Why do you use Linux

[jaz]

I thought it might be fun to hear why people use Linux. I’ll start with my story.
I have been using computers since the early 1980’s. At some point I bought an IBM PC with 2 floppy drives and a monochrome monitor (yuck!). I found that it was easier to do things without a computer than with one, changing floppies all the time was just too much trouble for me. I gave up computers to Geeks for a decade.
Fast forward to the 1990’s, I went to a friends house where a network Warcraft II game was going on. Wow, how computers had changed, hard drives, color monitors and cool games! I bought a 486 33mhz (that’s right 33mhz) for some ungodly price, I was back in the computer game! It came loaded with Windows 3.11 which never made any sense to me.
Then Windows 95 came out this was much more instinctive to use than 3.11 I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. I soon found Windows 95 would self-destruct every so often so I kept a separate partition with an clean install of Windows including drivers, favorite apps etc (it takes a long time to install all that stuff). So when my computer would collapse for no reason all I did was copy my clean Windows 95 partition to my working partition and I was off! Somehow I knew this shouldn’t be necessary but it beat swapping 5 ¼ in floppies around all day by a long shot.
Then I found a Slackware 96 CD at a computer show. God said let there be light and there was!
For years I built myself new computers and happily paid for the next version of Windows to install which I was never quite happy with… my use of Linux was for fun only, it allowed me to tinker to my hearts content.
Windows 98, Millennium, 2000, XP the $$ from my pocket flowed to Microsoft.
At some point not only was Windows unstable to was dangerously insecure I found myself using Linux more & more.
A couple of years ago my 15 gig U2 SCSI drive became to small so I replaced it with a larger brother but the Microsoft Windows Gestapo algorithm decided I had used my XP install key one to many times…I had to call Microsoft to unlock my key. Questions and more questions finally “is the hard drive that you bought with your OEM Windows XP still installed in your computer?” I eye the SCSI drive lying on the desk, quickly I set it in the open computer case…yeah it’s “installed”. Mr. Microsoft reluctantly gives me a new key, but not before commenting I should buy a retail version of XP, after all it doesn’t cost too much more.
I was pissed! It wasn’t enough that I have paid thousands of $$ to Microsoft over the years…they wanted it all!
I hung up the phone, smoke rolling off my ears as I installed Linux over my newly blessed Windows XP installation. I have used Linux ever since and find I am happier with it every day.

[Patrick]

Great story! My story is I grew using Commodore and had to use Windows software for school. After a while I wanted to learn something else. Windows 3.1 and later Windows 95 were not cutting it for me. I starting learning about Unix (Solaris & Sco) around 1995 and started hearing about Linux. I went to grad school to get my M.S. and did a presentation on Linux. I started with Red Hat and later tried many many distros. Linux is far superior to anything released by M$ on so many levels. When trying to get other people to try Linux for the first time I try to show them the benefits of this great OS and community. With the average Linux distro you get you get SO much more out of box than Windows or Apple. That's the truth.

[allix]

There are a few reasons i use linux and bsd , in no particular order ...
I like the community aspect , you can find out anything and not sound like a noob.
No viruses, spyware and all that ugly turd.
Its legally free in both senses, i use to use windows illegally, i kinda felt bad regardless of the size of m$, that fact that your violating a license, weather the company is worth a dollar or a billion dollars is still violating it.

As my usage of *nix grew i liked the whole unix philosophy opposed to the just a tool that is windows, of course *nix is just a tool too, but us geeks like to think of as something special.

[Wally Balljacker]

- It's free
- The community around F/OSS is amazing
- There's an abundance of choice not found elsewhere
- It does what I need it to do more efficiently, and more securely than Windows
- I don't need any proprietary software that only runs under Windows
- All the cool kids use it

[greggh]

Freedom and security baby! The bonus is that it's superior to Windows and Mac in every other way that's important to me. But, I would still run Linux even if it was only half as good, for the freedom and security.

[Vogateer]

I started off using Linux because it was less expensive than the alternatives. I decided that I should finally build my own computer after another one gave up the ghost, and as I was sorting out the pricing (on a student budget), I was talking to a friend about Windows, and obviously I had never bought it separately before, so when I discovered how expensive it really is, I balked. He mentioned Linux off-hand, which is sort of funny because he doesn't really use Linux at home, and I perked up. I'm not sure how I had heard of it before, but it certainly sounded geeky, which was appealing to me at the time.

I bought a $40 Red Hat 9 Distribution with the disks and manual and everything, and Linux has been a part of my computing experience ever since. I struggled at first, going without Internet for quite a while because I was living with several other guys and sharing an Internet connection, and I couldn't get the wireless card I purchased to work and connect to the router (I bought a D-Link card with one of those same model number yet different chipset shenanigans). I pressed on, and I've been using Linux ever since, mainly Gentoo and Ubuntu as of late. My knowledge of Linux really came in handy when we needed a web server for my friends and I after a previous arrangement with a friend of a friend came to a grinding halt.

I feel like a somewhat respectable member of the community who even makes occasional monetary contributions to open source projects (not as many as I should, though ) I've grown to love the freedom and openness, to appreciate open standards, and have recently started to learn python, hoping that one day I'll make a contribution of code as well as money. Seems a distant dream at the moment, though. Perhaps my new Ubuntu-loaded Dell laptop will give me a push towards that goal!

[Tsuroerusu]

the Microsoft Windows Gestapo algorithm

DUDE!! That's an awesome term man, that seriously cracked me up! Funny shit! Good times!


Because of my young age, my story probably isn't as nostalgic and "cool sounding" like jaz and Pat's, which kind of bugs me, but hey, if I was older then I might have died in the civil war on Sri Lanka.

Anyway, when I was about four years old, I noticed an old-ass computer in my, at that time, father's (I no longer consider him my father. This is one of the advantages of being adopted, if you don't like your parents, just don't consider them family, that simple! "Go on do a DNA test!" you could tell other people! ) home office. I asked him what it was, and he told me that it was a computer that he had gotten from work, but he couldn't figure out how to make it work, let alone be to use it, so he never used it. When I was home alone, which wasn't often, or my mother was taking a nap, I would sometimes get a a chair, and put it in front of the door to my dad's home office, climb up on it, so that I could reach the door handle, open the door, climb down, put the chair back, go inside, close the door, and look around. So I get up to this computer (I don't remember what sort of computer it was, however I'm sure it was some cheasy x86 box) and look around, OK there's some weird thing with lots of buttons with a cord going under the desk. I do a little "research" and figure out that the weird thing is called a "tastatur" (The Danish word for keyboard). Every day I looked forward to my mom hopefully needing to take a nap, so every now and then I would sneak into my dad's office and look around all his stuff, although I'd never touch it, because I wanted to be sure he didn't notice me. This computer of his seemed very very interesting, so almost every time I was in there looking around, I would get up on his office chair, which was challenging at times, let me tell ya, and just sit there and push the buttons for fun. Unfortunately this old clunker was never fired up, so I didn't get to see what OS was on there, although I can almost guarantee that it was Windows 3.11 or some shitty OS like that. One day when I was in there just typing away for fun on this old box, I was shocked to hear the door get opened and my dad coming, apparently he was came home early that day. He stood there looking at me for a few seconds, being extremely surprised that I was in his office since I couldn't reach the door handle. So he asked me how I got in, and I told him how, and then what I was doing, and I told him I was playing with this weird thing with lots of buttons. Then he just started laughing and smiling, and then he picked me up and we went out in the kitchen to have some late lunch.
In 1994 when I was five years old, we went out to some of my mother's friends for dinner, my mother's friend's husband showed my dad his computer, and then asked me if I wanted to play some games on it, and I was like a shining sun and answered yes, and I played some old DOS racing game. About a year later my dad got a new computer with Windows 95, and this one actually worked. I assume he received some lectures at work on how to use it, since he could actually use it to write stuff, but that was about it, although I never saw him use it. Today when I think back, I think he got it because he was hoping I could figure out how to use it, and then teach him.
So once again I snuck into my dad's office, and looked around this new computer. I look at the front of it and there's a button. I push the button and something starts whirring, and this glass thing on top of the computer starts lighting up, and pictures starts appearing on it. Wow this was exciting, I felt like exploring a new planet or something! So I get to some weird green screen with small pictures on it. I accidentally push the mouse with my elbow, and realize I could use it to move around. So I click around and manage to find a painting program. So as I'm sitting there, drawing some of my uncle's cats, my dad yet again catches me being in his office and this time he just smiles, and laughs, comes over and looks at what I am doing, and then he just says "go on, go on!" and then walks out to get something to eat. I finish drawing the cats and, get down from my chair, and goes to play Game Boy, and watch some recorded Disney cartoons.
At this point, my dad allowed me to freely use his computer when I wanted to. At some point he bought me some games for it along with a joypad (Which was a pain to get working, we had somebody help with that). Although as I tinkered more and more, because I wanted to learn, the machine started having problems, and my dad had to get it fixed on numerous occasions, which he got tired of at some point in 1998, and instead of getting angry, he bought a new computer, with Windows 98. Along with this one, was a lot of new games and stuff, although I did manage to break this one as well, although not as much as the shitty Windows 95 machine that my dad got rid of eventually.
At some point I heard my dad mention the name Linux, and said that was a gratis operating system developed by some guy in Finland. Although I never really gave it much thought. When I started making my own websites, I would see Linux as an option for web hosting, but I never really thought about using the operating system myself, for some reason the idea didn't occur to me.
Fast forward to the fall of 2003, now in seventh grade, a couple of friends of mine started talking about Linux, and at the same time, I was started to get really really frustrated with Windows XP's amazing instability and insecurity related to spyware and stuff like that. In the beginning I was a little hesitant, because I thought of Linux as a very commandline oriented OS, and at the time I didn't know how great a commandline could be. At some point I saw some HOWTO videos on the net showing how to crack Windows passwords, and I saw KNOPPIX STD (A security oriented version of KNOPPIX), being used and I saw KDE on there which I thought looked really nice. So in November of 2003, I downloaded it and tried it out, and really thought KDE was nice. In February I installed Mandrake 9.2 on an old Pentium 3 box I had, and played with it, and still thought KDE was really nice. In June of 2003 I started having serious problems with Windows XP crashing and crap, and I also managed to get hit by the Blaster worm since I didn't have a router, and my firewall program crashed and within 5 mins. I got infected. After having 10 blue screens in one day, I just got so pissed off that I took my Windows CD and smashed it into pieces. Went out and downloaded Mandrake 10.0, and switched to Linux. I had Windows around in a dual boot configuration until the middle of August, but then I killed it.
About a week or two after switching, I bought Revolution OS on DVD, to get to know more about the history of Linux. Richard Stallman's ideas of software freedom really caught my attention, which I have come to really appreciate today.

That was how I came about using Linux. Initially I switched to Linux, because it didn't have the issues of stability, security and such, however that focus changed pretty quickly. Today my reasons for using it and the BSDs, is because of the freedom I get from it. Involved is also the guaranteed privacy, safety from any sort of government backdoors or stuff like that. Also the ability to not have to be hush hush about sharing software with a friend, was also a definite reason.

[Wally Balljacker]

I would still run Linux even if it was only half as good, for the freedom and security.

Have you looked at OpenBSD?

/bad joke

[Tsuroerusu]

I would still run Linux even if it was only half as good, for the freedom and security.

Have you looked at OpenBSD?

/bad joke

Even though you meant it as a joke, it's actually quite true at the same time!

[KStorm]

I'm an OS nut, having been fascinated with them since the BeOS days. I first discovered Linux around 2003 w/RedHat 9, and while I had it on a spare machine, that machine had neither web nor peripherals to really experiment with it. I eventually set it aside but was quite impressed by live CDs from Knoppix and Ubuntu. In time, I made my way over to PCLinuxOS; I installed it on my Compaq's second hard drive along with XP (the kind with an arkload of bloated, unwanted software spanning across 5 discs) and have had one distro or another on it since. I still have an XP partition, not for XP itself but for the software; when I build my shuttlebox next year, that will have just Linux on it (probably 15-20 distros on it, if the HD is big enough). I didn't know a whole lot about the performance aspect of Linux when I first started using it, but I can say that my machine runs better under Linux than even a retail copy of XP. I also like the fact that Linux is virtually maintenance-free for the nominal end user, software updates being about the lone exception.

[davijordan]

After working as a tech for years and wasting time on virus problems and security issues on windose I prefer linux. In my spare time I would set up a mythical linux boxes under qemu that would work with citrix server and the banner software. The windows admins did not take a liking to my spare time. I like Linux becase it will do what the big boys do without the large price tag. I sill have an xp machine and a win2k server with citrix, that i bought dirt cheao keep my windows skills halfway up. One thing I like about linux is I only have to go to one place to update the software. That is a time saver. Also too I use a lot of old equipment that i buy used. I can not afford the latest hardware. Linux works for me on all those relics. Network performance with linux can not be touched by windows.
What do we use linux for?
Busniess: I use K12Ltsp server and four thin clients for my ex-wife's private school. There is so much educational software for linux, it is unreal. That is of upmost importance for her budget! I j just installed moodle for her, .With linux terminal servers I only have to update one machine. I can get old p1's and monitor's for a song if need to replace a client terminal. I am starting my own business, Linux will be the os of choice, I will be using a nslu2 using debian as a nas and data archiver. I have two lamp servers which one is for erp software testing plus doubling as a music server and then I have production erp server for (internal mail, blogging, accounting/busintss, ad etc. I plan to start using linux for a nat box and put a web server with ruby on rails support. And behind them will be a second firewall for the regular network. If business goes well and I have to hire employees, then I will set up and asterisk box and an ldap server.
Personal:I started with with a trs-80 writing code for doing income tax and then moved to the c64 to do a lot of bbsing, keep personal info, and play games. In fact when I was a part time instructor at a local college I used to prepare tests on that baby. Now on my X86's,I do web browsing, keep my personal notes, email, listen to music from a daap server, watch tv. and i like to play a game once in a while like bzflag. I travel everywhere with my old p1 laptop with debian. I built a myth tv box, but I needed it for something else and so it goes. My youngest brother calls me the fred sanford of computers.

[mowestusa]

I travel everywhere with my old p1 laptop with debian. I built a myth tv box, but I needed it for something else and so it goes. My youngest brother calls me the fred sanford of computers.

First of all, your brother's statement would be the highest compliment someone could give to me. I love getting computers for free, although I drove by a free IBM the other day that was out for trash, I don't know how I resisted, other than the fact that I have four computers already that I don't have hooked up to my network, yet!!!

Second, that is cool that you are still using a P1 with debian. Just curious, do you stick with CLI apps or did you install a GUI and what GUI programs work well?

I have NetBSD installed on a P166 with 32megs of ram, and I'm loving it. NetBSD was an easy install, and it had all of the binary packages that I needed in an easy to fetch and install method for a kicking CLI only machine. It is my machine of choice to lug to LUG meetings now. There is no battery, but most of the time it is not hard to find a seat near outlets in most buildings these days.

I hope someone else is willing to toss me a free lappy like my 166 because I don't know how long this one will last, and it is always nice to have a spare.

mowestusa

[davijordan]

On the old laptop, i use both command line and gui. Ironically With the laptop, I used dsl for a long time. Eventually I decided to go with the real thing debian via a network install and added the gui later,. I used xfce for a while, Now I think I have fluxbox on there, I am lucky though I bumped it up to a whopping 96 megs of ram. You're right most of the time the batteries are toast on those old units. If I make time, I may take an old p1 desktop and install freebsd to check it out. I am always interested in learning something new. Windows users are always blindly upgrading. Help them out every way you can. You never know, a puter might come your way.

[snarkout]

I use linux because I hate freedom. It's been proven.

[schotty]

- It's free
- The community around F/OSS is amazing
- There's an abundance of choice not found elsewhere
- It does what I need it to do more efficiently, and more securely than Windows
- I don't need any proprietary software that only runs under Windows
- All the cool kids use it

Yep, my thoughts exactly. Plus the software I do get addicted to works on multiple architectures MIPS, i686, PPC gets all the same lovin