Why Do We Love Linux ?

[Bemk]

Been there, done that... One has to wipe the system once at least to remember NEVER TO DO THAT AGAIN!!! Truly one of those "Oh S*!T" moments.

I made a VM to try it out. I knew it was potentially dangerous, and all that was affected was the VM. I wasn't willing to risk my files, but did want to see what would happen.

The funny thing is, the kernel only paniced after a reboot.

Anyone who wants to see what happens, Sun Virtual Box provides a good virtual machine.

[Rubberman]

I also like/use VirtualBox. One of the things that is good to do with a VBox VM is to make a snapshot when you do something like that. Then you can restore the snapshot and easily "undo" all your experimental shenanigans! I do that with my Windows XP VM so when the inevitable Windows virus invades, it is easily dispatched to the bit-bucket.

[nujinini]

One of the things that is good to do with a VBox VM is to make a snapshot

Me love snapshot. A fresh restored system at the click of the mouse.

[ramin.honary]

Linux is, to me, like a box of legos was to me when I was a kid. There are so many kinds of building blocks available, and BASH, and python makes it really easy to clip the building-block together to get done what you need done. I can write 10 lines of BASH script and accomplish some task, where I might have paid USD$20 for a shareware utility to do the same thing on another OS. Ever since I started using Linux, I feel like ANY computer idea I have is now possible, anything your heart desires, its possible with Linux and a bit of inginuity on your part.

There are software libraries for every concivable task. And you can use any programming language you want, C/C++ (of course), Java, Python, Perl, Ruby, Ocaml, Lisp, Scheme, and even some slightly more obscure languages like my all time personal favorite Haskell.

Once you figure out how to get it working with a BASH or Perl script, you can figure out how to make it into your own utility program with a more efficient lower-level language.

A strong user base is equally important (if not more important) than money for Linux developers -- popularity is a kind of currency in the Linux universe.

So all documentation is free, which means if I ever want to know something, I can just read about it. I don't have to pay or wait for it to arrive in the mail, or carry a heavy text with me from my office to home and back again. My laptop contains several gigabytes of manuals which I can read whenever I want wherever I want as long as I have my laptop.

[CokeCanNinja]

1: The OS is free
2: The software is free
3: I don't need a new $500 computer, I can use my 4 year old computer.
4: It's rock stable
5: Free support
6: It boosts my geek cred
7. It has a penguin named Tux

[Etna]

i know i will get flamed very heavily for this, but i got to say it.

i came to linux mostly for one reason: my pitiful salary does not allow me to spend $ for Microsoft's OS every 3-4 years.

and personally, i like the way Windows keeps things very simple for the average end-user who has little to zero computer know-how: everything is already in the OS, dependency and DLL hell is a completely alien concept in Windows every since Vista implemented registry protection and virtualization, and every hardware out in the market has Windows drivers.

So why did i jump to Linux to suffer with driver woes? Like i said, my pitiful salary means that it's not possible to support Microsoft. As far is software philosophies go, i am a very proprietary driven person: all my drivers installed on my Linux boxes and notebooks are proprietary to the last. Nvidia drivers, Catalyst drivers, you name it, i use them.

So perhaps its a little ironical that after about 2 years of Linux i have come to see it a little more fondly as i did before.

[Bemk]

i know i will get flamed very heavily for this, but i got to say it.

i came to linux mostly for one reason: my pitiful salary does not allow me to spend $ for Microsoft's OS every 3-4 years.

and personally, i like the way Windows keeps things very simple for the average end-user who has little to zero computer know-how: everything is already in the OS, dependency and DLL hell is a completely alien concept in Windows every since Vista implemented registry protection and virtualization, and every hardware out in the market has Windows drivers.

So why did i jump to Linux to suffer with driver woes? Like i said, my pitiful salary means that it's not possible to support Microsoft. As far is software philosophies go, i am a very proprietary driven person: all my drivers installed on my Linux boxes and notebooks are proprietary to the last. Nvidia drivers, Catalyst drivers, you name it, i use them.

So perhaps its a little ironical that after about 2 years of Linux i have come to see it a little more fondly as i did before.

Now personally I don't understand why you'd be flamed for this post.

Windows has improved quite a lot, since XP, and even though Vista is far from my favourite product, I must say Microsoft has done quite a good job. For users like my grandfather (my mothers side), it is a nice system, which he can use, with professional support that is relatively cheap (compared to professional Linux support, which is quite expensive).

For my other grandfather, who knows a thing or two about PCs, I made a simple install of Debian, which can do nothing more than installing new software, do text editing, open PDF files and edit spreadsheets (marcos excluded).

He quite likes the system. Whenever he has a question he'll just ask me, and whenever I can I will resolve the problem.

So you may like windows, and I do like the latest release as well. Though I am a Linux user and I like Linux more.

I hope other people will also fail to see the reason to flame you, for just giving your opinion, which is what should be allowed in a free world. It's what we call freedom of speech.

[Rubberman]

Bemk pretty much has it right on, I think. I wouldn't want my step mom or daughter to run Linux, but my 16 year old grandson is a Linux kernel hacker, and a number of other family members are Linux users. Others are purely Windows users. My philosophy, go with what works best for you. My lawyer, who is also a friend and client, runs Windows, but at least he is seriously considering migrating his office systems to use Open Office instead of Microsoft Office. Once small step for OpenOffice.org, one giant leap for FOSS in general.

[nujinini]

...my 16 year old grandson is a Linux kernel hacker...

Genetics

[Rubberman]

In this case, it's more a matter of nurture vs. nature. He's my adopted daughter's adopted son...