Why do people use Linux?

[SouljaAC]

What would be the benefit for me using linux and also the cons?


im pretty good with computers but no way an expert





i do normal stuff too, most importantly games

 

[chsh1ca]

Everything, basically. Name something you think it won't do, and outside of something like "work with proprietary scanner X using parallel when the vendor never releases drivers for it" chances are very good it will do it as good as or better on linux than the equivalent app on Windows. There really should be a sticky at the top explaining this, since this question is posted in here at least once a week, if not more.

DirectX gaming is basically the biggest thing it won't do, and that can be overcome for a slight performance penaly with something like WineX. That being said, I haven't got any personal experience with WineX, so I dual boot Linux and Win98SE for games only.

 

[thornc]

1st question's answer: Because it's there, it's free, it's open, it works!

2nd question's answer: none, you stated it... your most important application are games! At the moment, there isn't a huge choice of native games for linux, altough you can get some of the windows versions to work to som extend. You won't get the
variaty you get with Windows! If you can't live without them stick to windows!

 

[sciencewhiz]

No, you will get a much greater variety of games. Just less First Person Shooters.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Because NetBSD doesn't support smp quite yet, apt is more convenient, especially on a desktop machine, macs are expensive and I don't care for OSX as a main OS, and I care for windows about 50x less than OSX.

 

[Nothinman]

I use Linux for the same reason people use Windows. Because its easy to use and does it's job well. But since you spend a lot of time playing games I would say you're stuck on Windows for the time being.

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
No, you will get a much greater variety of games. Just less First Person Shooters.

You'll get fewer quality games in general. Whats the most popular game for linux at the moment? Tuxracer? Sure I can use winex etc and tweak some games to work, but not all. You'll get more variety perhaps in the form of many more boring games genre. Ohhh look another asteroids clone! Whos up for a game of tetris?

I love *bsd (okay so its not linux but close enough), but if you're a game you want windows unless solitare and space invaders if your idea of a good time

 

[ITJunkie]

One word....FREEDOM

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Soybomb

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
No, you will get a much greater variety of games. Just less First Person Shooters.

You'll get fewer quality games in general. Whats the most popular game for linux at the moment? Tuxracer? Sure I can use winex etc and tweak some games to work, but not all. You'll get more variety perhaps in the form of many more boring games genre. Ohhh look another asteroids clone! Whos up for a game of tetris?

I love *bsd (okay so its not linux but close enough), but if you're a game you want windows unless solitare and space invaders if your idea of a good time

I've got quite a few games to choose from on my system. They may not be Battlefield 1942, but some of the games are quite entertaining. Of course, this is really too subjective to say this will be true for anyone else.

 

[clicknext]

I'm relatively new to linux. I've only used it regularly for two weeks. To me, it's easier to use than Windows XP. Better, more customizable interface, better programs (I prefer Kopete over Trillian), it looks cool, and it just has this solid feel to it. And of course, a big factor for me, it's FREE!

Hardware compatibility is a pain sometimes, and installations are definately easier on Windows, but thankfully I don't need to install that much because the distros usually include a lot of what you need.

 

[drag]

Yep. Hardware is still the biggest pain when it comes to running linux. Although there is now very few things that won't work, it may just a few extra steps, though.

Also gaming is limited in Linux. Lots of little free games, some not so small, but nothing that would appeal to a dedicated gamer. Best thing to look at it, is if your favorates are supported under linux, then it wouldn't be a problem.

Otherwise people use linux because it's free, secure, customizable. Just look at it like a OS that doesn't limit you. There is nothing hidden if you don't want it to be and you don't have to worry about breaking any liscencing agreements or dealing with anything as stupid as limited amount of clients or internet connections and stuff like that. Networking and internet usefullness is increased by 10x and is more tightly integrated into the OS.

Maybe it's just that Linux is a much more usefull tool for what you want to get done.

Still the gaming situation is limited.

 

[thornc]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
No, you will get a much greater variety of games. Just less First Person Shooters.

Others have already replied to it, but the variety you're talking about it's even bigger in windows!! Just get one of those 200games CDs!!


If he had said he used a computer mostly for browsing, mail and text processing I would have told to give Knoppix or SUSE live eval a try to see how he liked it!!

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: thornc

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
No, you will get a much greater variety of games. Just less First Person Shooters.

Others have already replied to it, but the variety you're talking about it's even bigger in windows!! Just get one of those 200games CDs!!


If he had said he used a computer mostly for browsing, mail and text processing I would have told to give Knoppix or SUSE live eval a try to see how he liked it!!

Well I have you beat then. At one go, in a morass of boredome, I once installed around 246 games in one go using dselect/apt-get in my debian box.

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

Why do people keep asking "what can I do with Linux" (I'm not just picking on you SouljaAC[\B])
When I tell somebody that I'm running Linux I alway get ask that.
what can I do with Linux, Run my computer just like all the other OS out there...

what can I do with Mac OSX, Windows, Unix and BeOS....they all just run the computer and hardware....

Give Linux a try, if you don't like it just del it
and if you need help, people will be more then will to help you

 

[lobadobadingdong]

not to sound like a linux basher, I'd personally love to use it more often(if I could get a stable disto), but I do have some cons(and the reason I still use microsoft OS's for my systems)....the only current retail titles I've ever gotten to run on a linux distro of anykind is quakeII (server only, couldn't run the game itself) and quakeIII (locked up frequently, and very very little eye candy) I've tried running the software that lets you run windows based software(wine and winex), all it ever did for me is lock me out of the gui interface (and sense I don't own the library of linux commands it made the OS totally useless to me in that state) I've tried several different distro's of Red hat and mandrake on several different hardware configurations just to be sure it wasn't my hardware. Not one time was linux as stable as windows 98(and that my friends is very scarey) I do like the interfaces, they remind me of mac OS9(although I can't really stand macs), but with far more features, but installation of any software was difficult at best, and most of them crashed the kernal on the installation permanantly. Sun's Solaris has always run perfectly stable for me on any system, but I've only been able to configure it as a fileserver/firewall and that's it, I can't find any other software that will run on it without bringing it to it's knees.

pros, ease of installation, seemingly greater security, more software comes with most distros than micro$ofts.
cons, can't get any disto to run stable, no real support for any retail software made after 1998, that wasn't written to be run on linux, and there are very few available to be found....including games, I've searched everywhere. last but not least....support costs a small fortune.

 

[Nothinman]

quakeII (server only, couldn't run the game itself) and quakeIII (locked up frequently, and very very little eye candy)

Q3 and Q2 both have native Linux clients that run fine and look exactly the same as the Windows versions. If you have X and DRI setup properly and your hardware is good they'll run good, I run q3 all the time.

Sun's Solaris has always run perfectly stable for me on any system,

Because it supports very little hardware. You either run it on a Sun system or an x86 system that has 1 of ~5 varations in hardware, if Sun supported more hardware on Solaris x86 it would have the same issues Linux has with some hardware. But even so I have found very little hardware that doesn't work just as well or better in Linux than in Windows.

 

[KF]

>not to sound like a linux basher, I'd personally love to use it more often(if I could get a stable disto)...
Not that I'm a linux enthusiast, but crashing it has been nearly impossible in my experience. How I have managed to crash linux is 1) Installing a sound driver that I guess was the wrong one on a linux distro many years ago. 2) Updating a distro after I patched the old one for an Nvidia video card. 3) running a scanner program that apparently could not handle my scanner. The last is significant. Otherwise zilch.

>the only current retail titles I've ever gotten to run on a linux distro of anykind is
>quakeII (server only, couldn't run the game itself) and quakeIII (locked up
>frequently, and very very little eye candy)

Just for fun, in past years, I decided to figure out the instructions for putting Q2, and much later Q3, on linux, since I already had Windows versions. With small additions, they run natively as linux/Xfree programs instead of Windows. That's because of the way ID/Carmack designed the games. Then I had to figure out how to start it up, Q2 that is, which was the most baffling part .( No link on the Desktop!) But both Quakes ran flawlessly, and looked identical as on Windows, only faster. And I mean identical. However I did use the driver from Nvidia's site, not the basic one that the distros included (which is more of a VGA driver - I don't think it has any 3D functionality at all.)

But that's linux for you. It is very capable. Figuring out anything that is not already set up for you is the problem.

 

[phpdog]

Hi ,

I think if you went to every windows users house and done a free install of Linux on there system , showed them how it all works and how much you get in the bundle ... they'd never go back to windows.

I think the reason that Linux dosent get the user population that it should is because it has a reputation as being difficult and only for IT experts and such.

It used to be that way but it's become a LOT more user friendly in the past while, but not that many people are willing to risk it .

I run XP on my Intel system ... but i have SuSE Linux 8.2 on my AMD System . I only keep windows XP for now , because i dont know as much as id like in Linux so Windows is always there if i need it

Any windows users thinking of changing colors to Linux id say , go for it ' I did and as soon as i installed it i wished id done it a long time ago.

P.S I sound like im trying to sell you a copy of the darn thing dont i ... hah

 

[CrimsonKing]

Ironically, I found this thread while waiting for my Red Hat 9 install to finished for a second time.

Being a MS network admin, I can never rid myself of Windows, even if I wanted to. But I've yet to want to. I'm hoping I see the benefits of this OS this time around. Personally, I don't see how it's simple. Without a Unix background, much of the file system and nomenclature doesn't make sense.

Also, personally, I'm hooked on Outlook as my PIM. I had to switch to Notes at work (6.5 is finally an acceptable app!!!) about two years ago and I've missed having the Exchange server/Outlook combo at my disposal. So there's no way I'm giving it up at home, especially this new 2003 version.

So basically, it's not the OS I'm refusing to give up, it's one app that happens to be made by the same company.

 

[Nothinman]

Personally, I don't see how it's simple. Without a Unix background, much of the file system and nomenclature doesn't make sense.

And without a Windows background the opposite is true. Things like drive letters and the registry make absolutely no sense, a single filesystem tree and plain text files are much simpler to work with.

So basically, it's not the OS I'm refusing to give up, it's one app that happens to be made by the same company.

I find Outlook to be overkill for what I want and it's IMAP support to be lacking although it is one of the better IMAP clients. I used to use Evolution on Linux but lately I've been using Thunderbird even though it's a good bit more memory hungry and slower.

 

[Electrode]

Why do I use Linux, you ask?

1: It's lightweight. A fully functional system with graphical desktop, web browser, e-mail client, web server, video/music player and encoder, IM clients and system repair tools fits on a bootable 650 meg CD. You can put enough for basic system recovery on a floppy.
2: It lets you decide what you want. When you install an average Linux distro, you don't get stuck with a web browser, e-mail client, SMB server, video player, and whatever else MS decides you can't live without.
3: You don't have to reboot every time you update something.
4. It has /dev and /proc.
5. You can build the whole OS from scratch if you want to.

 

[thornc]

Originally posted by: drag

Well I have you beat then. At one go, in a morass of boredome, I once installed around 246 games in one go using dselect/apt-get in my debian box.

Hehe you really must have been bored !

 

[drag]

Actually the boredom only brings the idea. However the idea, once implanted into my head, must be slavishly followed untill completion. Found a couple interesting little things.

Such as "sopwith camel" and "moon buggy".

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: drag

Originally posted by: thornc

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
No, you will get a much greater variety of games. Just less First Person Shooters.

Others have already replied to it, but the variety you're talking about it's even bigger in windows!! Just get one of those 200games CDs!!


If he had said he used a computer mostly for browsing, mail and text processing I would have told to give Knoppix or SUSE live eval a try to see how he liked it!!

Well I have you beat then. At one go, in a morass of boredome, I once installed around 246 games in one go using dselect/apt-get in my debian box.

Eh? Boredom? I always install every game that comes with the distro and then I hunt down any favorites of mine that didn't. Some linux games, I really can't live without.

 

[thornc]

Originally posted by: drag

Such as "sopwith camel" and "moon buggy".

I remember Sopwith Camel.... I used to play that on an XT PC some 15years ago!!! Now you did it, now I must go and play that game... one more to lose time one!!

edit: found a nice win32 3D version!!