Why do you use Linux?

I'm trying to get into the whole Linux scene...(Open Source is my new love)

Also, do you use it exclusively? If not, how is your time split up between other OSes?

 

Not at all. You can use it together with other OSes (like Windows).

In my opinion, Ubuntu is one of the best OS I've worked. It has plenty of apps for everyday use (documents, sheets, music, movies, burning cds/dvds). I use it in a dual boot with Windows.

But you can also find others like Debian, Red Hat, Kurumin, etc.

Here's a link you might find useful: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu

 

I use Linux because it's faster, safer, easier to use, better looking, cheaper, cooler, smaller, downloads stuff faster, and is fun to use.

Although I still have Windows on a spare hard drive for when I go to LANs once a month.

 

For the sake of freedom, because I can configure it to my extremely specific needs and desires both graphically and under the hood, it tends to be much faster, I don't have to worry about DRM, and I don't feel like there are endless roadblocks to my understanding of the system.

I have a Vista partition for gaming, I don't use it much, but I probably would more if it were a separate gaming machine.
I'm looking at getting a Mac, just for the experience.

Right now, probably about 19:1 in favor of Linux.

 

I use Linux almost exclusively on my personal computers, but I usually keep some sort of Windows (usually a virtual machine) around for those rare occasions that I need to run a Windows only app or need to do a presentation on a Windows topic (like, a rootkit virus demonstration). Most of the computers at the IT HelpDesk I work at run Windows, but I prefer using our one Mac if I can.

As for why I use it? I've described some reasons in some other posts and I don't feel like hunting those down or retyping those, but I use it for many of the same reasons other people mentioned. Another thing I'd like to add though, as I mentioned, I work at an IT HelpDesk, so I have to troubleshoot Windows problems all the time, which I can usually fix. However, after I'm done, many times I think, "okay, I got it to work......... I just wish I knew why that fixed it..." Whereas when I troubleshoot my own Linux problems (which I do get), after I figure it out I go, "Ooooh, so THAT'S what I did wrong!"

Oh, and of course, I enjoy the geek factor.

 

I use Linux(mainly Ubuntu) for these reasons:

1) Easy on resources, low RAM usage. Also lower minimal specs required.

2) Desktop is much more customizable without using 3rd party apps. So is the Login screen, ETC:

3) Basically Virus and Mal/Spyware free. Safer. Also don't have to worry much about malicious scripts.

4) Faster in terms of Web Browsing and Downloads, especially with FireFox.

5) Tons of Freeware that you are able to download via the OS itself instead of searching all over the net for Freeware. Invaluable IMO

6) It's actually easy to operate and maneuver through once you get the hang of it.

7) Detects Hardware better. NOTE: Differ distros vary on this. Ubuntu is by far the best at this.

8) Capable of better Eye-Candy, via Beryl and Compiz, ETC.

 

I use linux because it's fun!

 

I use Linux pretty much because I find it better. It's open source, secure, has plenty of help, plenty of customization options, and is just more stable IMO. But of course, I still use Windows. I was using Linux pretty much exclusively for the past few months, but I've been using Windows quite often lately for school, so I end up just staying in it. Linux is about choice, even if that choice is to use Windows or OS X as well.

 

You address the point. Linux is for fun, for playing, entertainment, media creation and so on. Just not much games in a short period.

 

I use Linux because I have been a UNIX (HP-UX, DEC UNIX, Solaris..etc) administrator since 1985. I have been using Linux since 1991. I just know how to configure and maintain it far better than I know Windows.

 

I've been using Linux 100% for the last two and a half years and it was probably about 50/50 Linux/Windows before that. I use Linux for the same reason that I drive a five speed.

 

Cause.....you like inconvenience?

 

No, obviously not. It's because it gets better gas mileage. I know that's why I use Linux (and drive stick).


Seriously though, let's see what I can come up with, more control? Cheaper? Easier to fix when something breaks? A feeling of pride knowing you can use something that a lot of other people can't?

 

Linux is specific to my needs-- it isn't in fifth gear when I want to be in second.

 

My list of why I use Linux:

- modular design of packages and lack of registry means that, unlike Windows, reformatting is rarely necessary!

- superior memory management: unlike Vista, Linux can operate on the crappiest computer, and it knows how to utilize large amounts of RAM with caching, This is something Microsoft has only begun to adopt in their Vista OS.

- user interface: I can make it look and act exactly how I want it to.

- security: no problems yet. Then again, I've never had a virus in XP either, but I've seen what viruses can do to Windows.

- value: the variety and power of free applications available to Linux users is great, and nothing short of incredible when compared with Microsoft's operating systems.

- functionality: fresh installations of Linux distros (ex, Ubuntu) are functional and feature useful applications that allow me to get to work. I can't write up labs with Windows notepad, can I? I have to buy functionality for the OS first!

- Linux is less *****y and more efficient: Windows (particularly Vista) always steals my window focus with things it deems to be important, and which I don't care about; taskbar notifications are often wrong or incorrect (like "a network cable has been disconnected"). Linux does not do this; it hands full control over to the user and assumes they are competent. In other words, Linux does not treat me like a fool.

Personally, for me the difference between Linux and Windows is like stepping out of a Kia car and getting an Audi TT Quattro with the 225hp V6 engine; there's just no comparison.

 

If Linux can run Adobe products, I would convert almost immediately. I love the whole opensource/free idea and the freedom it gives you to customize anything to meet your needs. Only problem is driver support and mainstream app that are out for PCs and Macs only. I guess using emulations does work, but I don't like running progs that aren't built specifically for that OS. (I might be wrong since I am basing my limited knowledge of Linux to my horrible memory, but eh...) Vista is fine for me atm.

 

I've only been using Ubuntu for a little while now at work, and extensively at home on my dominant notebook there. I love it because I'm able to work more efficiently in it - the features that compiz brings to the table only increase how effectively I can work.

That said, as a member of my university IT staff, windows is the dominant OS I use there. It has its advantages, but at the moment I'm trying to convince my boss to 'trial' one of our labs as an Ubuntu lab

 

I use Linux because it's FREE and because I just wanted something aside from the Windows versions I've been using for more than a decade. Knowing that there are less viruses and security holes for Linux is also very comforting

(Although, if somebody wanted to hack my system, I'd be completely dead... )

 

At the first moment I liked Linux because it allowed me to have a great OS without making me a pirate. Afterwards, several years later I fully appreciate its superiority above Windows (for the tasks I perform), and it makes my computing experience much better (I am not a virus paranoid anymore).

I love that it can be installed in really low spec machines (thus increasing its productive life), that I can CHOOSE which one to install, and that there can be more than one installed in a single machine (without extra cost).

In my signature you can see the Linux distributions I currently have in my laptop, and in my desktop I have Fedora 7 (which I prefer).

It is a matter of freedom at the end, and Windows does not give it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I use Linux 95% of my computing time.

Thanks.
Joe.

 

Many reasons. I agree that Freedom is key. It's important to be able to know what is going on in your computer, and not have the details obscured in gobbledygook like the registry and proprietary file formats.

I also think it is simply a better desktop environment. You get multiple virtual desktops for free, something Windows *still* hasn't figure out. I go crazy when I'm on Windows without that feature alone!

Scriptability and hackability. You can do all kinds of neat stuff in Bash that aren't possible in Windows. (Unless, of course, you run bash under Cygwin. )

Incredible variety of free software that works best under Linux. You can do just about any creative media creation. Video editing, image editing, sound editing, desktop publishing, you name it. Some may argue that these Free programs aren't as good as Adobe stuff, and there is some merit to that argument, but the Freedom factor is a real draw. And they *are* pretty good programs and continue to improve.

I've been using Linux almost exclusively at home and at work since 1998. However, I did sell my soul and put an XP partition on my new laptop. The main reason for that was the ability to run GPS street navigation software, not available in Linux*. XP is also useful as a reference platform for the hardware in the laptop. If I'm having any trouble it's helpful to ask "does it work in Windows?" It's hardly worth a mention though as I rarely boot to it except when in the car.

* I did once try to run Delorme Street Atlas USA under Wine. The results were encouraging but it just wasn't *quite* good enough. Maybe someday.

 

So that I may live a longer, healthier life

 

Because it's all free! And different!