Where does Linux stand in your life?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

For me Linux is something I play with in a VM or via live CD once in a while. Using it as main OS is just not an option.

[Xahid]

All my Servers are based on Linux :)

and my Android Phone too :D

for Desktop, I use Win7 !

[Andre S. Veteran]

It's nice for secondary OSes because it's free, no cd-key, activation etc. But I'd have to give up on nearly all my favorite software to make it my main OS so forget it. I get Windows for free anyway. :laugh:

[Jen Smith]

Hate Linux. Had so many nightmares and I can't be bothered to go google just to search for some idiot commandline method to do some petty tasks. Ubuntu may have improved but still far away compared to easiness of Windows and OSX.

Actually one of the reasons I like *Nix in general.. the tools available at a terminal level are absurdly powerful. Nothing "idiot" about it, once you get the hang of it you can do things so much quicker than by clicking through various dialogs and windows, or if you're trying to do something fairly complicated it's typically near impossible to do automatically through a GUI. Although I do agree with your point, there are a few areas yet that could use better "GUI refinement" so novice users wouldn't have to bring up a terminal in the first place if thats their choice.

[mps69]

Hate Linux. Had so many nightmares and I can't be bothered to go google just to search for some idiot commandline method to do some petty tasks. Ubuntu may have improved but still far away compared to easiness of Windows and OSX.

Suppose this is could be the fault of Windows and OSX for making the end user lazy, and just happy to click a few GUI buttons just to make life easier. :rolleyes:

If we all were brought up using command line, and terminal we'd thing Linux was the best thing since slide bread.

Just a thought.

[azure.sapphire]

It was mainly a server situation with me at the moment, though that might be changing. I am not sure. I have it with intranet server, backup server elect. My main two systems are Windows based, though I do have a couple of VMS with various distros.

[OuchOfDeath]

Actually one of the reasons I like *Nix in general.. the tools available at a terminal level are absurdly powerful. Nothing "idiot" about it, once you get the hang of it you can do things so much quicker than by clicking through various dialogs and windows, or if you're trying to do something fairly complicated it's typically near impossible to do automatically through a GUI. Although I do agree with your point, there are a few areas yet that could use better "GUI refinement" so novice users wouldn't have to bring up a terminal in the first place if thats their choice.

A bit ago I was having a conversation with a friend as to why the terminal browsers sucked so much. The whole premise of using Linux without X is fantastic in its own way. You can actually have a mostly fully functioning "desktop" setup with only the terminal and programs that run in it. Pidgin has a CLI client. There's of course VI/Emacs/Nano. File browsing is obvious. MPlayer can play mostly any audio or video file due to having a framebuffer frontend for the video. All of this covers most of the standard "Desktop". What's missing is a solid CLI browser. I thought it so odd that if there's an API to render a video file then why hasn't it be suited to a browser? From what I was told by said friend, a browser implementation of this would be unbelievably complicated. Nonetheless, I found it odd that nobody had tried to make a more "modern" CLI browser. It seems like Linux is filled with strange implementations of everything simply for the "Just because we can" reason. I really thought some insane nerd would take up the crazy and generally redundant task of implementing a modern browser in the terminal.

Well, today I have learned that such a browser exists. http://links.twibright.com/features.php

The standard links2 browser has a "graphical" mode that's activated with the -g flag. With the proper backend, defaulting to either "fb" or "directfb" 'display backend' (who am I to know the difference), you get a CLI browser with a mouse and the ability to render picture files of most kinds. I haven't spent too much time with it but most sites are quite readable, and all of this done in the Linux terminal.

I love Linux for having such an incredibly powerful terminal environment. With all of this, if your graphics driver blows up or the xserver breaks for some unkown reason, you can go about all your normal "desktop" tasks as if nothing went wrong. It's amazing. It's also all in the terminal. So cool. I love the terminal.

[AltNet]

It doesn't.

[HankBukowski]

Using Natty as my main and only system on my Macbook Pro. Will use it untill this machine dies, many years from now.

[soldier1st]

for a time i ran it but had a few issues so i went back to windows till i get a new pc.

[Mouldy Punk]

I removed the crippled Linux distro they supplied with my netbook and installed the more useful Ubuntu distro which I use on a daily basis. I set up Centos on my VPS which hosts a few commercial websites and I set up Debian on my home server. My main PC is Windows though.

[Witt3439]

I'm now using Ubuntu exclusively (I was using Windows 7 Enterprise x64 SP1). I just installed 11.04 beta 2, it runs fast and smooth and my wired and wireless both work when I need them to. I'm now anxiously waiting on the final to be released in a couple of weeks.

It's definitely been a slight learning curve (about as much as going from XP to Vista was for me), but fortunately there are a lot of online resources available and I feel very comfortable using Linux now.

[TK8]

I use to resolve computer problems by a bootable linux.

[Beardednerd]

I do 99% of my work within Linux. I do still have Windows 7 installed for the occasional gaming weekend, but such events are beginning to grow months apart. I feel I will remove it soon so I can use the drive space to experiment with different distributions.

[Florals]

Currently dual booting my laptop with Windows Vista (sadface) and Ubuntu 10.10, however the Windows partition has been giving me all sorts of problems for a long time so I think I'm just going to ditch it and go Ubuntu-only; definitely interested in trying 11.04, too. I would quite like to go completely Windows-free but I'm obliged to use Microsoft Office 2007 with Endnote referencing software, and while OpenOffice is a competent alternative to Microsoft Office it's not quite there and the compatibility between the two is sometimes a bit iffy. As a result I have a netbook running Windows 7 with Microsoft Office.

[Mr. Dee]

I have Ubuntu 10.10 running in a VM on Windows 7 Ultimate 7 64 bit SP1. That is where I see it for me and nothing else, just experimental and curiosity.

[Lant]

In virtualbox to host a server or two on my desktop, and on uni computers its all RHEL5

[therat]

Using Ubuntu in a VM for experimenting with

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

I've been using Ubuntu for nearly four years as my only OS. :shifty:

[Grinch]

"Where does linux stand in your life?"

In my trashcan. :D

No, seriously. Its only something I play around with now and then but I still use Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 as my primary operating systems. I do have OS X 10.6.7 installed on my desktop but rarely boot into it. Once you get a hackintosh working its not as much fun anymore. :(

[CyberManifest]

The only computer I have (besides my iPad, iPhone, and iPod), is a MSI Wind U100-420 Netbook with upgraded RAM to 2 GB and upgraded Hard Disk Drive to 500GB. I triple boot Apple Mac OS X (Snow Leopard 10.6.7), Microsoft Windows 7 (Ultimate Edition), and Linux Mint 9 (Isadora LTS Edition) on it. Mac OS X is my primary operating system I use on a daily basis. I have Windows 7 around for extensive gaming and compatibility with the outside world. I have Linux around for fun, experimenting, learning, and just general all around hacking. I love my setup and it works well for me. I hope my next computer system is a full Apple branded one. Note: I do a lot of experimenting with Linux on removable media like USB thumb drives and SD memory cards. I have MS-DOS 7 on a SD Mem Card, Arch Linux on a SD Mem Card, and all the above mentioned OS installations on USB thumb drives. I can pop in a SD card whenever I'm feeling nostalgic and wanna boot into a strictly DOS environment to use programs like AUTO MENU or the old school MS Works or old DOS games. The same can be said for Arch Linux; I can just pop it in and boot up and there I am in a full blown Linux Environment! And if my system ever becomes unstable or needs repair, I have Windows 7 Installation on a USB Thumb Drive, I have Mac OSX installation on a Thumb Drive, and I have Linux Mint Installation on a Thumb Drive; makes reinstallations fast and easy.

Here is a basic Idea of what my boot screen looks like (Not Exactly, as I have different Labels like "Macintosh" instead of "OSX" or "Leopard", no Chameleon Disc option, and I'm not running in a Virtual Box; but you get the idea. It was the only screens I could find and I don't know how to take snap shots at boot.):