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#1 2005-01-27 14:34:51

ylikone
Member
From: Southern Ontario
Registered: 2004-12-17
Posts: 45
Website

Why do you run Linux?

I would like to know what motivates people to run Linux.

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#2 2005-01-27 14:41:07

miqorz
Member
Registered: 2004-12-31
Posts: 475

Re: Why do you run Linux?

Where's the "because I like it" option? Dumbass..


http://wiki2.archlinux.org/

Read it. Love it. Live it. Or die.

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#3 2005-01-27 14:47:06

ylikone
Member
From: Southern Ontario
Registered: 2004-12-17
Posts: 45
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

But why do you like it, dumbass?

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#4 2005-01-27 14:50:54

miqorz
Member
Registered: 2004-12-31
Posts: 475

Re: Why do you run Linux?

A little known and hardly accepted thing called personal preference.


http://wiki2.archlinux.org/

Read it. Love it. Live it. Or die.

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#5 2005-01-27 16:10:35

kakabaratruskia
Member
From: Santiago, Chile
Registered: 2003-08-24
Posts: 596

Re: Why do you run Linux?

Because I got a phone call from a guy, telling me I was the one.


And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you though?
They're all resting down in Cornwall
writing up their memoirs for a paper-back edition
of the Boy Scout Manual.

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#6 2005-01-27 16:34:31

timmy
Member
From: Christiansfeld - Denmark
Registered: 2005-01-25
Posts: 45
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

kakabaratruskia wrote:

Because I got a phone call from a guy, telling me I was the one.

Hahahah.


Well i run it because of the freedom, mostly iguess, also because it's easy. I mean the most guy know windows, but doesn't know it very good, if you want to setup something most people gets lost, and aren't sure where they should set it up.
Linux is so easy, at least when you're used to it smile


Know your rights - http://rwxr-xr-x.dk

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#7 2005-01-27 17:04:58

mico
Member
From: Slovenia
Registered: 2004-02-08
Posts: 247

Re: Why do you run Linux?

In the first place: stability and reliability. No need to reinstall after a few months, even after several years it still works as it should. Though it is also nice that linux and most applications for linux are free (beer AND speech).

On BSDs many things/features home users need don't work or are at lest very hard to setup. Mac is way too expensive. Windows is simply crap. That pretty much leaves only linux for me. Not trying to argue about OSs, just expressing my personal view here.

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#8 2005-01-27 21:25:39

Alkimyst
Member
Registered: 2004-12-04
Posts: 16

Re: Why do you run Linux?

Other -> All of the above.

Windows is pretty much crap and a Mac is too expensive...

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#9 2005-01-27 21:55:33

tranquility
Member
From: Portugal
Registered: 2004-08-06
Posts: 136

Re: Why do you run Linux?

All three and coz I like it.

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#10 2005-01-27 22:12:25

cactus
Taco Eater
From: t͈̫̹ͨa͖͕͎̱͈ͨ͆ć̥̖̝o̫̫̼s͈̭̱̞͍̃!̰
Registered: 2004-05-25
Posts: 4,622
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

Started using it for two reasons:
1) Because of school. It was just so much easier to program on a linux system (dev tools).
2) Prestige..In all honesty, the "cool" guys in CS were using it when I started as a freshman. I really didn't know that much about it, but they told me it was good. So I tried it out. That was *counts on fingers* 6 years ago..

Reasons for continued use:
As I have gotten older, and more opinionated, I have associated more with the philosophy and idealogy of Free Software. That is one reason.
Another is the $$. I can setup a robust, secure, enterprise level environment for myself at home, with no further cost than cheap x86 hardware. This is another reason, although admittedly a secondary one. I have paid for CD's from various distributions, because I thought they were worth it, and to help support the projects.
Quality is also a big deal for me. The fact that quality comes in a cheap wrapping is even more of a plus.
Being a dev, I also love having access to the code. I don't look at the code for every peice of software that I use, but it is damn comforting to know that if I needed to, it is there. The times that I have wanted to change something, it was actually possible. The empowering feeling of being able to do such a thing is pretty damn addictive.Ever fix your car yourself? Same type of feeling. Plus, it is cheaper.
wink


"Be conservative in what you send; be liberal in what you accept." -- Postel's Law
"tacos" -- Cactus' Law
"t̥͍͎̪̪͗a̴̻̩͈͚ͨc̠o̩̙͈ͫͅs͙͎̙͊ ͔͇̫̜t͎̳̀a̜̞̗ͩc̗͍͚o̲̯̿s̖̣̤̙͌ ̖̜̈ț̰̫͓ạ̪͖̳c̲͎͕̰̯̃̈o͉ͅs̪ͪ ̜̻̖̜͕" -- -̖͚̫̙̓-̺̠͇ͤ̃ ̜̪̜ͯZ͔̗̭̞ͪA̝͈̙͖̩L͉̠̺͓G̙̞̦͖O̳̗͍

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#11 2005-01-27 23:04:53

celeron2002
Member
From: Santiago, Chile.
Registered: 2004-02-18
Posts: 150

Re: Why do you run Linux?

mainly, because i like the fredoom big_smile .


irc.bsd.cl #linux
irc.freenode.org #archlinux-es

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#12 2005-01-27 23:20:01

dp
Member
From: Zürich, Switzerland
Registered: 2003-05-27
Posts: 3,378
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

there are many reasons

- UNIX is too expensive
- it's free
- it's updated frequently
- it's transperent (you know (if you know, where to look) what code does what thing)
- it has a nice licence (=> freedom)
- it is powerfull (~4'000 apps)
- it does not crash, when important tasks are to be done
- the diversity of apps available is great (you don't like gnome? there is kde! you don't like kde, there is xfce4 ... you don't know vi? (learn it!) there is kwrite ...)
- the configuration/user-management is clean (compared to registry and other "strange waters")
- it's the only platform i know, that is suited for normal developement (compare your nice colour-full bash-script in kwrite to autoexec.bat in notepad ... what looks better? ;-) )
- ...

maybe the main reason:
it does not make you nervous while working on it in expecation that it might crash, try to auto-upgrade itself, install viruses from the internet or send your files to some server on the internet without you knowing .... you can fully concentrate on the task you are to do!

-> of course Sarah31 will tell you, that OS-X also does most of these features. the only difference: OS-X is not free (free of companies, free of government, "transperent")
-> of course, there is FreeBSD and other free Unix-similar OS's ... and as they are in most points the same, it simply does not matter, what kernel you boot ... my personal preference is linux


The impossible missions are the only ones which succeed.

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#13 2005-01-28 00:10:19

kth5
Member
Registered: 2004-04-29
Posts: 657
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

i cannot agree more with you dp.

i decided to give SuSE 5.2 a try back in 95/96 when it came on a CD with a magazine i frequently bought (don't know its name anymore, but i believe they're out of business by now) since i thought it was cool and "hackerish". man, how naive of me. how old i was? hmm... *counts* 12/13 yo! big_smile
after that i only tried those minimal cd distros that came with the mags since i didn't have any kind of connection to the internet that was inexpensive enough to download 100'reds of megs software. i went on with windows... shame on me.

when i moved out from home to go to "high school" i and moved into a dorm full of geeks, i had access to all apps ppl downloaded and slowly started to seriously consider GNU/Linux as an alternative to win32.

in theory i spent about 6 years with GNU/Linux as sole OS on my boxes for desktop and server-use.

why? because i prefer it over any other OS out there:
1) windows : too proprietory, buggy, in-flexible and expensive. and most importantly: undocumented unless you pay hell lots of money for you mcse or whatever + it spies on you.
on top of it it doesn't have any kind of community you could discuss problems like one could with all other "more open" OSes.
oh right... package management? lol

2) macosx : hardware that it runs on does not offer me too much freedom and cheap upgrades (still like the ppc concepts though)
3) *bsd: lack of hardware support, compile from source only (ports)
4) beos : too old, unsupported, lack of software and drivers but damn fast and stable. (hoping for haiku to be usable)

GNU/Linux: just right, not perfect but enough for me big_smile


I recognize that while theory and practice are, in theory, the same, they are, in practice, different. -Mark Mitchell

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#14 2005-01-28 04:09:30

neotuli
Lazy Developer
From: London, UK
Registered: 2004-07-06
Posts: 1,204
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

It's kinda interesting that I'm not quite so sure why I started using Linux, I just sort of did. It was 7th grade, and I felt as though I'd conquered the windows world (...if that's possible), and was looking for something new and exciting. I painstakingly (I had dialup) downloaded three CD's worth of Linux and installed it, ever since, I've been a big fan (I don't run windows anymore). I finally found a world that is constantly in flux (which keeps things interesting), and that I can, beleive it or not, interact with and possibly (someday) change its course or influence in some way. And if I cannot do that, then I'll just create my own world based on the other one by modifying what I need to.

This is the power of free, community-based, software, and it feels good.
This, is why I run Linux.


The suggestion box only accepts patches.

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#15 2005-01-28 04:33:34

rasat
Forum Fellow
From: Finland, working in Romania
Registered: 2002-12-27
Posts: 2,293
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

Few years ago I had a list of reasons why using Linux similar what said here. But its not the bottom line reason. Whenever I tell to a Window or Mac user the reasons, its for them like "and then.... what" except they lift their eyes when hearing Linux is not affected by virus. It seems only active Linux users understand the reason and among them there is no proper words how to communicate about it, except: <b>it just works for me</b>.

I think the idea behind the reason of using Linux, is to know what you want.  wink


Markku

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#16 2005-01-28 05:22:27

iBertus
Member
From: Greenville, NC
Registered: 2004-11-04
Posts: 2,228

Re: Why do you run Linux?

I first began looking into linux a few years back while attending a university that had huge amounts of linux support (NC State if anyone cares). Every engineering student was required to take a course on UNIX and linux before entering the program. I was impressed that such a powerful OS was free and well supported around campus. Now, I'd been doing dev work on Win32 for a long time before this, but always found lots of issues with Windows.

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#17 2005-01-28 09:51:14

skoal
Member
From: Frequent Flyer Underworld
Registered: 2004-03-23
Posts: 612
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

I voted "other".  For me, it was a matter of conscious.  I didn't feel too comfortable with a burned copy of "Windows 2000".  (Exodus 20:15)

And, now that I think about it:

[root@morpheus /]# du -sb /home/mp3/
5655832137      /home/mp3/

and...

[root@morpheus /]# rm -rf /home/mp3/

Whew! Thanks for the thread.  I almost forgot about that one.

Well, a whole 10 seconds have lapsed since.  Does anyone know how to restore a directory?  That's actually a rhetorical question.  Please don't reply back with an answer, or I'll think you're in league with the devil.

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#18 2005-01-28 13:31:04

cmp
Member
Registered: 2005-01-03
Posts: 350

Re: Why do you run Linux?

you could use --rebuild-tree with an reiserfs partition big_smile  not serious

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#19 2005-01-28 15:39:31

FUBAR
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2004-12-08
Posts: 1,029
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

In Linux I don't get retarded messages like "OMFG YOU'RE HDD IS ALMOST FULL!!! AAAAAAAAH"  or "WTF, YOU PUT A CD IN THE PLAYER!!! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO WITH IT?!?!?!".

Linux leaves me alone, even when I do stupid things to it (i.e. I like the freedom wink).


A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

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#20 2005-01-28 18:52:42

Moo-Crumpus
Member
From: Hessen / Germany
Registered: 2003-12-01
Posts: 1,487

Re: Why do you run Linux?

Today, linux is easier to be installed and kept up to date, then any other os I know. Once it is configured, and you have not choosen something like suse, all you have to do is a "pacman -Syu" or "apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade" here and then. Linux is using a clear concept, user files are not mixed up with system files etc. I feel sick when I see windows users, having installed apps in folders here and then, while several user docs are shared all over the file system. I get angry when my usb driver (ms certified) is getting in conflicts with the one of the sound card (ms certified), taking me on a journey to the blue-screen-of-death-land. Bah.


Frumpus addict
[mu'.krum.pus], [frum.pus]

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#21 2005-01-28 19:26:20

slackhack
Member
Registered: 2004-06-30
Posts: 738

Re: Why do you run Linux?

i like the freedom (including freedom from spyware and viruses big_smile) and the low cost (as in, multiple machines, low to no cost).

i like the "feel" of linux better. windows feels like jello to me, while linux feels more like concrete (if that makes sense). in some ways linux seems "clunkier," but that makes it feel more stable and solid, and i have come to like it. and i like most of the open source interfaces better than the windows interface.

i like how i can ssh in to my linux machines from anywhere and do all kinds of normal tasks at the command line, whereas i really don't even know how one would do that with windows (i think it's something to do with remote desktop (?), but i really don't even want to know, to tell you the truth tongue).

i also like how linux manages memory better, and doesn't need "defragging," and doesn't lock up all the time. with linux, you always seem to be able to know exactly what's going on with your system, whereas in windows i feel like i never know. linux just seems to work better than windows for anything more intensive than surfing the web and checking email, etc.  (and even then windows locks up a lot tongue).

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#22 2005-01-28 20:03:23

oscar
Member
From: Kiruna, Sweden
Registered: 2004-08-13
Posts: 457

Re: Why do you run Linux?

Only h4x0rz use Linux, and h4x0rz are cool - so therefore, I use linux  8)


To err is human... to really foul up requires the root password.

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#23 2005-01-28 21:47:24

skoal
Member
From: Frequent Flyer Underworld
Registered: 2004-03-23
Posts: 612
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

The real answer to this thread is "42".  Ain't that right, Oscar?  A real H4x0r5 would know that.

I'm currently using my Linux box to compute the question.

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#24 2005-01-28 22:24:58

oscar
Member
From: Kiruna, Sweden
Registered: 2004-08-13
Posts: 457

Re: Why do you run Linux?

caught! sad
I show have known better sad


To err is human... to really foul up requires the root password.

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#25 2005-01-29 07:54:20

dtw
Forum Fellow
From: UK
Registered: 2004-08-03
Posts: 4,439
Website

Re: Why do you run Linux?

because i am l33333333t

lol

no-one did that one yet did they?

i think the poll is a bit silly, what if you think lots of things - including 42?  Other can be the only answer in  this case...

i like LINUX (not Arch - no inter-distro flaming here)

a) it's free
b) i change the colours of stuff in the gui and make it pretty
c) it means i get to talk to people about stuff without having to pretend i like them and show an interest in everything about them
d) i can contribute in a useful and personally fulfilling way very easily (Arch facilitates this but it is true of ALL distros - no flaming)
e) it MAKES me do things the way i want - it doesn't try to do it for me and screw it up - or try to guess what i am doing and help
f) because it is free it doesn't have to backed up by commercial bullshit

how's that - bye all!

P.S. just in case anyone is wondering i don't think i am elite but i do desperately want to find someone running windows, with an unpassworded shared folder and no firewall and put a little txt file on their machine that says -

"hello - you got "hacked" - buy a firewall!"

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