Linux. :unsure:

[Marshalus Veteran]

I lost my viginity to Linux, but that's a whole other story.

[Simon Veteran]

Apparently, the server screwed up and they lost all their data. But that could be explained by many reasons, an old kernel/version, using a pre-release version, or someone running a bad command as root.

[raid517]

Or he could be talking BS.

Just a thought.

GJ

[j79zlr]

or he should know better than to have a server that doesn't have a full backup ready at all times, hard drives can fail on all OS.

[Lexxan]

Yes her arguments are quite horrible.. but yes it is a POS desktop system that the general public will never use. Just nerds like me & neowinians like to use it to learn new avenues.

[pickleman]

but yes it is a POS desktop system that the general public will never use

THAT my friends is the very reason why Windows will always be better than Linux.

[dduardo]

Just look at what operating system the top supercomputer's in the world are using:

http://www.top500.org/lists/plists.php?Y=2005&M=06

Your not going to find Windows doing any type of 3d nuclear detonation simulations.

http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.co...i927983,00.html

Also, if it wasn't for linux, we wouldn't have the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Shrek, Star wars, etc.

For example, Dreamwork employees use this:

The xw8000 workstation featured Red Hat Linux 7.2, dual-Intel Xeon 2.4GHz processors, nVidia Quadro 4 XGL graphics cards, 2GB Ram and dual monitors.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2125356/...ind-magic-shrek

[markwolfe Veteran]

THAT my friends is the very reason why Windows will always be better than Linux.

586507296[/snapback]

People who use absolutes are quite frequently wrong. ;)

Linux has many situations where it is the better solution.

[pickleman]

Linux has many situations where it is the better solution.

That may be true but it matters little to the general public who far and large use Windows based systems. Maybe in the Techno world Linux has a foothold but in the grand scale of things..who cares? Certainly not my nieghbors or my nieghbors nieghbors. If Linux doesn't get a foot in the Desktop/general public world then it will always be a second fiddle to Windows.

[markwolfe Veteran]

That may be true but it matters little to the general public who far and large use Windows based systems. Maybe in the Techno world Linux has a foothold but in the grand scale of things..who cares? Certainly not my nieghbors or my nieghbors nieghbors. If Linux doesn't get a foot in the Desktop/general public world then it will always be a second fiddle to Windows.

586507408[/snapback]

That isn't the topic of this thread at all.

Perhaps you meant to create a new thread to discuss this topic? :whistle:

[Fred Derf Veteran]

There is no winning or losing to this argument. Linux is neither better nor worse than Windows.

Some people like it, some do not. One may have some advantages over the other but it comes down to what people thinks is important to them.

[raid517]

THAT my friends is the very reason why Windows will always be better than Linux.

What a plonker! I don't just 'mess about with linux' - I use it every day to do virtually all of my computing work - as do most other 'proper' Linux users. I invite you to try my desktop - that of a true hard core Linux user who knows how to get everything to work "just right" - and then tell me what you think makes Linux such a terrible desktop? My Linux desktop (in pure functionality terms) would blow most Windows desktops out of the water - given that most Windows users don't even know how to configure their MS desktops properly.

Some n00bs might think Linux is a POS desktop - but all that shows is how little about linux they know and that they are really probably total n00bs.

It might not be easy to set up a Linux destop properly - but hey you know what? I don't care. In fact the tougher it is, the better I like it - because it helps to scare of all the would be windows dweeps and prevents them from endlessly plauging me with pointless dumb questions.

We still get one or two here though - but thankfully they never seem to last that long.

GJ

[raid517]

That may be true but it matters little to the general public who far and large use Windows based systems. Maybe in the Techno world Linux has a foothold but in the grand scale of things..who cares? Certainly not my nieghbors or my nieghbors nieghbors. If Linux doesn't get a foot in the Desktop/general public world then it will always be a second fiddle to Windows.

Guess what? We don't care. That's the way we like it. We couldn't care less if you, your neighbour, or your neighbour's neigibour ever learn to use Linux. Indeed I would prefer it if they didn't - not if they bring the same level of competance to Linux that most MS users display on their Windows machines.

So we shall just keep it our little secret shall we? Just make sure you don't go blabbing your mouth off to everyone about it - because that really and genuinely is exactly what we don't want. ;)

GJ

[Barney T. Administrators]

There is no winning or losing to this argument.  Linux is neither better no worse than Windows.

Some people like it, some do not.  One may have some advantages over the other but it comes down to what people thinks is important to them.

586507422[/snapback]

This is so true. Why try to pursuade someone who is dead set against Linux? If they like Windows, then let them have at it. It's no skin off our noses. I, as well as others here, are just as happy doing our thing regardless of what others think.

It would be nice to dispell the confusion and wrong thoughts about Linux, but the misconceptions of others won't dilute our joy with this OS.

Barney

[morca007]

That may be true but it matters little to the general public who far and large use Windows based systems. Maybe in the Techno world Linux has a foothold but in the grand scale of things..who cares? Certainly not my nieghbors or my nieghbors nieghbors. If Linux doesn't get a foot in the Desktop/general public world then it will always be a second fiddle to Windows.

586507408[/snapback]

I have to say that it is gaining desktop use, just not in the US. Check out south america, in Brazil it is gaining lots of acceptance.

/Said the windows user.

[ichi]

Red is better than green. I mean really, green is obsolete and not user friendly, while red is apples' standard colour. Plus those likeing green are just zealous red-haters :shifty: :happy: