Why does everyone love Linux so much?

[cloneman]

I don't like linux. But, I also don't like most products that are not designed with a consumer/prosumer mindset. I don't have anything against linux per se, I just strongly dislike all products that have a low work-to-achievement ratio.

 

In my perhaps ignorant view, 80% of everyone who uses linux as their daily, desktop operating system, are people  who get paid to deal with linux. They might enjoy it, but they have a reason to keep going when the going gets tough - they make a living out of it.

 

With windows or Mac, when I have a task I need to do, I can usually install a 3rd party piece of software in 1 to 3 minutes. Within an hour, I can try out 6 different programs to see which one I like best. This is the type of tinkering I like to do. And if I need to use an old version of a piece of software, I can install any version I want, and chances are, it will work all the way from windows 2000 to Windows 10 Insider preview.

 

Take Linux now. Where, if all goes well, I can also install a piece of software in 1-3 minutes and then spend 15 minutes figuring out how to make it work. Then comes comparing it to another solution, which hits a snag and I have to follow a complicated procedure leading to a 30 to 180minute  rabbit hole. If I want to install an old version that isn't in repositories, I have to learn about things like  compiling from source, or backporting. Which is all fine and dandy if I'm being paid to spend 2-3 days testing candidate solutions for a problem I'm having. But as a "regular" user, I just want things to work, and when they don't, I want to move on to the next solution, which will be just as direct and simple as the first one - click another installer and test the next option.

 

In my view, using linux is a lot like suggesting that people who eat out start cooking Cooking isn't a solution to cure your hunger, it's a rabbit hole adventure to change the way you eat at some future time. There's a small chance you can find a quick recipe that you have everything you need for that you'll actually get done easily, but that's rare. Most likely, you'll have to go to multiple stores to compare prices of all the ingredients, buy everything you need, possible buy some cookware, watch instructional videos, and make a few attempts before you actually get to eat what you want. And the next day, if you want to eat something else, you have to repeat the procedure again. If someone is paying you to mess around in a kitchen for hours on end, that's fine. But if you just want to eat delicious food and you have no interest in learning about cooking, I don't see it as an attractive solution.

 

 

 

 

[KuJoe]

I'll take Linux CLI over DOS and Powershell any day.

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, cloneman said:

I don't like linux. But, I also don't like most products that are not designed with a consumer/prosumer mindset. I don't have anything against linux per se, I just strongly dislike all products that have a low work-to-achievement ratio.

oh so much this, last time i mained linux i spent more time getting it to work than working, turns out some bios setting was stopping net working on 64bit linux (IOMMU on my amd board who knew?) 

[Fourthdwarf]

Seeing Linux as "Windows with less stuff" is a narrow view of what computers can do.

 

So here's why I love linux

Cow milkers. Linux based cow milkers. 

[jkkjk]

On 28/4/2016 at 8:31 AM, No said:

To me its like Windows but with less stuff,

I mean I understand it with servers but personal use

It's kind of for power users but you can teach you mom to use it because most of the thing she would use on a daily basis (text, navigator,etc..) is preinstalled. but sometimes dealing with drivers issues etc can be very complicated but the community is very helpful, the general rule is that you have control over a lot of things and you can resolve problems but there might be a lot of them, in windows you might have very few problems but it can be very tricky to fix 

[CoffeeandBagels]

I adopted Linux as a temporary solution while I rounded up the cash for windows on my new build. I planned to never have it longer than a couple months.

 

After 2 weeks I decided I didn't need Windows. You are right. The user is expected to configure some things that are normally taken care of automatically on the back end with Windows, but being free from Microsofts OS shenanigans of recent times is worth it.

 

Also, huge selection of gorgeous desktop environments as opposed to, well this is what windows looks like so this is what I'm stuck with.

[iBurley]

On 5/2/2016 at 3:21 AM, cloneman said:

In my view, using linux is a lot like suggesting that people who eat out start cooking Cooking isn't a solution to cure your hunger, it's a rabbit hole adventure to change the way you eat at some future time. 

Sort of, but most Linux users wouldn't suggest that others use it if they're legitimately happy with Windows or Mac (or whatever else they're using...Haiku?). You wait until somebody is complaining about how Windows Update randomly restarted their computer in the middle of a game, or complaining about the OS X file system limitations, then you say "not a problem with Linux, if you'd like I can give you a flash drive that you can boot into without making any changes to your computer to try it out and see if you like it".

 

It's not going up to somebody who you see at McDonalds a lot and saying "you eat out too much, learn to cook", it's sitting around with your friend who eats out all the time and complains about how much he pays just for somebody else to heat something up and you say "ya dumbass, start cooking things at home".

 

Linux isn't for everybody just like cooking isn't for everybody. Everything has advantages and disadvantages, we're all just trying to find the issues we can live with and the benefits that mean something to us. 

[drc00k3]

I use it because:

• It's better for coding
• It's more stable after being left running for a week
• It never needs rebooting, you can replace the kernel and not need to reboot(you should but it's not necessary)

[Lildirt]

Ooh, what a great question! I wasn't expecting this.

 

For me, it's my way of life. I'm interested in all things open-source and public freedoms, so that got me into Linux full-time (that and I only had a low-power laptop for a while). I only use a Windows machine for Steam. I don't require high-quality gaming, just enough to play an MMO or two like a champ, which I do just fine. I've got a couple of Logitech devices I drive as well, which I use a bit of a dirty trick with a Windows virtual machine to get them working properly, but it's a set-it-and-forget-it deal. If you want games, well, that's a different story. I've come up with my own solution for that though.

 

I believe that Linux is just more powerful than any Windows platform could even pretend to be. Libre software developers (some of them, anyway) compete with their commercial counterparts (or are utilized by commercial applications) and some of them are winning. This weird collage of rag-tag teams of developers have built (and are continuing to build) the platform (and applications) that could somehow be fine-tuned to the most important person: the end-user. There's always corporate agendas and sneaky predators, but it is so much less prominent in the Linux desktop world. What other platform can I switch entire design philosophies in three clicks? I can change from Xfce to KDE to GNOME back to Xfce in a single install. Hell, what if I want to use i3wm for some reason? Maybe I want to be extremely efficient, so I'll hop over to i3wm for a bit. Maybe I want to make my friend extremely envious, so I'll hop to KDE or GNOME and make him feel guilty for spending thousands on a Mac that he uses for games and web-browsing.

 

I could run a machine headless and do something weird like run my X server over the network where another machine entirely can connect to it and utilize the main machine (I do this!). Did I change machines and forget to change an option in a GUI somewhere? No problem! I can just SSH into the machine and use a command in a tty and fix it right up. Wait, I need to access the GUI? Okay, I'll just forward the window of the application over my home network (or even the Internet) to a different machine entirely. I could always do that with VNC, but I can't do it nearly as fast as I could on a Linux platform.

 

What do I do, personally? I run several Linux systems, both in-home and online, that manage everything I do. I run my own mail server, my own Gitlab, my own pastebin, I could keep going on. I can build my own empire using random pieces of software that people have just thrown out there for Linux users. Some of them are simple, where I can just add them on top of what I have. Others, I fight for hours, sometimes days, getting the damn thing to work properly. But the best part of it is, I own it. I can do what I want with it. If I really have a problem with it, I can probably fix it up.

 

What about games? As I said before, I play an MMO and other random games with friends. I need to be able to react quickly when playing as a Scholar or White Mage with people new to the Alexander Savage raiding groups. How do I accomplish this? Steam. I run Steam within a Docker container (so I can deploy it on any system I want; no compatibility issues if I'm using an obscure distro at some point that Steam doesn't play nice with). Steam offers in-home streaming, which I stream from a Windows machine. I don't use that Windows machine for anything else, just games. Why's that so special? I can just, you know, run a game in the background (or foreground) with basically zero resource usage. As an active MMO player and developer, there's nothing more blissful than being able to compile a project and be able to continue my crafting log (with little to no performance impact) while the resource-intensive process of compiling is running in the background.

 

Wait, Windows machine? Sorry, I misspoke. It's actually a Linux machine that runs a virtualized instance of Windows. I can just passthrough my PCIe cards and get that baller performance I'd have regardless (-1% virtualization and OS overhead). Everyone has seen unRAID, yeah? That, but probably more powerful. I can set that machine that runs that virtualized copy of Windows to do other things. What if it's not being used for a game right now (or it's a low-end game)? Alright, I'll just throw the compile job over to it without moving much more than a finger.

 

I own some Logitech hardware, too. I don't even use their "Gaming Software". I bought a Logitech G13 Gameboard that I use exclusively for this game. I found a little driver that someone wrote at no cost, it was just out there for the world to use. I glanced at the source and compiled the driver myself and wrote a little bash script to automatically load specific profiles and keymappings for me. Two hours of effort and I never have to mess with it again. It just works, no silly Logitech Gaming Software with memory leak issues to watch out for. What about the G933 Artemis Spectrum headphones I picked up ages ago? Well, they're flaky on Linux sometimes. But, I can always boot up my Windows virtual machine (VirtualBox, because lazy) and passthrough the USB device and change my settings. I'll unplug the virtual device then just freeze the Windows machine for when I need to do that again. Sure, it's annoying. However, it's a worthy trade-off. I get the benefits of the wireless headset (except when it drop back to 2.1ch audio for no apparent reason; fault of the headphones wireless).

 

Do you see where I'm going? Linux introduces an absolute asston of flexibility, freedom, utility, and performance that a Windows platform just can't offer on its own. Essential tools nowadays such as OpenSSH, X, and so much more are open-source monoliths that anyone can add features to or even fork it and make their own, better version of it (note: I think too much forking is dumb; look at WebKit). There's literally millions of ways to change how you use a normal ol' computer. With Linux, I don't have to settle for what some moronic corporation wants me to deal with. I make my experience; I build my own workflow and increase my own efficiency. I can change how I work and I can change how I play.

 

It isn't a matter of not using Windows. It's a matter of building efficiency and pleasure when working at a computer. I almost live on my computer, so I invest a large amount of time perfecting how I do everything. I still depend on Windows for games. I'm not going to reject that at all. But Linux is my daily driver. It is what I use to do everything. I did all of my coursework on a Linux platform. I use it for entertainment. I use it for serious work. You can do a lot of this with Windows (to an extent), but you just can't possibly do it nearly as streamlined and quickly as you can on a Linux platform. It just doesn't happen.

 

In the words of RedHat CEO Jim Whitehurst (at Lunduke's LS2016 talk at SCALE), "even if [it's unsupported], you can compile a module and make it work. Linux [is awesome]." I could go on for ages, but I'm sure the longer I go on, less people will read this.

 

That is why I love Linux.

[handymanshandle]

On 4/28/2016 at 7:34 PM, BiscuitMassacre said:

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

I like it for personal use. I just don't have the hard drive space to make a partition for it.

also, I like quite a few of the UI elements in a few distros or more so Desktop Environments.

My favorite Desktop Environments are Gnome 3 and Unity, though I don't mind Cinnamon.

 

Though, it's kind of like asking someone why they like Android and proceed to say that iOS is superior because X,Y,Z...

Though the user friendliness argument I never got. Ubuntu, and Fedora are pretty easy and don't have much of a learning curve at all. Elementary OS looks like it'd be even simpler than Ubuntu or Fedora.

 

[RaiderZulu]

I have not had an install break unless I tried to install Ubuntu on Fake RAID or I did something stupid to get something to work.  Like mess with the video driver to make OpenCL work.  https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1107578-x-server-will-not-start-driver-not-found-linux-mint-191/

Or mix repo versions and hit apt-get upgrade.  I did that twice.  The second time was a failed attempt to upgrade from a Ubuntu 16.04 base to a Ubuntu 18.04 base that I gave up on in the end after 36+ hours of failed attempts to get it to work.  All for an alpha game that was simply bugged.  At least I got a less fundamentally broken install out of it.

And I necro a thread that has an inactive starter.  Brilliant.

Edited September 25, 2019 by RaiderZulu
Unobservant. Delete if appropriate.

[AbsoluteFool]

Linux is just works!

 

Sure Windows and Mac also just work. But with Linux the chances of getting a virus compared to Windows is like 1%, virus developers follow the mainstream. So hail all Windows users for keeping me more or less virus free!

 

Linux is also leight weight, it's powerful, very very powerful. Easy to learn, simple to customize. Everything Windows can't do Linux can most likely do

[Rusted]

Why I use linux, another option would be windows 10. Why I don't use it?

They tell on the product name how much privacy you on WIndows 10, it's like living in a apartment with Windows on the 1 floor with 0 curtains.

[Nettly_]

Linux to me is just better for speed and desktop use. However for server-side I don't see why when FreeBSD and NetBSD are superior in servers. Linux is a better desktop OS than Windows lets just leave it there

[wasab]

On 4/27/2016 at 8:31 PM, No said:

To me its like Windows but with less stuff,

I mean I understand it with servers but personal use

The hell you talking about? Why you like windows? To me its something that constantly breaks. Like my post if your Windows updates keep on failing. 

[wasab]

On 4/27/2016 at 8:34 PM, BiscuitMassacre said:

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

 

[wasab]

On 4/27/2016 at 8:56 PM, FullTank1337 said:

 

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.

Linux gaming came a long way. Heck, I play Star trek online on steam proton. It runs like a charm. 

[Augustin]

I think I can do more networking stuff out of the box on linux than with windows. Linux does everything better except AAA title games.

[Talon_3361]

Linux OSes give you the user full control over your computer. You're not held hostage to the whims of what Microsoft (or Apple) thinks you want/need. 

Linux systems can run on a wide range of hardware with better integrations all the time.

Most programs will run on Linux systems (especially considering most things are web based now, making them OS agnostic). Those that don't run natively have been getting growing support from w.i.n.e., Lutris and Proton (apps and gaming). 

 

That being said, it's understandable that it's not everyones cup of tea and that's fine. However, it's not just for "IT/Developers" or other nonsense like that. Granted you need some tech savviness but you don't need to be an expert or guru by any means to figure out how to get started (such as making a bootable USB, installing an OS, etc.). 

Linux systems on a USB are great for system recovery tools when your Windows PC won't run.

 

Honestly, I've had more reliability in a wider range of machines using Linux than Windows, especially on platforms that are nolonger supported under Windows 10. 

[Talon_3361]

On 9/26/2019 at 4:36 AM, Augustin said:

...except AAA title games.

For now. 

[Dat Guy]

12 hours ago, Don_M said:

Linux OSes give you the user full control over your computer.

Unless you use proprietary drivers (i.e. not the linux-libre kernel). Which you probably do.

[Talon_3361]

10 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

Unless you use proprietary drivers (i.e. not the linux-libre kernel). Which you probably do.

Not everyone runs FOSS drivers for their systems, but some do. It varies. Still overall a better UX.

[Dat Guy]

The UX is mostly kernel-independent.

[Kisai]

23 hours ago, Don_M said:

Linux OSes give you the user full control over your computer. You're not held hostage to the whims of what Microsoft (or Apple) thinks you want/need. 

 

Nonsense. Until there is "open source" designed CPU's and GPU's, which there are presently none outside of 486-level performance FPGA's, Linux will always be second fiddle to MacOS X, and Mac OSX is tied to buying Mac Hardware. 

 

I kid you not, if OSX could be installed on a whitebox PC for $0, and Apple blessed certain Whitebox PC's to have it, there would be a massive dumping of Windows for OS X, because the the reason more offices don't use OS X is because they don't want to pay for two sets of IT support resources. The most common office worker is the MS Office paper pusher. The advant of "html based office" doesn't replace Office. It's meant to be an option to prevent taking secure documents across potentially hostile borders. That's it.

 

There is no reason to run Linux on the Desktop. That's not where it excels at. Even the PS4 and Xbox One offer a better user experience than Linux with the most "popular" desktop managers.

 

You should never have to drop into terminal to do anything. You should never have to consult a guide/wiki/video to do something as stupidly basic as printing. Yet, it's phenomenally difficult to install hardware on a Linux machine, and have it survive any kind of update to the OS.

[wasab]

2 hours ago, Kisai said:

 

You should never have to drop into terminal to do anything. You should never have to consult a guide/wiki/video to do something as stupidly basic as printing. Yet, it's phenomenally difficult to install hardware on a Linux machine, and have it survive any kind of update to the OS.

I profoundly disagree with you and this post from beginning to end. I'm not gonna bother refuting you because it will easily be a 6 pages essay. 

 

With that being said, I will point out PS4 operating system is BSD, macOS is Unix, and if you think the open source version for either of them are popular on desktop, you are just ignorant. 

 

Chrome OS is basically a build on top of Gentoo Linux. Ponder that for a minute if you are talking whether or not googles corporate take on open source Linux is popular just like if Apples take on open source Darwin OS is popular.