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Linux - why should I bother?
376
June 17, 2003 08:06 PM
quote:
Original post by zer0wolf
lol... yeah, you should use linux because its different and so that you can be cool!
No kiddo let me explain it to you:
different=>unknown=>curiosity=>discovering=>learning=>FUN.
damn colors
[edited by - xaxa on June 17, 2003 9:08:32 PM]
[size="2"]I like the Walrus best.
586
June 17, 2003 08:18 PM
To me, the most important difference with Linux (and BSD too, mind you) is the philosophy behind it. Put simply, Linux et al. are not products to be exploited, but knowledge to be added to. The source is there for anyone to see, improve upon, and thus aid everyone else.
At least that''s what I like about it.
The following statement is true. The previous statement is false.
Shameless promotion:
FreePop: The GPL Populous II clone.
At least that''s what I like about it.
The following statement is true. The previous statement is false.Shameless promotion:
FreePop: The GPL Populous II clone.
My stuff.Shameless promotion: FreePop: The GPL god-sim.
374
June 17, 2003 09:43 PM
As has already been stated, if you have to ask the question, you probably shouldn''t bother. Don''t bother until this isn''t even a question in your mind.
118
June 17, 2003 10:19 PM
What I like about linux is that you can accomplish some very cool things in a very short time. Unix has been around forever, and people have created all kinds of programs that would be useful, and you can combine those programs into shell scripts and do really cool things. We wrote a shell script that analyzed apache log files and told you what countries users were coming from. Try doing that in a .bat file (windows shell script). It would take you 10 times longer to write the same thing in C/C++.
The things that are available for linux are not ONLY available for linux though, so it''s not like you can''t do those things in Windows. You''d just have to go through the "hastle" of downloading and installing dozens of programs (and rebooting your computer each time, hehe). You think installing linux will be a hastle, but to get the same functionality out of a windows machine, you would have to go through the hastle of downloading, compiling, and installing all of those cool programs.
Wanna run a web server? FTP server? SQL server? SSH server? Great! It''s probably already installed on your linux machine. Type one command, and it''s running. You heard of this new programming language, and you want to try it out? It''s probably installed on your linux machine already too.
I''d say that I''ve learned more about how to be a good programmer from doing unix shell scripting than from anything else. Just using it, and learning how to use all of the tools together to create bigger and better things teaches you how to write modular things that really do one thing and do it well, and then combine those later.
Linux is more stable than Windows (you never have to reboot unless you recompile the kernel, which you can''t do in windows, or if you have to install new hardware). And you will learn a lot more by using linux, about hardware, software, operating systems, etc.
Lastly, using unix, I have learned how poorly designed Windows really is. I''ll give an example. In unix/linux, a stream of bytes is a stream of bytes. A stream of bytes could be a file, what you type on the keyboard, data coming in from the web, whatever. In Windows, if you want to get data over the web, you read it from a socket, but the way to do that is different from the way you read data from a file, or from the keyboard. In unix, that isn''t so. Unix doesn''t care where the data is coming from. If you want to send a webpage as the input into another program and parse out the weather for your area and have linux display that to you when you login, that''s a 1-line command. When you delve into linux/unix, you really start to see where Windows lags behind, and why linux/unix is so solid (which is why it''s used for servers so much).
I work part time at the library, and we have a computer system that keeps track of who checked out which books and that stuff. We also have people who use public computers. I wish everyday that the library used unix instead of windows. We are constantly having problems with the library check-out system going down, it lost some backups, whatever. It''s always something. We get error messages daily. That poor sys admin. When we close the library, we have to kick people off of the public computers. It''s always "5 more minutes, I''m almost done!" (yeah right). Or someone is signed up to use a computer and there is someone else using it who won''t get up. If we had unix, we could have one server instead of 20 public computers, and we could send out a message saying, "we''re turning the computer off in 10 seconds", and then turn it off, and be done with it. If someone wouldn''t get off the computer, just log them out. Using unix would be so much easier to manage stuff like that, but no one knows unix in the tech part of the library, so they sure aren''t going to recommend we use it, because that would mean they either lose their jobs or have to be trained, which costs more money, and we''d have to get a unix server, which isn''t cheap (but cheaper than buying all of these PCs, and upgrading those every couple of years).
That said, if you don''t want to learn anything, and don''t want to be prepared to do a little work (it''s frustrating when your hardware doesn''t automagically work like it does in windows), then you probably shouldn''t try linux, because you''ll probably end up hating it and then you''ll tell your friends that linux sucks and do more damage than good, even though the only reason you think linux sucks is because it wasn''t suited to you. It''s not for everyone.
The things that are available for linux are not ONLY available for linux though, so it''s not like you can''t do those things in Windows. You''d just have to go through the "hastle" of downloading and installing dozens of programs (and rebooting your computer each time, hehe). You think installing linux will be a hastle, but to get the same functionality out of a windows machine, you would have to go through the hastle of downloading, compiling, and installing all of those cool programs.
Wanna run a web server? FTP server? SQL server? SSH server? Great! It''s probably already installed on your linux machine. Type one command, and it''s running. You heard of this new programming language, and you want to try it out? It''s probably installed on your linux machine already too.
I''d say that I''ve learned more about how to be a good programmer from doing unix shell scripting than from anything else. Just using it, and learning how to use all of the tools together to create bigger and better things teaches you how to write modular things that really do one thing and do it well, and then combine those later.
Linux is more stable than Windows (you never have to reboot unless you recompile the kernel, which you can''t do in windows, or if you have to install new hardware). And you will learn a lot more by using linux, about hardware, software, operating systems, etc.
Lastly, using unix, I have learned how poorly designed Windows really is. I''ll give an example. In unix/linux, a stream of bytes is a stream of bytes. A stream of bytes could be a file, what you type on the keyboard, data coming in from the web, whatever. In Windows, if you want to get data over the web, you read it from a socket, but the way to do that is different from the way you read data from a file, or from the keyboard. In unix, that isn''t so. Unix doesn''t care where the data is coming from. If you want to send a webpage as the input into another program and parse out the weather for your area and have linux display that to you when you login, that''s a 1-line command. When you delve into linux/unix, you really start to see where Windows lags behind, and why linux/unix is so solid (which is why it''s used for servers so much).
I work part time at the library, and we have a computer system that keeps track of who checked out which books and that stuff. We also have people who use public computers. I wish everyday that the library used unix instead of windows. We are constantly having problems with the library check-out system going down, it lost some backups, whatever. It''s always something. We get error messages daily. That poor sys admin. When we close the library, we have to kick people off of the public computers. It''s always "5 more minutes, I''m almost done!" (yeah right). Or someone is signed up to use a computer and there is someone else using it who won''t get up. If we had unix, we could have one server instead of 20 public computers, and we could send out a message saying, "we''re turning the computer off in 10 seconds", and then turn it off, and be done with it. If someone wouldn''t get off the computer, just log them out. Using unix would be so much easier to manage stuff like that, but no one knows unix in the tech part of the library, so they sure aren''t going to recommend we use it, because that would mean they either lose their jobs or have to be trained, which costs more money, and we''d have to get a unix server, which isn''t cheap (but cheaper than buying all of these PCs, and upgrading those every couple of years).
That said, if you don''t want to learn anything, and don''t want to be prepared to do a little work (it''s frustrating when your hardware doesn''t automagically work like it does in windows), then you probably shouldn''t try linux, because you''ll probably end up hating it and then you''ll tell your friends that linux sucks and do more damage than good, even though the only reason you think linux sucks is because it wasn''t suited to you. It''s not for everyone.
344
June 17, 2003 10:38 PM
Something to think about:
Do you think that if Billy has a teenage son
and he wants to rebel
he installs Linux on his computer?
[edited by - nervo on June 17, 2003 11:38:49 PM]
Do you think that if Billy has a teenage son
and he wants to rebel
he installs Linux on his computer?
[edited by - nervo on June 17, 2003 11:38:49 PM]
Well, R2D22U2..
118
June 17, 2003 11:13 PM
When your dad is a multi-billionaire, you don''t want to piss him off. Gotta stay in that will!
100
June 17, 2003 11:23 PM
"Do you think that if Billy has a teenage son
and he wants to rebel
he installs Linux on his computer?"
- why? Microsoft owns a lot of shares in the different distros =] .. and Bill is smart enough to know to use whatever works best for the job.
[edited by - Imperil on June 17, 2003 12:24:33 AM]
and he wants to rebel
he installs Linux on his computer?"
- why? Microsoft owns a lot of shares in the different distros =] .. and Bill is smart enough to know to use whatever works best for the job.
[edited by - Imperil on June 17, 2003 12:24:33 AM]
June 18, 2003 12:57 AM
quote:
Original post by OrangyTang
What happened to the ''linux is going to take over the desktop'' mentality that i''ve been bumping into with regards to linux over the last couple of years?
Reality? I think it''s coming, but it''s going to take a incorporated effort to make it happen - e.g. mysql. OpenOffice does keep getting better.
- The trade-off between price and quality does not exist in Japan. Rather, the idea that high quality brings on cost reduction is widely accepted.-- Tajima & Matsubara
June 18, 2003 01:19 AM
quote:
Original post by OrangyTang
Convince me its worth my timeMore useable interface? More convinient file organisation? Use my computer for X that i''ve never even thought of before?
You get alot of free shit. Where the emphasis belongs is a matter of debate.
There''s no artificial limitations in Linux like there is in Windows. You don''t have to buy a ''user license'' for each person that connects to the server. You get a free SQL database (mysql), which is something to think about. A MMOG backend on Linux could cost much less to setup and run than on Windows. You don''t have to pay extra for the cluster or SMP version of the webserver.
- The trade-off between price and quality does not exist in Japan. Rather, the idea that high quality brings on cost reduction is widely accepted.-- Tajima & Matsubara
This topic is closed to new replies.
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