Why would I want to install Linux?

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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Azathoth » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:25 pm

An ohshit partition is always a good idea even if you never use it. When windows goes tits up as it always does eventually you can recover your stuff with a minimum of hassle.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:31 pm

Azathoth wrote:An ohshit partition is always a good idea even if you never use it. When windows goes tits up as it always does eventually you can recover your stuff with a minimum of hassle.
Eh?
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by PsychoSerenity » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:33 pm

Yeah I suppose if you had everything on one drive it would be useful, but I don't think 'zilla does.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:37 pm

PsychoSerenity wrote:Yeah I suppose if you had everything on one drive it would be useful, but I don't think 'zilla does.
Six drives, one in the mail. I don't keep anything on C: that isn't related to the system except porn.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:41 pm

PsychoSerenity wrote: I use it on my netbook because it's smaller and makes better use of the tiny old system than XP could.
Me too, Ubuntu, but I have windows on the desktop.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by PsychoSerenity » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:44 pm

Brian Peacock wrote:
PsychoSerenity wrote: I use it on my netbook because it's smaller and makes better use of the tiny old system than XP could.
Me too, Ubuntu, but I have windows on the desktop.
I didn't like the weird new UI features in the more recent versions of ubuntu, so I changed to linux mint.
[Disclaimer - if this is comes across like I think I know what I'm talking about, I want to make it clear that I don't. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down]

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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:46 pm

So what would a non-geek install on a netbook of modest capacity and power.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by pErvinalia » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:44 pm

If you want speed and simplicity, use Lubuntu. Very fast and still broadly capable. If you want nice and windows competitor, use Mint.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:47 pm

Or just upgrade your phone.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Robert_S » Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:22 pm

Ubuntu and Mint installation is really easy.

There are are some proprietary programs you can't use with Linux, but installing 99.9 percent of what anyone needs is actually a lot more simple with most Linux distros.

Quite frankly, organizing and processing my photos is a bazillion times easier with Linux.


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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Brian Peacock » Fri Jul 12, 2013 11:33 pm

What do you use for processing your piccies Mr S?
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Robert_S » Fri Jul 12, 2013 11:41 pm

Brian Peacock wrote:What do you use for processing your piccies Mr S?

I use Shotwell and GIMP.
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What I've found with a few discussions I've had lately is this self-satisfaction that people express with their proffessed open mindedness. In realty it ammounts to wilful ignorance and intellectual cowardice as they are choosing to not form any sort of opinion on a particular topic. Basically "I don't know and I'm not going to look at any evidence because I'm quite happy on this fence."
-Mr P

The Net is best considered analogous to communication with disincarnate intelligences. As any neophyte would tell you. Do not invoke that which you have no facility to banish.
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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Calilasseia » Sat Jul 13, 2013 12:16 am

Little potted history for 'Zilla ...

Linux is actually an open source version of the big, grown up Unix operating system, that was put together by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie in Bell Labs back in 1970. As a tangential diversion, they also wrote the first incarnation of the C programming language to make life easier for themselves, and to make their code portable across multiple architectures. Most of Unix was written in C, with some assembly language work for the low level hardware drivers. It was the first robust, secure multi-tasking, multi-user operating system for machines other than IBM mainframes. As a consequence of this, and as a consequence of the Bell Labs people being nice to academic institutions over licencing (ah, those were the days!), the OS became immensely popular in universities. It's brim full of utilities, so if you know something about shell scripting, you can do a ton of work without ever having to fire up a full blown application.

Linux is, in effect, the open source version. Written from scratch by Linus Torvalds, so that users could get around the licencing hassles associated with the parent OS outside of the academic world. It's fully compatible with its older parent, and in many places, has become the operating system of choice because so many networking and Internet tools were developed on it (some of which Microsoft stole to make Windows net capable, by the way).

The plus side of Linux is as follows:

[1] Tons of utilities come with the operating system for free, and if you know how to use them, you can make the machine sing and dance to your heart's content;

[2] All the software is free, and you don't have people trying to send you to prison for downloading the software;

[3] It's free of bloat, and runs like a Ferrari even on an old computer as a result;

[4] If ever you need to do anything scientific or mathematical, it has a container vessel load of software aimed at that market;

[5] It's fully compatible with the big boys' version running on fuck-off huge mainframes and supercomputers;

[6] The code has been subject to continuous testing and development by millions of open source programmers for two decades, who care more about getting it right and making it work than charging you a fat fee for old rope;

[7] You can choose between a number of graphical user interfaces for it, depending on personal preference;

[8] You can find versions of Linux for processors most people haven't heard of (NatSemi 32032, anyone?) not to mention cut down versions for embedded systems;

[9] If a piece of software works on one Linux system, it usually works on them all (your choice of GUI usually being the only bugger factor, but most software comes in the relevant flavours)

[10] No viruses or malware to worry about, because the people who wrote it used their grey cells when it came to security;

[11] The file systems Linux uses have much better built in redundancy than Windows, and recovering from a disc drive SNAFU is much less painful, unless you've physically assaulted the hard drive with various weapons;

[12] Most of the support infrastructure of the Internet was either written on Linux systems, or runs on them.

The minus side of Linux is this:

[1] The Unix original was mainly aimed at programmers, and as a result acquired a reputation for being a 'geek' operating system;

[2] The manual, though comprehensive, is extremely terse, to the point of having to learn how to use the manual beforehand.

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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Jason » Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:05 am

Linux distros are hugely varied and impossible to encapsulate in a single post. And no, Linux is not Unix-OpenSource. It hasn't been for 20 some years at the very least. It is not Unix-Mini. It has as much relation to Unix as Mac OS does.

Why would YOU want to install it? Short answer: You wouldn't. It's not for you.

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Re: Why would I want to install Linux?

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:06 am

As I suspected.
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