so what's the deal with linux

What is it and what's it good for? Why not just stick to windows?

 

Because Bill wants to get more money. Why you need to pay for Windows if you can do everything with Linux and for free??? No viruses, no need for anti-virus programs, no spyware etc etc. Linux is just great. Can't believe that you can get a whole OS and software for free.

 

Linux is just another operating system. Not particularly better or worse than windows on the whole. It's just a matter of which one meets your needs at the price you are willing to pay. In my case, I got into linux because my modeling program (femlab) runs better under linux. Programs ran out of memory in windows but the same program ran flawlessly under linux. !$!#$!@#$ windows!

 

I am fairly new to Linux, and I really like how you can find a Linux equivalent program for every Windows program there is out there and they are all free for Linux. I am still learning Linux, but its nice to have another option for an OS. Especially when you can do just about everything on Linux as you can on Windows

 

Noahsark, I like how you phrased your first statement, because its true. Also it could be thought as if you know Linux you know computers better than other users because Linux is not widely used, and for some distros it takes some knowledge of installation to install it properly. Plus you generally decide what to run in the background not Windows.

 

Not entirely true. I run SuSE and FC5 on two of my machines and still haven't found a compatible equivalent for MS Access. Otherwise I'd probably ditch Windows for good.

 

Actually, I am pretty sure that OpenOffice has a database program that comes with it. I believe it is called Base? Anyone correct me if I am wrong. I'm not sure about the total compatibility, but they do have one.

 

As far as I've seen Base's compatibility with Access is still a little hit and miss, somewhat like Writer's handling of some types of formatting in MS Word. My work depends on 100% cross-compatibility with Access and I"m not ready to stake my livelihood on something that's not completely bulletproof. But at least they are working on it, which is something. Hopefully someday.......

 

Bulletproof? But you use Access!!!! j/k, I know it is nice to do quick prototypes and mockups in Access...or small jobs ;-)

Funny thing is, that first post reads very much like a troll on a Linux board. So what's Linux? It's a Unix-derivative OS written by a guy named Linus Torvalds in the early 1990s. It took off initially as a free alternative to the expensive *nix server OSes (as most *nix packages are code-compatible with Linux with a little tweaking) and as a computer hobbyists toy, and then came into its own as a desktop alternative also. The advantage of Linux (and OS X for that matter) is it introduces competition into a market that badly needs it, otherwise you'd be stuck with just Windows and they could make it as crappy as they want, and you couldn't do anything about it. Linux is typically perceived (not sure about proven, lots of anecdotal evidence, but there's lots of arguments about the validity of the statistics there) as more stable and secure than Windows - certainly for the non-NT derivatives. For most people, it's a way to rage against the machine.

The real downside is that some of the most common uses of computers such as games and multimedia are in some ways more limited. Games are typically still limited to DirectX API (Windows only) and certain multimedia packages are far harder to use for the novice (mplayer/mencoder for instance). I personally feel like commercial packages tend to cater towards novices a bit more with interfaces that hide the nitty-gritty. And where are the commercial packages released more often than not? Windows.

My $0.02

 

Maybe that was a poor choice of terms. I guess by bulletproof I mean being able to send something to a client or boss who's using Access and not have them call me 5 minutes later asking why the heck it won't open or certain fields are missing or not working correctly. Just not willing to risk that possibility, at least not until I'm independently wealthy anyway.