Who thinks Linux is better??

[mr moose]

On 10/2/2019 at 12:05 PM, Ryan_Vickers said:

I don't mean anything by it, but I just realized this reminds me of that old Apple ad where they're parodying the Kennedy speech, "ask not what vista can do for you, ask what you can buy for vista!", in response to the fact it had poor hardware support and made a lot of people change stuff out to make it work.

 

Vista support wasn't that bad, it just needed more resources than most PC's were shipping with.  Most OEM's shipped with the bare minimum requirements to run vista, so if you enabled aero and all the flash and pizazz the thing bogged down and nearly died.    If like me you had slightly better than the minimum it was fine (I even had it running fine on a $500 acer laptop). 

[BlueGoliath]

A friendly reminder to LTT that the last time y'all covered Linux in your Manjaro gaming video, bad things went down on places like Reddit as a result of your content. If you plan on doing a misleading click-bait YouTube video praising Linux's upside without carefully phrasing and wording things you're going to end up causing another crap show. There are already many supposed benefits listed by others in this thread that either blatantly aren't true, half truths, or replacing Windows/Mac problem X with Linux problem Y. I ain't saying that there aren't 10 reasonable upsides to Linux over Windows/Mac but rather to be careful...

 

Or don't. I kinda want to read and archive all the terrible comments. Should be fun.

 

 

 

 

[catpuking]

You can copy and paste some stuff you don't understand from the internet, paste it in source forge and it all works. No GUI needed. 

When confronted with more elaborate needs, like when you have a media server, bash is still useful enough to write a script for (I'm looking at you msdos)

Don't like it, trade it in for a new linux flavour within the hour

packages, all the packages without a "___ store"

CRONTAB

tail -f logfile 

grep (OMG this is actually the best thing ever)

[dreamer_]

Don't listen to BlueGoliath, he's a grifter hanging around various Linux subreddits and complaining about everyone and everything (except NVIDIA for some strange reason, NVIDIA is holy).

 

Why Linux:

• I am in control of my machine - this is the most important part for me - this is my Personal Computer after all and not a machine owned by some corporation and "licensed" or "leased" to me.
• I am a programmer and Linux is the best environment for software development (look at StackOverflow yearly polls - Linux is consistently the most beloved platform)
• Year after year I can watch progression in Linux ecosystem, it gets better and better as there are more users and developers arriving. Other software ecosystems do not have this trend - and in some cases, other OSes actually regress by removing critical options and features from users. In Linux/Open Source world - worst case scenario is: if I need to fork or maintain something to keep it working, I can do it.
• Software repositories are so good and easy to use, that other OS crowds started to immitate them: OSX with brew, Windows with Chocolatey, nuget and vcpkg.
• Documentation is often very comprehensive and available offline (that's right - often it's not necessary to look for obscure solutions by Googling, just invoke: man <command> and jump to the section that's important to you).
• Excellent terminal support - terminal is the most convenient way of interacting with your machine in many, many contexts - that's why Windows copied this feature and now provides PowerShell installed by default.
• A lot of software does not change as fast - my knowledge and muscle memory dedicated to vim is as useful now as it was 10 years ago and will be 10 years from now.
• More positive attitudes than general PC crowd - it's easier to find help if needed than when you have a problem e.g. with Windows.
• Open source and introspection into software I run - I can read code - if something is not documented, I can look inside and understand how something works instead of solving problems via "cargo cult IT" (as it happens very often in closed platforms).
• Usually, when I try to use Windows, very quickly I am missing some software that is readily available on Linux. Yeah, sometimes I can find something similar for Windows, but it's often inferior version with some ugly GUI that does not fit rest of the system or is plainly broken. For example: tiling terminal emulators or good ssh clients with sshfs support or filesystems with reflink support, etc, etc.
• The best virtualization support.
• I don't need to worry about spyware/bloatware/crapware infesting my system and forcing me to reinstall.

 

BTW, @Linus

Command sudo is pronounced "sudO" and not "sudU", because if people would say "sudU", then listeners would try to type "sudu" instead of "sudo". Also, not everyone speaks english and knows that "do" in english is pronounced "du". And "su" command is not a shortcut for "super-user", but for "substitute/switch user".

[SpaceGhostC2C]

I've been using various forms of Linux for different purposes for 10 years now... which lead to a long list of positives and negatives (the balance of which I may call "the Linux paradox"^TM). My understanding is that this thread is about the positives only, though, so I'll leave the bad out.

 

Trying not to repeat too much after 5 pages:

• 99% of the time, there is a way to accomplish what you want with your computer. It may not be simple, but it isn't locked away either. (I mean, if you want to run program X as coded by whoever for Windows, OK, maybe there isn't (yet) no matter how much Wine or whatever you throw at it, but I'm thinking in terms of turning your computer into a machine that performs a function, then hardware is your limit). The remaining 1% maybe isn't possible, or maybe you're just not nerd enough - you'll never know  
• Performance. And I don't mean the "overall responsiveness" already mentioned, it's "low weight", etc. (which is fine, but already covered), but actual performance in computationally intensive tasks. This may not always be apparent due to some software for Linux being just a poor port or a poor copycat of software developed for Windows, but my impression from (limited) experience is that the lower the level you got, the more clear an advantage you find. An example relevant to me: Fortran code compiled with gfortran and ran in Linux remains the fastest way to do numerical computations (you can probably achieve the same with C++ these days, but not better). Now, in Windows, Intel's compiler will deliver better results than gfortran, but Intel+Windows is still slightly slower than gfortran+Linux (and that's tested on an Intel CPU). When you are squeezing every core, across multiple machines, every margin counts.
• The "do one thing, and do it very well" philosophy. It's not necessarily followed by developers, in the sense that you will find many bloated programs for Linux, especially among those intended as "open source replacements" for popular software across OSes (cough-cough-Thunderbird-cough), but a significant fraction of the core functions are performed by software that follows this approach. I think that contributes to both its small footprint and its customizability (?) .

 

  

[VaguePancakery]

Price: It's free which means you can freely install most distros on all the hardware you want

Versatility: It's versatile as all hell. From intel-32 and amd64 to various ARM platforms and even somewhat obscure things like risc-v

Resource consumption: being able to have a fully loaded and sexy desktop with 0.2% cpu and 125mb of ram on an i3 system is fantastic

Security and stability: due to the open source nature of the beast it's great to be able to audit your own operating system and contribute fixes quickly and cleanly.

[BlueGoliath]

1 hour ago, dreamer_ said:

Don't listen to BlueGoliath, he's a grifter hanging around various Linux subreddits and complaining about everyone and everything (except NVIDIA for some strange reason, NVIDIA is holy).

 

Why did I ever made an Nvidia overclocking utility for Linux? You people are awful.

[Vivikenda]

Linux is better because

 

• No awkward transitions from today's sponsor LINUX  from Linus and his sandals
• feeling connected to a community of like minded individuals who respect Free open-source information, everyone wants to share, not hoarding information
• Linux From Scratch teaches you for FREE how to build your own ISO- in other words its a great education tool, can create an ISO under 8mb it's unreal
• Transparency of the software via open-source nature, so you can tweak everything to your liking
• No bloatware(obvious) but also you can get around Electron based apps via various other implementations and avoid proprietary crap
• best package management systems, file layout is easy to access and maintain
• and most of all just being that guy who uses Arch, I use Arch BTW- holla at boi

[SilverSoul]

To keep things short:

• Much better CPU / IO schedulers. 
• Better filesystem choices.
• Package management.
• Lighter footprint.
• Plethora of DEs and WMs.
• Ability to patch things yourself.
• Documentation.
• No need to treat stuff like a black box anymore.
• Deploying to a platform you run is easier.
• No reboots required between updates! Kernel can livepatch. One can also load kernel modules at will.
• Systemd unit files / crontab comes in really useful to automate the boring stuff out of your life!

[linuxuser327]

No licensing BS. Just download and install on as many machines as your heart desires. No need to register or transfer licenses, no need to keep track of key usage limits, no getting "deactivated" just because you upgraded a CPU. Even disregarding the dollar cost of a windows/mac os licence, having linux just be "free" makes things so much easier.

[LatinCanuck]

1) Freedom. Linux is Free Libre Open Source Software that you could use as you please, without restrictions.

2) DIY, Linux is just the kernel, so you could custom build your own distro. Just like building your own PC vs buying a Mac. You can add the components you like and omit anything you dislike.

3) No viruses.

4) Good overall performance.

5) The GNOME Desktop is the most beautiful, friendly, and cohesive Desktop Experience. GNOME apps are consistent.

 

IMHO, Fedora is the best distro.

[fluffier_than_thou]

I think it's important to note that I don't think any operating system is objectively better than any other for most day-to-day tasks ( unless you're specialised in a field like programming and or design, and except for in the case of TempleOS which is clearly the superior option )

 

You'll get a lot of the same kinds of responses here. Namely resource use and 'freedom', but what does 'freedom' mean? Freedom means different things to different people, and what your idea of what 'freedom' is may not be the same as what I believe. But the wonderful things about these technologies is that both of these ideas can be valid. Linux is great because it is truly free, by which ever definition you use. 'Free as in beer', 'Free as in Freedom', 'Free as in I can fuck it up every weekend, pop open the hood, rearrange some file-system and kernel modules, and blow up my speakers if I want to'.

 

So why do I think Linux is better?

To preface, I'm a professional software developer so already that skews my perceptions and ideals on what an ideal operating system is, not to mention I use bare-bones environments like i3 + vim ( hello, ladies ). Coupled with the limited hardware of my 'programming' laptop, my ideals on what makes an operating system 'good' is incredibly niche and definitely does not apply to the public at large. But the very fact that I'm able to couple these loose technologies together to make a custom experience that works best for me, is truly fantastic. Windows is great because it's a 'one-size-fits-all' operating system. It does a lot of different things just good enough that it's one cohesive experience. Mac is the same. It's designed and tailored to feel really good, and to maximise productivity. Linux on the other hand ( at it's most basic level ) isn't like that at all. Linux is a kernel. That's it. The magic happens when you get people who take that kernel, and build some great stuff out of it, like the Ubuntu folks and REHL. Or like me. I can download kernel 5.3.2 from the mailing list, install apt, install git and clone my way to a fully functional operating system custom tailored to what I need in less time than a 'Murder, she wrote' episode. How fucking great is that?! I mean seriously. It's fucking fantastic.

 

Linux is wonderful because it isn't very opinionated. You can aim it where ever you want, fuck up as many system-level processes as you can, or download as many different Desktop Environments as you can stomach, and even then you've barely scratched the surface of what it can be.

 

Linux means different things to different people. What does it mean to you?

[Muddpup64]

 

I am a computer engineering student that has been running Ubuntu for about 10 years. 

 

1. Ubuntu comes with the bare necessities. No bloatware in sight. 

2. I have an Ubuntu drive and a Windows Drive. Ubuntu boots in 10 seconds, where windows takes minutes. 

3. I don't feel pressured to buy things I don't need, like Microsoft Office. Libreoffice is perfectly competent. Free software is so much more fun too. You never realize you don't need to spend a crazy amount of money for powerful software until you live without. 

4. With easy software such as Gnome extensions, I can easily and simple modify my desktop UI to how I want it. 

5. Linux has Tux. What does the competition have?

6. Never had a virus, ever. 

7. The Linux terminal is far more intuitive. It was designed by computer geeks for computer geeks. I work part time fixing computer and the Windows terminal is purposefully confusing and lacking in power and flexibility. 

8. The Linux community is far more informed and helpful. 

9. No one is tracking my data.

10. Everything just works. Ubuntu comes with its own sophisticated backup system, adding drives is a breeze, the UI is simple and not over complicated (I can never find what I am looking for in Win 10, even with the search bar), I can find things easily. 

 

My only big complaint is game support. However, with the introduction of Proton that is quickly changing. Given how light of an OS Linux is, gaming performance has the opportunity to surpass OS's like Windows. Games just have more resources at their disposal. 

[TheBitStick]

Distrust in Microsoft has driven me away from the platform. I can get all my work and gaming done on Linux, so it's no longer an issue of needing it to run proprietary software.

 

I value FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), however I do use some software that doesn't fall under that name, like Discord or Steam, or of course drivers for some hardware (like Wi-Fi on my Surface Go).

 

I value the work a small number of people put into software I can track its development on. Seeing the small patches of code being added to every bit of the average Linux distribution just makes me value the package as a whole even more.

 

It generally runs faster than Windows, except for Proton games where the translation does make it a tad slower.

 

Of course, I value choice and control. I choose what software is installed, and what it does. Everything is under my control. Unlike with Windows or Mac where you don't own the software, it owns your machine.

 

Privacy is also a concern, and I can't conceive using Windows without risking data being sent "home".

 

EDIT: It's also great for programming.

 

On 9/26/2019 at 4:22 PM, James said:

Hey guys! We're doing another "10 Reasons _____ is just Better" video - this time with Linux. Now's your chance to tell us what you love about Linux and/or why Linux is better than MacOS/ Windows.

 

Note: we're not interested in hearing from non-Linux users here
 

 

 

[Diego P.]

Only a couple of reasons why I love Linux.

• Different distros for different uses and likings.

• If there isn't something you like, you can customize it your way.

• It's free..!

• Linux is open source, and so is most of the software.

• No bloat apps, you can easily remove them if you wish.

• Runs on the oldest of PCs

• and great compatibility with new hardware/hardware changes.

[Ufarios]

Ok, let's see... as a Windows user for most of my life, then turning the last 3 years of my life into a GNU/Linux user, let's begin:

 

1. It runs on everything. What more is there to say, between different existing distros like gentoo (which can be edited to literally run on everything), installs from scratch like LFS (Linux from scratch, vanilla arch, vanilla debian, Gentoo & co, Slackware if you choose, Void Linux, etc.) where you download and install an OS, are given a terminal (technically a  TTY), and work from there, or a distro that just goes for users with weak hardware (Peppermint, the tiny core and buddies), or the most powerful servers and systems with their btrfs, zfs, etc. with some effort, it will run.
2. Distributions: When I hear about people complaining about Linux from outside the know and even insides sometimes, they complain about user-fragmentation. What? I personally like to distrohop, which is exactly as it sounds: I like deleting and trying different distributions to see how they differ from others that exist. After trying over 30 different distributions, you learn that what really separates the world of linux isn't which version of your OS is running, but the package manager, the goal and target of the distribution itself and its unique software, the distro's chosen repos ( this is critical), its targeted user market (desktops, servers, tablets & phones, people who love gaming, those who love to rice (look at r/unixporn to understand), etc.), the communities and their talents, and the init system... can't believe i'm saying that one...). Regardless of that long lecture, and maybe with a few exceptions due to init system dependencies (systemd...) basically any linux distro can run any program designed for linux. The user fragmentation usually is an illusion, and when it isn't it's because the people writing software doesn't want to support a certain thing or may have dependencies with certain lower level software (systemd...), and this is usually rare.
3. Package managers: This is one of the biggest differences between linux and windows: Linux doesn't rely on people going to websites and downloading files to run. Just go to the terminal or the built-in gui program like synaptic or dnfdragora or whatever is there to download your programs. 95 to 99.99999% of the time (depends of the distribution), the program you want will be there. You now have the program installed and ready to use with your system. If not, then look for an appimage or a flatpak or something of that nature. If THAT doesn't exist, then find the github location of the program, download it, and follow the instructions in the files which usually turn into something like type ./configure which will create a Makefile, then type make into a terminal, then finally type make install. If THIS doesn't work then ask the community.
4. Community: The Linux community is quite different from the windows and Mac communities in one big way: it's the community that made this OS, not a company. It should be noted that some like Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE enterprise, Intel, and Valve now not only have their own distros, but put some of their time and money into making the OS better for everyone. Back to the original talking point, this OS is opensource, which means that everyone can be edited as the human behind the computer desires, whether it be make GRUB look like it came out of fallout, make the OS boot in like a second or even less time (intel open source team challenge), or bind the OS to a single configuration file (NixOS.). Not only this, but it also means that if there is an error or something goes wrong, the community itself can usually help out with whatever is needed or its followers have an idea of how to fix it. This is a community which has alot of tech knowledge unlike windows users who who usually have no choice except to complain whenever something doesn't work.
5. Errors:First of all, no random blue screens whose info which is as good as the frownyface it throws out. If something crashed or will not start, the OS will 99% of the time have some sort of explanation as to how to fix it... you just have to know where to look, /var/log or journalctl (EXTREMELY useful and simple) or syslog-ng or dmesg (dmesg is usually for usb related issues).
6. Customizability: Nothing was more cringey than watching Linus argue that Windows was more customizable than Linux, i mean what??????? i mean GNOME 3 is the closest thing i can think of to Windows-like uniformity and customizability, excluding the Linux TTY itself, and its infamous for its lack of customizability . If you want customization, look at KDE, look at LXQT, look at cinnamon, look at Mate, look at r/unixporn and try one of the designs. i3? bspwm? dwm? polybar? rofi? they are all here, just give them a shot.
7. Quick Improvements: While windows and Mac may be growing quickly, neither of them can ignore the technological leaps that the linux world has been following through in the past few months. We have Wayland, a new type of window system that is quickly growing and is already replacing X in some distros, offering faster times in general (about equal with the current X11 from experience now, but has much room to improve), and better security while being in a position to improve in every other area greatly. Valve and Wine with Proton, a tool BUILT INTO STEAM as steam play to run windows games on linux, coupled with DXVK (directx to vulkan) & co. to give nearly native speed performance to windows games on linux or in some cases, BETTER performance. This program gets monthly releases, is opensource so the community can assist wherever it can, and each release boosts performance, and/or allow more games to run. As a matter of fact, almost every windows game can run on linux, with a few stopped only by drm like easy-anti-cheat which when disable by the minds of the linux world caused the outrage which was destiny 2 banning linux users. There are more areas of improvement to mention, but let's keeps it short. I want to sleep on my bed, not type myself to sleep...
8. Global: Linux isn't headquartered in London or Antananarivo (capital of Madagascar) or Munich or Silicon Valley or Beijing or Tainan or Pyongyang or St. Petersburg or Delhi or Vancouver or Coruscant. Its home is humanity. it was created by a mass of humans throughout the who had different ideas but similar enough goals in multiple areas to take the OS and turn it into what they wanted and needed. This means that no one can truly block the OS from being distributed online unless you are the government blocking the internet (or the specific distro crosses the line in a way), and even that doesnt always work. You dont have to hope the USA doesn't block some tech due to trade war this way.
9. Transparency:  Long story short, you know what's running on your PC why, and you dont have to worry about being spied on (as much). Basically nobody here makes money by selling data, but by donations and giving professional help for some software. Also, if you want to edit a system level feature (swappiness or how willing the OS is to move data to swap) it can be done easily in multiple ways... using sysctl or editing the file itself. You dont have to hope the OS developer didnt lock it behind a paywall or remove it to advertise something nobody needs.
10. Simpler hardware support: Ok, Linux doesn't always get hardware drivers just as quickly as windows does sometimes, but when it does, it's usually in one place: the kernel. Unlike windows which has to figure out how to use some software and download drivers, the linux kernel will just store them all beforehand. If your hardware isn't supported yet, just update to the latest version of the kernel (5.3 as of october 2019) and it will very likely work. Of course there is the rare moment where you will want to download proprietary drivers for linux (Nvidia...) and in this case it's usually a cakewalk for most distros with Ubuntu from what i heard coming with them by default and my current distro Mageia (gnome3) having an option to start the installer with Nvidia proprietary drivers setup by default.

 

Oh yes, one more thing: i'd like to offer some distributions to look at since Linus made a complaint about how ubuntu wasn't the most recommended distro anymore for newbies:

 

• Linux Mint: Ubuntu's lighter, leaner, and arguably more stylish brother. It is based upon Ubuntu and gives great support and easy updates to the next version while aiming towards stability. It's one of the best choices for a person who wants to have an OS that just works. As long as you dont mess with it too much, it will work beautifully, but if you do, prepare for trouble...
• Manjaro:  This distro is based upon A**h instead of Ubuntu, and with the latest packages and programs behind it, it runs like a charm. The base distro comes in many forms, and I would personally recommend it to anyone who wants to do something like gaming, loves having the latest in tech, doesn't mind looking up stuff on wikis (it can be tedious at times tbh), or just wants to look at the potential of linux desktop environment setups.
• MX Linux: If you looked at distrowatch, you would see this OS at number 1. It doesn't have the largest share of people using it, but it definitely does deserve a much larger audience. This distro is based on Debian, and it honestly was one of my favorite times using a computer period. You download the thing, boot it, it allows for easy setup of an encrypted hard drive which should be standard, but some distros make it a nightmare... While the default UI isn't the best looking in my opinion. it's the only distro not based upon systemd that I had zero problems installing GNOME 3 on. Not only that, but the version there actually ran faster than the GNOME on basically every other distro I have ever used it with (and it's a long list...) Finally, the MX tools, which are unique, simple, and great for a lazy person who knows what he needs to to do but doesnt feel like typing (me 5 days a week, the last two spent on my laptop). Honestly, the only reason I don't use this distro is because the packages aren't new enough and i generally dont like apt, but the distro's stability and usefulness is no joke.
• Pop!OS: our beautiful genius of a lord and eternally benevolent king and Fedora wearing mandate of heaven Anthony himself has already been over this one, so i'll leave it to him.
• Solus: the budgie desktop reminds me a bit of windows 8, but its in a format that's pretty good for desktop versus the weirdness that was windows 8 itself (and the gnome display manager -__-). Beyond this, it is a rolling release distro which is basically how windows runs today but is pretty stable according to my 12 year old brother whose PC i wiped with Linux Mint when he gave up on windows (which broke in a week). He's been using Solus for the past 2 months and says its one of the best computers he has had so far. I can't vouch for it, but my little brother, who didnt understand Linux at all (and still doesnt tbh) can do it, so why can't the general internet? He's just a 12 year-old  afterall It's also great for gaming.

[Danang]

Linux is very open in the sense that nothing is hidden from you. Got an error message? You can try running the program in verbose mode to read the what's happening under the hood via logs. Still not helpful? You can check out the source code, or ask online. Chances are, people have gone to the same position as you (unless you are doing very niche things). In Windows or Mac, you are only given vague error codes that often leads to nowhere.

 

A simple example is when you have troubles connecting to Wifi. In Linux, it might tell me that the Network manager Service had not been started, or that my WiFi card is disabled on a hardware level, or something else entirely, but I am not hidden from the truth.

 

In Mac or Windows, you are simply shown that your WiFi settings are being reset in a magic black box and it suddenly works. If the automatic resetting doesn't work, you're basically stranded without a clue what to fix.

 

The automatic wizardness may be an advantage for those who are not tech savvy and/or aren't willing to sacrifice some time to learn these things (eg in an enterprise environment), but I find learning these to be the most valuable aspect of Linux.

[irishpotatonugget]

Awesome, finally!!!

[iamGreat]

I personally prefer Debian based distros and particularly vanila Debian and I can customize it in every aspect to my liking, also there is no annoyances like tracking and what not. Never forget the fact that developing Android ROMs and Kernels need some sort of Linux distro to begin with.

[irishpotatonugget]

Well I normally game on windows but if I want to try some new stuff and get creative I like to throw in Linux flashdrive and try some different distros and I think that is best way to get into it, just trying it out with loosing your data, plus the degree of control you get is amazing, with some help from the internet you can almost anything with a quick copy paste

[An_0w1]

• no forced updates
• very low idle usage |<2% on ryzen5 2600x running at 2.2ghz & less than 100mb ram on some distros
• customizable (everything form the kernel to to the icons)
• centralized media
• software for EVERYTHING
• no update prompts from every program every time it launches
• easy to program for
• decentralized development (individuals develop individual parts instead of one group developing the whole thing)
• sh scripts
• LVM (storage spaces sucks)

[darkasf]

I'm a tinkerer. I break stuff (and usually put it back together)

Instead of "You can't do that! Here's a bluescreen while we reboot your computer.", it's "alright, here's are the log files, fix it"

some more general things I like about linux:

• privacy
• customizability
• it can be very light (needed for my laptop, fun on my desktop)
• it's fast
• it does what I tell it to do, and not what it thinks is best

[jivandabeast]

• There's none of that licensing BS
• If you work in a technical field (development or server maintenance) having system supported bash and ssh access is wonderful
• I think that the main difference for me is that when I use a Linux machine vs anything else, I feel like I'm actually using a computer, not just clicking mindlessly on a screen. IMO that comes from the fact that Linux is developed without the corporate mindset, prioritizing features that people will use rather than the features that people think that they want. What this means is you get a lot of functionality without all of the nonsense holding you back
• The level of customization that you have is UNREAL
• Package managers are actually a godsend, it's so much easier to make sure that your stuff is kept up to date when you use a package manager rather than using a bunch of launchers or individual programs
• Of course because there is no monetary incentive, things can seem a little unpolished in some areas, but personally I find that's some of the charm. I enjoy spending the time to figure out what needs to be done to my system to get it working again. I view it like the process of building computers. I think we can all agree that we love the process of going through a new PC build, taking any problems that it might throw our way in stride. To me this is an extension of that -- you only build your computer once, unless you have lots of disposable income, it's likely to be a while before you can do it again but if you have Linux you can continue to do some of that tinkering over time while you use your system

[LinuxGeek18]

It stays out of my way when I use it, it's highly customizable, KDE Plasma 5 is incredibly easy to use, any previous Windows user can get around it perfectly fine. Easy to install, and most distributions let you boot the OS live right off of the USB disk, usually sitting in a RAMdisk. You can build the kernel for whatever device you choose, and Linux runs on many embedded systems and servers. It is friendly with storage, and can usually help recover data from dying disks. Installing packages is often really simple, and most of the software is in repositories. Efficient on RAM, and disks, it has a very good I/O and processor scheduler, it can be run headless, or with a GUI. It can support a wide range of processor architectures.

[Cikappa2904]

First, you can boot an entire OS from a USB, and that's a gorgeous thing when trying to troubleshoot a computer. Second: it's highly customizable, so technically no one can tell you he doesn't like Linux, because he probably haven't tried every DE or WM.

Third: it runs really great on older hardware and especially on that hardware, it often has every driver that you need without having to install anything.