Do you run Linux - if not why?

neilmcl

movilogo wrote: »

1. Free

2. Runs better (faster) with old hardware. I brought my old computers to life with Linux Mint. Windows was limpting on it.

3. Better security - I run no anti-virus. While there are free antivirus in Windows it does slow the systems down (linked to #2).

4. Web browsing is no different from Windows/Mac because all browsers are available inside it.

5. No need for continuous "uprades" as in Windows!

6. Libre Office suite is good replacement for Microsoft Office for 90% of people. It also supports MS Office file format.

7. It is still possible to run Windows via Virtual Box. What people say this as a faff in Linux often sold as feature of MacOS. How odd is that?

I am not saying everyone should run Linux but I am saying give it a try and you may like it more than Windows/Mac. Other than some time, you have nothing to lose in worst case.

If you are thinking of starting with Linux, then I recommend you start with Linux Mint as it has nearest to Windows like interface.

Why didn't you just start with this rather than that pointless poll.

AnotherJoe

movilogo wrote: »

Linux is having the car for free and never to pay for any fuel and still taking you from A to B without any fuss.

For value of "without any fuss" = spend several hours a week tinkering under the bonnet.

John_Gray

neilmcl wrote: »

Why didn't you just start with this rather than that pointless poll.

Indeed.

"Everyone knows" that it would lead to Festive and Pointless Arguments about the respective merits or demerits of Windows, Linux, BSD, iOS, etc...

motorguy

movilogo wrote: »

Linux is having the car for free and never to pay for any fuel and still taking you from A to B without any fuss.

I dont pay for "fuel" for Win10 (ie theres no running costs), nor did i pay for it in the first place (it came included in the hardware. There was no option / discount to not take it), and it causes me no fuss at all - it just runs.

neilmcl

John_Gray wrote: »

Indeed.

"Everyone knows" that it would lead to Festive and Pointless Arguments about the respective merits or demerits of Windows, Linux, BSD, iOS, etc...

I'm kind of thinking that this was the whole aim of this thread.

Stoke

I'm a software engineer. I pretty much exclusively use Linux on every PC I own. Too many reasons not to, but I can appreciate why people continue to use Windows from a purely simplistic perspective.

jamesperrett

I've dabbled with Linux from time to time but every time I think about using it more seriously I find that I either need to set up all kinds of packages before my software will work or that the software isn't properly compatible with the industry standards (like the ability to run MS Office macros in a spreadsheet). Linux fans are too willing to accept compromises and hassle that is a showstopper for those of us who use common PC/Mac software.

that

Stoke wrote: »

I'm a software engineer. I pretty much exclusively use Linux on every PC I own. Too many reasons not to, but I can appreciate why people continue to use Windows from a purely simplistic perspective.

As a person who works for a company who buys products from people like yourself, it causes issues.

We are a windows shop from desktop to server. So someone infrequently in the org buys a product, and if it is on a Linux platform 90% of the time the product supplier wont support the operating system, or blame the os. Would say that 9.9% do, and charge for it.... but eventually something goes wrong and they all do a runner, "we only sold you the application, which we support, not the os", "the product runs on linux, but we do not support linux, just the product" and "No, we do not have a windows version".

Another scenario is that they sell the company, the new company that takes over are very eager to collect maintenance support money, but when something goes wrong, they have no idea, the source code had vanished and they also do not support linux.

Then there is "thanks for the fish, but we can not longer support the bespoke database as we are retiring" (tough luck to the 25 years worth of collected data from our bespoke platform written from source in C).

I know linux is often free, great for developers, but for the end user side is more complex.

onomatopoeia99

that wrote: »

We are a windows shop from desktop to server. So someone infrequently in the org buys a product, and if it is on a Linux platform 90% of the time the product supplier wont support the operating system, or blame the os. Would say that 9.9% do, and charge for it.... but eventually something goes wrong and they all do a runner, "we only sold you the application, which we support, not the os", "the product runs on linux, but we do not support linux, just the product" and "No, we do not have a windows version".

They are selling you a turnkey solution that is an application running on hardware with a linux OS (inferred as you state you are entirely Windows based, so if someone buys an application running on linux, the hardware and OS needs to come with it), and they only support the application, not the rest of the solution they sold you?

Hmm. Wouldn't want to deal with them.

that wrote: »

Another scenario is that they sell the company, the new company that takes over are very eager to collect maintenance support money, but when something goes wrong, they have no idea, the source code had vanished and they also do not support linux.

That can happen with an application on any platform, if the source code of a Windows application had vanished, support would be challenging.

that wrote: »

Then there is "thanks for the fish, but we can not longer support the bespoke database as we are retiring" (tough luck to the 25 years worth of collected data from our bespoke platform written from source in C).

Again, how does the OS affect that? You would have the same problem if the bespoke database was running on Windows, OSX, OS/2, Haiku, System/36, CP/M ...

I'm still supporting a product we stopped developing in 2003 after 16 years in the market and removed from sale to new clients in 2004. Most of our internal support programs for it only run on the DOS kernel, so I have a machine with Windows 98 by my left foot that I have to fire up from time to time. The hard drive in it makes worrying noises if it's left on for more than about 15 minutes. I moved the (linux based) website backend to a new server on AWS a few months ago to provide long term stability for that end of it, even though sales of licences to existing users are down under £1000/year now.

If I get run over by a bus, support will end. No-one else knows anything about it, I'm the only one of the original developers left. We've been telling people for 15 years they need to port to something else, but they don't. When I turn off the lights, there will be complaints, but they can;t say they weren't warned, repeatedly, for over a decade.

Farmer_Johnson

I run iOS, and have no idea how or why I’d want a different system.