Why does everyone love Linux so much?

[No]

To me its like Windows but with less stuff,

I mean I understand it with servers but personal use

[BiscuitMassacre]

Can't say everyone does, but I don't know why anyone in the world would prefer linux

[GreezyJeezy]

It's good for servers and hosting stuff and people say it's better for coding on, but I love Windows it does what I need so I don't care.and it's more user friendly.

[Omon_Ra]

It's lightweight and can run on nearly any hardware, relatively secure, a lot less creepy spy stuff, highly customizable and free. Different strokes for different folks; if you don't like it, nobody is forcing you to use it.

[aeroencychris]

2 minutes ago, No said:

To me its like Windows but with less stuff,

I mean I understand it with servers but personal use

It's not really loved by the average word processing user. Although I'm a diehard Win10 user, I also have an Ubuntu install if I'm doing some projects that need a Unix environment. With the introduction of bash in Windows 10 I'll probably have less of a reason to use it. To answer your question, I guess just working in a command line Unix environment makes people happy.

[Bonssons]

Well, usually linux OS are free, which is really nice.

And with linux you have a lot more freedom to change things. You can basically change anything you desire in most of the linux system available out there. 

It is "virus free" (it is not, but definitely there are considerably less malicious programs for linux than for windows).

It usually requires less power to run a linux OS, so your old computer might have better performance running linux than running windows. 

But yeah, for the point of view of someone who don't know much about computers, how they work, etc; Linux just seem to be a less useful Windows. 

 

And it is just like cdsboy2000 said up there. The Unix environment is really comfortable for developers/programmers/other "tech jobs" to work with. Now that windows will start supporting bash, things will change. I might go back to Windows again

 

[Orangeator]

Well, it generally is not meant for consumers but rather IT/developers. I personally love Linux because of its ability to run on my shit laptop but yet run like a thousand dollar machine (when it comes to general use of course). It's resource management blows Windows right out of the water, no arguing with that. 

[FullTank1337]

I prefer Linux any day of the week. It's faster, lighter, more reliable, easier to install/reinstall, more stable, and most importantly, more secure than Windows. It's also better for developers, but lol Bash on Windows. 

I literally just have Windows for gaming. Everything else I do on PC, I do in Linux, and 9 times out of 10, Linux does it better. Same goes for gaming, but not many games are made for Linux natively, and most of the ones that are, are small indie games.

[MrBucket101]

because racecar

[steezemageeze]

For me, it's a learning experience, and plus I love messing around and tinkering with stuff. The most "customization" I've ever done on Windows was changing some icons on my taskbar by converting .png's to .ico's and setting it through a context menu (and that isn't to say that customization is totally impossible... just very limited). Linux on the other hand, I'm sitting here using Linux Mint with i3 window manager and the Ubuntu Unity LightDM greeter (clusterfuck, I know, but it's functional).

 

That's just my personal opinion, and I know a lot of people don't think like that, they'd rather have their stuff just work, and I completely understand. It's frustrating when something doesn't work, and a lot of people don't have the time, patience, or knowledge to sit there and troubleshoot. It really just comes down to you, and what you want/need/prefer.

 

Don't bash () what you don't understand. /s

 

EDIT: Also, not everybody is a fan of Linux. My classmates in my programming class give me weird looks when I tell them that I use Linux (then again, this is a high school class so that's not surprising. Just my personal experience)

[Ben Potter]

Linux is great for servers. Way less hardware usage then a Windows Server, better up-time, and does the same job but better. The issues are troubleshooting can be a pain, configuration (but Webmin can really help), and Active Directory isn't too strong. 

 

For a desktop PC: I like it because it has a lot of built-in features, it can handle web browsing and coding fine on an old PC. Gaming is not too strong with an old PC, but it works well with good hardware too. Compatibility is large issue, but it's getting better. If the Adobe Creative Cloud was available for Linux, I may completely ditch Windows. Steam has a lot better compatibility for their games. 

 

Linux is also great for security because everyone can see the code, so exploits can be seen and it forces people to write good code. Many people say it is less secure because it is open source, but if the whole world can detect security exploits vs just a select few at Microsoft or Apple & hackers, it will be less likely to get fixed.

 

Also, the variety is great. You can customize it however you want and install different Distributions based on what you like and what works for you. Google actually has a custom version of Ubuntu that a very large amount of their employees uses at work.

 

Also, it's free and it can look VERY ugly, but also very nice. I think many distributions are more visually pleasing then Windows.

I don't know how anyone can even use a system that looks like that ^^

 

 

[Hamosch]

There are many things I love about Linux but to me the single best thing is:

BASH

 

I'm a thousand times more productive developing and working through a good CLI like bash compared to any IDE or GUI.

 

PS: gcc and g++ <3

[Hamako]

My initial reason for switching from Windows to Linux was the fact that my daily driver got a virus, despite me never even visiting shady websites on that machine. That was back in September 2014. Since then, I have been using Ubuntu most of the time, but have recently switched to Fedora.

 

There are a number of things that I value about Linux:

 

-Easy and quick installation. There is no need to go and download tons of drivers or visit a bunch of websites to download your programs.

-Customizability. Aesthetics are extremely important to me. Everyone has a different taste and being able to create your dream desktop or find a distro that already offers it is amazing. You can see mine here: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/579731-what-does-your-desktop-look-like/#comment-7576069

 

-Low maintenance. Once it's up and running, it will keep working and won't get slower over time or any of that other crap that Windows does. (like svchost keeping the CPU busy) The only time something goes wrong is when you mess it up yourself.

-Free. I'm not giving M$ money for a product that spies on me out of the box.

-Adaptive. Being customizable and having tons of different distros, you will always find the perfect distro for any type of machine, be it old or new. If you don't, you can still build it yourself.

 

-Easy updates. No stupid Windows Update centre or whatever it's called. Most distros have a much sleeker, simpler and better working update mechanism which is way more seamless than that of Windows. Also, updates don't eat up the entire space on your SSD like Windows updates do.

-Not mainstream. Yes, this actually matters to me.

 

Obviously, there are a few other things that I like as well, but those are the main points.

[AlveKatt]

I love being on Linux. Sure, it's always a bit of a hassle now and then, but it's less stressful than my paranoid feeling that my OS calling home to Microsoft every half hour. I like being in control, and being able to customize everything just the way I want it. Also, the new interface features in Windows releases have often been in Linux for a long while. Like windows 10 having multiple desktop workspaces, Linux has had that for many, many years. Since way before I started using Linux which was more than ten years ago.

 

Also, the "lack of games" is a boon for me, it helps me get things done. Of course, this isn't completely true, I still have enough games to keep me distracted... But I have a feeling it would be a lot worse on Windows. There are a lot of indie titles that have official Linux builds, but admittedly very few if you desperately crave that triple a Graphics experience. (Though I just started playing Shadow Warriors, and it most definitely has triple a graphics.) I personally don't see the allure of photo-realism in games, but I am a fan of animation and anime and, maybe because of this special interest, the tricks used to overcome the limitations of a medium and how artistically they manage to do it is way more alluring to me. Also, if you agree with the Review of Angry Joe, the latest gen titles that really has focused on graphics has been kinda of lukewarm. As a 3d-animation and modelling hobbyist I predicted this would happen many years ago. Every time the graphics hardware gets better the workload of the modellers, riggers and animators working on triple a titles get bigger, and with it the part of the budget that needs to go to that department. There were inevitably going to come a time when we passed the threshold and the gameplay and amount of content in triple a titles would start to suffer because of this. It seems to me we just went over that threshold. It's probably going to get better again, when they have created algorithms for auto-weighting and rigging 3d-scanned models and procedural generation gets smarter and more intuitive with architecture and objects, but it's going to be a while.

[Burusutazu]

My Ubuntu install boots in 30 seconds and is completely usable after logging in immediately. My clean Windows isntall takes 2 minutes and 37 seconds to boot and then another 2 minutes to be usable at all.

 

Installing software and maintaining it on Ubuntu is way easier than Windows. 

 

Updates are not shoved down your throat, but you still have the option for auto-update if you want.

 

You can customize it to your heats content.

 

It's free, and can work well on older hardware without sacrificing usability.

 

It allows those not happy with their experience to branch off and create their own beautiful masterpiece.

 

Natively developed games run flawlessly, and you can play a lot of Windows games without much problem.

 

Desktop linux is not for everyone, but those are the reasons I love Linux so much.

[Sintezza]

Because certain distro´s are realy good.

Its open source, and very usable as a daily driver.

Distro´s nowdays are becomming more and more user friendly.

Its not like in the old days anymore.

 

Its not the best OS for gamers yet, but we slowly start to see some progress on that aswell.

And if Vulkan is going to be a succes, and major game devs are going to adopt it to their games.

Then it will be very interesting.

 

Next to that Linux is also interesting for people that need a reliable system.

Certain stable distro´s are more reliable then windows, more secure, and software and applications directly availeble from repositories.

Repo´s are getting over proofed by the open source community allot, which makes it less likely that you install some fishy mallicious code.

And the code is also open.

Next to that multi kernel is a very nice feuture, and it uses less re-sources.

And allot of diffrent flavours to choose from, and highly customizable.

 

The main downside of Linux is compatibility with certain software applications, like adobe premiere, that do work on windows.

However the open source community is closing in on that pretty quickly.

There are allot of open source alternatives for Linux, to closed source applications.

And some of them are pretty good, some are not.

Graphics drivers can sometimes be a pain in the ass, especialy with the release of the new 4.4 LTS kernel.

Because they dropped support for fglrx.

AMD propetiery drivers dont work verywell yet.

But AMD is working on it.

Nvidia drivers and intel drivers work fine in most distro´s.

 

And honnestly with the current fishy direction that MS is floating with their pile of spyware called Windows10.

I can only encourage people to try Linux in a dualboot.

 

[RedWulf]

Its like windows, but free and with different stuff and a lot more options. Windows is like the nice safe common sedan with all the features and trimmings; Linux is anything from formula 1 to a train

[AshBattersea]

I use linux because my computer sucks. I mean 1.6ghz celaron 2gb of ram. I know that is more than capable of runing windows but quite francly i don't nedd windows all I do on my pc is run Firefox and I don't want windows hoging all the system power. That and haveing my windows birst into flames when i close them is kind of cool.

 

[Whiskers]

I love Linux because it provides the user with complete freedom to customise the OS as they want. You control what software you have installed, you control how the OS looks - and it's immensely lightweight compared to Windows. When I have a problem on Linux it's usually a case of going to the Arch wiki and fixing the problem quickly; when I have a Windows issue it's usually a case of Googling it only to find that few to no other people have reported the issue and there's no listed fix.

 

The only reason I still have Windows installed is because of games. If game support was better on Linux I wouldn't want to use Windows at all; I don't like it.

[vorticalbox]

On 28/04/2016 at 1:35 AM, GreezyJeezy said:

It's good for servers and hosting stuff and people say it's better for coding on, but I love Windows it does what I need so I don't care.and it's more user friendly.

seeing as all the tools on linux you can get on windows and you get the whole .net frame work and universal apps i would say coding is worse on linux.

 

I use linux (galliumos) on my chromebook because i want extra functionally however my main gripe with linux is the looks. the icons on windows 10 look more mature than any distro i've used that tend  to look like material design on android that just don't feel right on a big screen.

[Kiyuubi]

Because it is FOSS, and I am not being datamined.

[iBurley]

The biggest thing for me is updates. On a Windows machine you run Windows update, but then when you launch a piece of software you get that annoying popup "newer version available, let us take you to our website to download a file again", click 'next, next, next, install' and then you can finally use the software. In Linux when you run the updater in the operating system, you're also updating all of your software. With one terminal command I can refresh all of my repos and download every update available for every piece of software on the machine, and that's really nice.

 

That's really the most important end-user feature for me that pushed me to use Linux full time, but there's other stuff as well. Obviously it's more secure, most of the software is open source so you know it's not collecting data in the background, it's more customizable, there are a lot of options for desktop environments so you can use a completely different UI, installing software is nicer if you're comfortable doing it from the command line, you can use the powerful tools that server administrators use for your everyday desktop such as scheduling any operation or command you want to run at whatever interval you want, and many more. 

 

Most importantly, and a lot of Windows and Mac users don't really understand what I mean when I say this, but sometimes using the terminal things is easier than using the GUI tools. Like I said, installing software is easier on the command line, and it is. Say you're on Windows and you want to install Hexchat (an IRC client), you google it, go to their website, you download their installer, you navigate to your download folder, you double click it, you hit 'next, next, next, install' and then you hit finish, it's installed. On Linux, (specifically Ubuntu or Debian because the command is different depending on which distribution you're using) you would open your terminal and type 'sudo apt update && sudo apt install hexchat -y' and you would type in your password. That's it, it's installed. Yes, you have to know that command and type it in, but it's so much faster and easier. People get this notion that Linux is hard but it really depends on what you're doing and if you're willing to learn a little bit.

 

There's also the fact that you can actually troubleshoot and fix things in the OS itself instead of relying on tools or developer support. There's nothing quite as aggravating and sitting down at somebody's computer who's having an issue and has asked you for help just to come to the conclusion that it's a closed source application sitting on Windows and there's no way for you to figure out exactly what the problem is so you google for some sort of repair tool. Program won't start under Linux you try launching it from the terminal and see what error it spits out. Most of the time it's an out of date library or a file isn't in the right directory, which you can fix from right there in the command line with only tools built directly into the operating system. You don't have to stand up, defeated, and say "I'm not sure, it's not giving me an error and it's a Microsoft product so there's no way for me to get more information", you just fucking fix it.

 

For me, it's really uncomfortable whenever I have to sit down at a Windows machine and get something done because I find Linux so much better. It's absolutely a personal decision and there are a lot of people that I would never recommend Linux to, but if you're the kind of person who wants to know how things work or wants more control over your system, you'll have a hell of time with Linux. It also depends on what software you use. If you're a gamer and the only games you play don't have Linux support, obviously it's not for you. If you use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and aren't willing to try available alternatives like Inkscape and Gimp, Linux isn't for you either. It's very dependent on the person and their needs, but if it checks all of the boxes for you, I think it's worth learning, it's a lot of fun.

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, Fooshi said:

I LIKE it, but I far from LOVE it.

 

Linux has more flaws than Windows, to be honest. The worst problem being the case with dependencies and the fact that this picture is perfectly describes dealing with Linux if you're not already Richard Stallman.

 

 

 

so true. I end using parts of guides form different sites to sort the problem. Maybe someone should start a website with scripts for common problem fixes

[Linus_torvalds]

On April 28, 2016 at 4:31 AM, No said:

To me its like Windows but with less stuff,

I mean I understand it with servers but personal use

It's more secure, There are at max 40 viruses for linux, It's faster then windows, you do not have to reinstall, it's more stable. If you did not shutdown your windows machine it would slow down over time, but not linux. It runs fast no matter what. You can use it year without shuting down and it will be as fast as it was when you first installed it. Windows? I do not know if you could use it 2 months without shuting down/restarting. It would be slow as hell.

if you need details. Here they are.

Linux has much better filesystem it does not need defragmentation it does not fragment like windows. also its registry is not like windows. When you install program on windows it writes somethings to it and when you delete program it remains in registry. These two are main causes why windows is slowing down over time. Daily used Windwos PC for browsing, gaming etc. can last max 2 years, then you need to reinstall it. Yeah it maybe still usable but it's slower then fresh install, much slower.

[iBurley]

11 hours ago, Fooshi said:

While this does sort of ring true, it would be pretty difficult to give a 100% explanation for every distribution out there. Something as simple as "hey, how do I update my linux system from the command line?" would turn into:

 

Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Arch: sudo pacman -Syy && sudo pacman -Syu

Fedora: sudo dnf update

openSUSE: sudo zypper refresh && sudo zypper up

 

Plus any other distro, then it turns out the one guy who comes and it really upset about it happens to be running fucking Slackware or something obscure that you didn't list. You sort of have to be vague to not confuse new users. If you ask for help in an Ubuntu forum and said "Hey, I'm on Ubuntu XX.XX and I'm having trouble with this" the answer will likely be simple, but when you use a system that gives you a proper level control, it just isn't as simple to support as 'click start, go to all applications, find control panel', it changes so much system to system. Sure it's a weakness when it comes to support but it's also pretty much our biggest strength for most people.