Linux, worth getting?

[maliciousteve]

Hey guys. What are the benefits of Linux? What are the downsides of Linux?

I'm downloading Ubuntu at the momet so while that's taking forever to download I'd thought I'd check what you all think of it.

 

[stuh84]

Upsides:

More secure by default, the software is open source (and in most cases, free to download), gets you understanding more about an OS, and no registry to corrupt. If there is a problem and its not pure incompatibility between hardware and the OS, then it can be fixed, rather than just format and hope it works after.

Downsides:

Lower commercial support, harder to figure out, recording software is a bit behind the times (on par with stuff from about 5 years ago rather than today), the closest you get to a safe mode is starting in the command line, so if you break one line, you can essentially render your OS unusable until you fix it, rather than booting in a safe mode and fixing via a GUI (however, the sheer knowledge out there about linux, someone will be able to help you through it)

 

[jaxadam]

I'm dual booting Ubuntu and Vista on my home computer. If you're even the slightest computer literate, you shouldn't really have any problems. There is a pretty good amount of info out there to get you around most problems.

It is a very highly customizable OS, and I'm sure there are lots of people on here that can tell you a great deal more than me. There is a little bit of a learning curve with getting used to using Terminal, but overall it's a pretty good OS.

 

[arktan]

Linux, worth getting?

In one word: Yes

In more words: Yes, yes, yes and yes.


I'm dual booting Vista and Opensuse on mine. Suse because it's more work-oriented than the other distros. Ubuntu is a nice way to start but you'll be "stuck" with the really annoying gnome "user interface" but that's just me disliking Gnome

And if you don't like it, you can always get rid of it. There could be some starting problems with the bootloader. Mine for example loves to destroy itself if i forget to unplug my 320Gb harddrive and reboot with it plugged in... then i have to reinstall GRUB (which is my bootloader) and add the entry for Vista manually later on.
So install it with someone who has some expierence with it rather than doing it alone and possibly throwing your computer out of the window

 

[stuh84]

Ubuntu is a nice way to start but you'll be "stuck" with the really annoying gnome "user interface" but that's just me disliking Gnome

And I hate KDE

 

[cpnhowdy]

What Stuart said. Also it depends on what you want to do with it. For me I use it only as a server because it is very solid and stable, can be very secure if you know how to lock it up, scriptable.
I dont use it as a game or recording machine however.

I suggest trying out Knoppix first KNOPPIX Linux Live CD and burning one of their bootable distros that way you can check and use Linux without having to install anything.

 

[Scali]

I recall a lengthy discussion on linux on this forum not too long ago, mostly related to digital audio software and such. You might want to search for that thread, it may contain valuable information and opinions for you.

 

[JBroll]

Yes.

Recording and games are behind, but if you want security and stability you don't have many other options.

As far as 'hard to figure out'... if you can learn Windows, you can learn Linux. Linux is all completely open and nothing is beyond your tinkering, so in that sense it's even easier to learn - if you read even a little C you can browse the kernel and user tool source and learn more than even the best Microsoft user outside the development offices.

It's hard to break (unless you login as root for everything you do like a bloody moron) and designed to be bulletproof. Use it.

Jeff

 

[Elysian]

Yes.

Recording and games are behind, but if you want security and stability you don't have many other options.

As far as 'hard to figure out'... if you can learn Windows, you can learn Linux. Linux is all completely open and nothing is beyond your tinkering, so in that sense it's even easier to learn - if you read even a little C you can browse the kernel and user tool source and learn more than even the best Microsoft user outside the development offices.

It's hard to break (unless you login as root for everything you do like a bloody moron) and designed to be bulletproof. Use it.

Jeff

i've had ubuntu kill itself on dist-upgrades, its not all that hard to break... also, messing with grub is rather cryptic if you don't have google on hand... i far prefer lilo, but every distro besides slackware seems to have moved to grub


fedora is my easy linux distro of choice, but if i feel like more of a challenge i load debian or slackware(i <3 slack)

 

[stuh84]

As far as 'hard to figure out'... if you can learn Windows, you can learn Linux. Linux is all completely open and nothing is beyond your tinkering, so in that sense it's even easier to learn - if you read even a little C you can browse the kernel and user tool source and learn more than even the best Microsoft user outside the development offices.

Aye, this I agree with, but to the average user, the mere thought of having to do ANYTHING in the command line is alien to them, hence the harder to use part.

Personally, I'd rather be able to awk, grep and sed my way through a command line than CD and dir, but some people dont want that at all

 

[Zepp88]

Upsides:

More secure by default, the software is open source (and in most cases, free to download), gets you understanding more about an OS, and no registry to corrupt. If there is a problem and its not pure incompatibility between hardware and the OS, then it can be fixed, rather than just format and hope it works after.

Downsides:

Lower commercial support, harder to figure out, recording software is a bit behind the times (on par with stuff from about 5 years ago rather than today), the closest you get to a safe mode is starting in the command line, so if you break one line, you can essentially render your OS unusable until you fix it, rather than booting in a safe mode and fixing via a GUI (however, the sheer knowledge out there about linux, someone will be able to help you through it)

Truth.

It's a great alternative OS, with it's own suite of applications. As long as you don't do something to break it, it shouldn't fuck up much at all. Highly customizable, great for tweakers, and like Stu said, it really helps you understand the ins and outs of a computer and how things work.

Like most things, it's not for everyone, but it's fun to play with.

Things I like best are that it tells you exactly what's wrong when it fucks up, and it's almost always fixable rather easily without reformatting and all that bullshit.

When I ran linux I used Arch Linux

 

[Benjo230]

mmmmm Ubuntu, should really get it again :/

There is a ditro out there called Musix, and im pretty sure there's a distribution called Ubuntu Studio, which is aimed at audio/video/graphic enthusiasts... Although i've not used either.

anyway, yeah Ubuntu = mmmmmm

 

[Elysian]

mmmmm Ubuntu, should really get it again :/

There is a ditro out there called Musix, and im pretty sure there's a distribution called Ubuntu Studio, which is aimed at audio/video/graphic enthusiasts... Although i've not used either.

anyway, yeah Ubuntu = mmmmmm

i've tried ubuntu studio, and while it does indeed have a ton of studio apps, its all around very confusing, and not as powerful as a comparable windows setup...

 

[JBroll]

i've had ubuntu kill itself on dist-upgrades, its not all that hard to break... also, messing with grub is rather cryptic if you don't have google on hand... i far prefer lilo, but every distro besides slackware seems to have moved to grub


fedora is my easy linux distro of choice, but if i feel like more of a challenge i load debian or slackware(i <3 slack)

I love Slackware too. I might be a little too attached, as I have a mug and shirt with the flippy logo, but it's a hell of a setupd.

Distribution upgrades aren't always recommended (sticking to LTS releases is good enough practice) and those issues get ironed out... any software has bugs, and as far as I know it's much more improbable to get a bricked system with dist-upgrade.

Aye, this I agree with, but to the average user, the mere thought of having to do ANYTHING in the command line is alien to them, hence the harder to use part.

Personally, I'd rather be able to awk, grep and sed my way through a command line than CD and dir, but some people dont want that at all

You really don't need to use the command line for all but a handful of things (which are usually beyond entry-level tools) in user-friendly distros. As much of a command-line nerd as I am, I can put my parents in front of Ubuntu and not have to worry about anything - GUI tools like the ones in the major user-friendly distros are robust and easier to use than whatever Windows counterparts there may be. Further, hardware autodetection is more complete and more devices are supported in Linux than in Windows - even when restricted to x86 and/or x86-64.

Jeff

 

[Kagami]

i've had ubuntu kill itself on dist-upgrades, its not all that hard to break... also, messing with grub is rather cryptic if you don't have google on hand... i far prefer lilo, but every distro besides slackware seems to have moved to grub


fedora is my easy linux distro of choice, but if i feel like more of a challenge i load debian or slackware(i <3 slack)

most people like grub because it's easier to use and does more...

I remember the discussion scali is talking about, I forgot who was the one with all the comp sci knowledge but they failed to mention how the Bebox, the ultimate multimedia computer with a media-oriented OS, seriously failed...

I've got ubuntu on my main desktop but I'm not really sure why, just like last time with ubuntustudio 7.04 I ended up with kubuntu 8.10 which is really not what I wanted. Oh well at least fucking virtual consoles with resolution over 640x480 work now with nvidia cards (ubuntu seriously fucked it up before).

I think ubuntu is a piece of crap, I send people to archlinux if they want to learn or use linux, static distributions like suse, fedora, ubuntu, etc. fail in every way imo and exude the qualities of windows that I loathe. Releases are abominations.


Anyway, with there now being a flash player for 64-bit there's really no reason to stick with 32 if you have a 64-bit proc and quite a bit of ram.

 

[Scali]

but they failed to mention how the Bebox, the ultimate multimedia computer with a media-oriented OS, seriously failed...

What do you mean by that though?
That good technology can fail if it isn't marketed properly? Or that good technology alone isn't enough to replace Windows? Or...?

 

[Korngod]

i tried Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 on my PS3 and didnt care for it too much... maybe its the fact that it was on my ps3, i dunno. I tried to get it to recognize the ps3 wifi and it messed up and now it wont boot linux so i gave up on it

 

[JBroll]

That must've been a hell of a configuration error, what did you do?

You might want to try another distro - since you're using Yellow Dog I assume the processor in your PS3 is a PowerPC, and there are Ubuntu releases for that architecture...

Jeff

 

[Scali]

The PS3 uses an IBM Cell processor. One of the cores is PowerPC-compatible, but I don't think the whole system is compatible enough to just run any regular PowerPC-distribution without problems. You'd probably need specific PS3-support.
I suppose most PPC distro's are aimed at Apples or IBM workstations, since those are the most common platforms with PPC processors, and they're quite different from a PS3.

 

[stuh84]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PlayStation_3

It does work however