The [Main] 'Why did YOU choose Linux?' Thread - Page 11


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Thread: The [Main] 'Why did YOU choose Linux?' Thread

  1. #151
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yogi_Bear
    With Windows you just get EXE (or Com)
    What is EXE and what is Com? Don't you speak engrish?!?
    Seriously, you need one of those "I just installed linux, now what?" sites. Unfortunately those have long been purged from my bookmarks...
    I see you're browsing all kinds of threads here and posting/deleting a few interesting comments too... What you need to do is read, amigo.
    Besides...what's your actual beef? What exact problem are you having?
    I think all you really need is to google "synaptic" and then go here:
    http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html
    Need help in realtime? Visit us at #linuxnewbie on irc.libera.chat

    Few of us will do as much for our fellow man as he has done.
    --Andrew Morton on RMS

  2. #152
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    I think a user needs to be able to use both Windoze and Linux proficiently before he/she can comment sensibly about both systems.

    A short burst of experience with a Linux distro can hardy form a fair opinion of Linux.

    Comparing a Linux with the new Vista will show without drivers a MS system is many times worse than Linux, which has at least adequate generic drivers for the daily needs.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  3. #153
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    Why did YOU choose Linx

    Thank you all for your replies, especially to you wh666-666! I will definitely have a look at the version of Linux you use and see if it can restore my faith. Do you always have to use CLI's (Command Line Interface) to use Linux effectively? Can you use just a GUI one? Perhaps that is my problem with Linux? Not understanding the CLI's. I just havent found one I am comfortable with (especially if there is more than 100 versions !!) Perhaps I should look round a bit more. Can you please explain to me the difference between Unix and Linux? Is Unix just another Linux Distro? Thanx again for all your help and appologies if it is taking away from the original thread of this post!

    Steve

  4. #154
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yogi_Bear
    Is Unix just another Linux Distro?

    Umm, no. Unix (simply put) is the big father that started it all. Today there is a number of operating systems that are similar to Unix, so there is an entire Unix family. When Linux Torvalds started to code the Linux kernel and used the GNU tools like GCC, he had the creation of an Unix-like OS on his mind.

    For an indepth history and even a nice picture detailing Unix and its offsprings, have a look at this wikipedia entry.

    Edit: yes, Linux can be used without the command line. I just installed Kubuntu Feisty Fawn (Beta) on an in-law's computer and didn't have to touch the command line once. In my eyes it's the easiest Linux I have ever seen.

    I for my part happily relied on GUI tools and wizards when I was a newbie, too, but occasionally I would still try this strange thing called command line and play with it until I found out, that some tasks can be done more easily and efficiently with it. Today I just use a GUI app or the CLI depending on what I feel like using.
    Last edited by Parcival; 04-11-2007 at 02:04 AM.

    "What can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence."

    Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

  5. #155
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    I get by in various Linux (100+) and survive in BSD and Solaris by the CLI commands common in all of them.

    Personally I think Linux CLI is a gold mine. The knowledge would be still useful when Win2k, XP and Vista are history.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  6. #156
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    Yogi_Bear

    In truth, file extentions .EXE .TXT etc. in linux are for the users not linux, linux doesn't care about file extentions linux uses permmisions (read, write, execute), but you can worry about that later.

    The command line is very powerful, windows can only dream of such a thing. Take Parcival's advice and start with a GUI front end, and little by little try the command line. If you have a basic understanding of the command line you will be able to get around in any linux distro and most unix systems as saikee has said.

  7. #157
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    I lost about 6 hours a month to defragging/scandisc/ virus/adware/spyware scaning /cleaning out temp files ETC Etc etc... All the while running windows. plus i had the wga notification come up even with a legal copy of XP.
    I cant remember when i first found out about linux... i remember being extatic "OMG No viruses LOL!!!" and iv'e been able to get alot more done since iv'e switched. It doesn't cost a cent and thats good because im only 15 and dont have a job... (600$ for the best version of vista? Pass.) Then theres the fact that MS/apple products are made to make money, not to be a good product.
    I've recently found out that the same effects as aero can be used with kde with half the overhead.
    My GF loves the penguin.

    EDIT: Vista is the PS3 of Operating Systems.
    Last edited by boxxertrumps; 05-06-2007 at 12:40 PM.
    - Ryan "Boxxertrumps" Trumpa

  8. #158
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    My first box was an 8088 with 64K of ram and a 40MB hard drive (which was *huge* for the time) working under DOS (3.2?? I think...) Had a lot of time to learn command line behavior. Years later, when I had enough money to buy a new toy, I managed to get a 486 chip and a 70MB drive (with 256!!! K of ram). That box used Win 3.11. I hated that OS, but it got me to be lazy about the command line. Then came the day I got an AMD 586 with 2MB of ram and decided to move to Win ME.

    After several years of steadily rising blood pressure and increasing headaches, I decided I'd had enough. I read a little bit, and knew that Linux was making inroads into the desktop OS world, so I got online and did a little searching and found a distribution called Mandriva that sounded like I could handle it. So, I paid for a box with disks and a manual, and put it on. I dual booted the machine for awhile, but Windows finally said "you play with me and only me, or we don't play at all". So, I wiped the drive and replaced it with Mandriva.

    Since then, I've gotten a slightly more powerful hardware platform, and a big enough hard drive to keep three Linux OS's on it. I suppose I could run more, but why be greedy? Right now, I have Mepis 6.5, PCLinuxOS (forget the version...), and Slackware 11.0. When I feel brave, or just want to break something and try to fix it, I go into the Slack and start messing with package installations or try to tweak something I've been thinking about. I've gotten really good at installing Slackware.

    I like Mepis because I have yet to see it be unable to autodetect any hardware I've thrown at it. I like PCLinux OS for its looks, and the package manager. PCLinuxOS really does try to emulate the look and feel of the Microsoft XP desktop, which is not so bad, if you go between Windows boxes and Linux boxes the way I do. Of the three OS's I have currently, PCL boots up the fastest.

    The main reason I use Linux, though, is because nowhere do I see the word "Microsoft" in the system or any of its applications.

  9. #159
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    justdean,

    Welcome to JL.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  10. #160
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    Standing At The Crossroads

    Why did I choose Linux? It's simple.

    My net-rat (the cybernetic equivalent of a rusted-out 1995 Chevy with a bad muffler) is a 1Ghz PIII with 384 MB of RAM and interchangeable 80 gig hard drives (they're in those little plastic caddies), one carrying Windows 98SE, the other originally carrying Ubuntu (now carrying Debian).

    I set up the removable hard drives because I told myself I was going to teach myself Linux. Well, for months I procrastinated, even through numerous WIN98SE malfunctions, most of which were annoying (a WIN98 session which doesn't require at least one restart is a rarity), three of which required a from-scratch reinstallation. After the fourth major malfunction, looking at the fourth reinstall in only 8 months, I weighed my options - 3 hours formatting my hard drive and reinstalling everything from scratch, or taking the Linux plunge? I shut down the machine, switched out the hard drives, and re-booted.

    I can't say that I've never looked back, or that my Linux experience has been perfect (I've been through 3 distros so far). All of the distros I've tried have been "broken" in some way. There are bugs in them which manifest themselves in annoying sorts of ways. But despite all the complications, Linux still beats the chicken soup out of Windoze 98, or Windoze 2000 (which just barely ran on my machine). And it sure beats the hell out of spending hundreds of dollars for a new machine. Restarts are A LOT less frequent.

    But what I like best about open-source software is the absence of the customer-is-the-enemy attitude which is so prevalent among commercial software companies, digital content providers (can you say "SONY rootkit"?) and quite frankly every other major corporation. I mean, why else would Microsoft let Windows Vista mung up non-copyrighted original content just so that RIAA and MPAA coke-heads could protect their $500.00 lunches?

    (BTW, why are there banner ads for Microsoft all over this site?)

  11. #161
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    Quote Originally Posted by youngtomedison
    (BTW, why are there banner ads for Microsoft all over this site?)
    That's an FAQ. You'll get tons of in-depth explanations by searching the forums.

    To make a long story short: Jupitermedia loans Justlinux ad space to some advertisement company. That company loans ad space on tech related sites. Microsoft wants to place ads on tech related sites. Therefore, Microsoft ends up placing ads on Justlinux.

    Yes, those ads may be annoying, but there's probably no better place on Earth for MS to waste its money than in a Linux forum.

    "What can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence."

    Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)

  12. #162
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    Quote Originally Posted by youngtomedison
    (BTW, why are there banner ads for Microsoft all over this site?)
    This quesion comes up a lot. This site doesn't control the ads...they are from a feed of some sort. That's how they pay the bills... I for one am happy they're taking their money and using it to subvert their cause.
    Anyway, there are firefox extensions,*cough* adblock plus *cough* Remove It Permanently (RIP) *cough*
    Need help in realtime? Visit us at #linuxnewbie on irc.libera.chat

    Few of us will do as much for our fellow man as he has done.
    --Andrew Morton on RMS

  13. #163
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    I usually turn adblock off for sites i like... Just incase i see something I... "want to buy".
    - Ryan "Boxxertrumps" Trumpa

  14. #164
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    Smile long ago, far away

    It looks like this is the thread to reveal how people got to where they are today, so here's my tale that leads up to the Debian Linux installation I just did.

    In 1977, I took a job in a Radio Shack store on a dare. (a friend said I'd never last in retail). Over in the corner of the store, unplugged and dark, was a TRS-80 Model 1. The store manager tasked me with taking it home and learning how to use and sell it.

    And with it's friendly book, I did just that, sitting for hours on end, typing in lines of basic, (really wish I'd taken typing in high school, as most of the time I was fixing typos) but that was the first exposure I ever had with a 'computer'. In later years as RS released MS-Dos, The Model II with it's 8" floppies, The Color Computer and Hand held, it was nice being able to test drive all this stuff in my own (by them) store.

    When I left I went to work for a small computer store that specialized in on line Apples and Eagles (cp/m). When Apple pulled our license for using the word Mac a week before the infamous supebowl ad, that place went belly up, I was out of work with 2 babies in the dead of winter and have hated Apple since.

    Jump ahead a little to ending up "as" the MIS department [only because I knew how to get around a pc a little], that grew into a billing job for about 1/2 million subscribers. My boys, now new parents themselves said, "Dad, you used to love DOS, why don't you try Linux.

    And that, in a somewhat fat nutshell, is how I ended up here.

    Some say I have that Linux look.. whatever that is....

  15. #165
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    Why did I chose Linux?

    Well, when I was in Junior High, when Windows 98 was comming out, and the school was upgrading from 3.11 to 95, I downloaded Red Hat. It wasn't Linux to me, it was Red Hat. I liked the name and I had no idea what I was doing. Someone mentioned Red Hat Linux and I had to have it. I think it was Red Hat 6 or something. I downloaded some ISOs and burnt it and was able to boot.

    The system I had was a 386 with...16MB of RAM and a 2x CD-ROM. It was top of the line when it was new in 1980 something or other. It had a 4MB video card and I couldn't get Linux installed. After a week I gave up. Linux was lame. Then High School came around and it was time to give Red Hat 7 a try. Lucky number 7 right? RIGHT! I burned it and my mom had a Pentium 3 and I backed up all her pictures and she let me put Linux on...that lasted a week. Now my mom though Linux was lame. I couldn't get it working fast enough. What a stipple in my Linux education.

    Then College, I had my _own_ computer. I had an Athlon XP 2200+ with 512MB of RAM and I had all the time in the world. So, I stole a copy of Windows XP. I used it for a while and then I saw a magazine in a newspaper shop. It was titled Linux Format. It had an entire OS on a disc. Slackware 8.1. I loved it, and hated it. It was so hard to get into the learning style of Linux but I got there.

    Now I have...5 systems with Slackware 10.1, 10.2 and 11. One even has Fedora Core.

    P2 - S11
    K7 - FC
    Athlon - S11
    2 X Athlon XP - S10.1 & S10.2

    I just realized I only have 1 Intel ( proc ) system and I only got it 3 months ago.

    Now, I think back and it was the best thing I ever did! The only thing I don't like is that Firefox is so slow I'm workin. on it though.

    My fondest memory was trying to port a MS-DOS game that I wrote in Visual Studio 6 with a lot of Windows libraries, to a system that I tried upgrading from Slackware 8.1 to 9.0

    Anyway, there are firefox extensions,*cough* adblock plus *cough* Remove It Permanently (RIP) *cough*
    Hosts file *cough*
    Last edited by acid45; 05-28-2007 at 02:00 AM.
    "Getting information from the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant." - Mitchell Kapor

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