🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
What is the point of Linux???
Author
Don''t get me wrong I''m not against Linux in any way. I actually want to use linux. The problem is i can''t understand why people use it. If games don''t tend to work on it (well not as wide a range or as good as in Windows) and the programming you do in it is basically just for Linux programs why do people use it. It might be more stable than windows and basically free but if you can''t do anything with it why bother?
Again i''m not criticising it but just professing my ignorance of the o/s so if anyone can enlighten me please do so. Please don''t flame me as i mean no offence.
Why do you use it?
Thanks
People use Linux because it''s disgustingly stable and good 
Not the entire PC market is focused on playing games. Web servers, for instance, are computers that really should be up 100% of the time. Do you trust NT not to crash after a few months of uptime, if it can even make it that far?
Not the entire PC market is focused on playing games. Web servers, for instance, are computers that really should be up 100% of the time. Do you trust NT not to crash after a few months of uptime, if it can even make it that far?
Well... Many people like to just hack the kernel and play with various conf files. They just like to play with the source code to build an OS more suited to their needs.
You can program on linux for many platforms (including windows), and with some minor (sometimes major) tweaks, your code can be ported to many unix like systems (FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, Irix(?), etc).
Some other people like it because it''s a very stable OS, very unix like and it''s free. They can therefore build up many servers, and it doesn''t requires an Alpha or Ultra1 station to run, a plain PC/Mac will do it.
Finally, because it''s open source, many people can contribute to it. Bugs are fixed faster than on many other OSes and the kernel is updated quite often.
Of course, the open source is also its main "drawback", because many companies don''t want the source code of their killer app to be released, therefore they don''t port it to linux. Also, many hardware manufacturers won''t give away their docs to anyone, so drivers take a little while to come.
Finally, X Window with windows managers such as KDE and GNOME make linux much more easy to use than it was and more and more people start showing interrest into it. It used to be "hacker only", but now it''s pretty convivial.
Well, I''m sure I forgot tons of stuff, but I think you''ll understand why some people like it (well I hope so, my english is getting terrible lately
).
Nothing like FreeBSD IMHO.
You can program on linux for many platforms (including windows), and with some minor (sometimes major) tweaks, your code can be ported to many unix like systems (FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, Irix(?), etc).
Some other people like it because it''s a very stable OS, very unix like and it''s free. They can therefore build up many servers, and it doesn''t requires an Alpha or Ultra1 station to run, a plain PC/Mac will do it
.Finally, because it''s open source, many people can contribute to it. Bugs are fixed faster than on many other OSes and the kernel is updated quite often.
Of course, the open source is also its main "drawback", because many companies don''t want the source code of their killer app to be released, therefore they don''t port it to linux. Also, many hardware manufacturers won''t give away their docs to anyone, so drivers take a little while to come.
Finally, X Window with windows managers such as KDE and GNOME make linux much more easy to use than it was and more and more people start showing interrest into it. It used to be "hacker only", but now it''s pretty convivial
.Well, I''m sure I forgot tons of stuff, but I think you''ll understand why some people like it (well I hope so, my english is getting terrible lately
).Nothing like FreeBSD IMHO
.
I think people use it because it is for the most part free. It is an amazingly stable server operating system for networks, but for the moment it is being ignored for games.
As far as i see it is also sending something of a wake up call to microsoft and attempting to create a surge in "open source" which is something that hardly existed before linux did. I hope it also gives publishers less power of the industry in terms of games.
As far as i see it is also sending something of a wake up call to microsoft and attempting to create a surge in "open source" which is something that hardly existed before linux did. I hope it also gives publishers less power of the industry in terms of games.
You seem to think that everyone just uses their computer to play games on it This is not true. Businesses need a stable OS (and want to pay little/no money for it) and Linux/*BSD is just that - stable and free. Other people just like the fact that they can do whatever they want with Linux. If they think the kernel is too big, they can just hack it to make it smaller You can't do that with Windows
And you can do lots of stuff with Linux, check out Freshmeat for programs. As Staffan said: "If it's not on Freshmeat, it can't be programmed or just wasn't meant to be"
Edited by - Muzzafarath on August 20, 2000 7:36:20 AM
This is not true. Businesses need a stable OS (and want to pay little/no money for it) and Linux/*BSD is just that - stable and free. Other people just like the fact that they can do whatever they want with Linux. If they think the kernel is too big, they can just hack it to make it smaller You can't do that with Windows And you can do lots of stuff with Linux, check out Freshmeat for programs. As Staffan said: "If it's not on Freshmeat, it can't be programmed or just wasn't meant to be"
Edited by - Muzzafarath on August 20, 2000 7:36:20 AM
I learnt to use Linux for the same reason I''ll install and use any free os out there (and all programming languages too) . There is a possibility I might be abducted by aliens and I''d like to be able to learn(fast) how to use their oses so I can steal their technology.But then , I''ve never heard of a black man being abducted by aliens , they racist too ?
But seriously though , dont you just love that feeling you get after you just installed an os you are not familiar with , and you ask your self , now what ? How do I save , how do I run apps , what does this extension mean ? BTW , I have just been trying out V2_OS , you cant boot it from the hard drive yet , cant barely do much with it but I like where they are taking it I will probably volunteer to join the dev team.
?But seriously though , dont you just love that feeling you get after you just installed an os you are not familiar with , and you ask your self , now what ? How do I save , how do I run apps , what does this extension mean ? BTW , I have just been trying out V2_OS , you cant boot it from the hard drive yet , cant barely do much with it but I like where they are taking it I will probably volunteer to join the dev team.
Linux is a bit more manual work to configure however
there is a much higher gaurantee that device ''x'' will work
on it (only a few exceptions like WinModems).
In my personal experiance, games tend to work more often
on Linux than on Windows.
Most commercial games that have been around for a while still have problems on Windows (in my experiance).
So I would prefer Linux over Windows with respect to playing
games.
there is a much higher gaurantee that device ''x'' will work
on it (only a few exceptions like WinModems).
In my personal experiance, games tend to work more often
on Linux than on Windows.
Most commercial games that have been around for a while still have problems on Windows (in my experiance).
So I would prefer Linux over Windows with respect to playing
games.
I;m using a winmodem under Linux right now. If your winmodem uses a lucent(sp?) technologies modem there is a driver available.
http://users.50megs.com/crazyvasey/
http://users.50megs.com/crazyvasey/
What I like specially about linux ( well, my personal SuSE Linux ) is that I never have to wonder "hmm, do I have an application that will let me do x?". A quick browse through the CDs will usually come up with what I need. All that for the price of about 0.1 Microsoft App!
The only thing I haven''t found yet is an UML diagram tool, but that''s probably ''cause I haven''t really looked yet.
Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
ERROR: Your beta-version of Life1.0 has expired. Please upgrade to the full version. All important social functions will be disabled from now on.
The only thing I haven''t found yet is an UML diagram tool, but that''s probably ''cause I haven''t really looked yet.
Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
ERROR: Your beta-version of Life1.0 has expired. Please upgrade to the full version. All important social functions will be disabled from now on.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
