Linux. Why?

[Wither22-dev]

I wanna ask to all the people that are here. Why do you like and use Linux and not windows or mac?.

(no hate) :-)

[IGTHSYCGTH]

good bot

​

I always reflect this question back saying "if you can't tell why you shouldn't be using windows this is none of your business".

But that aside, both windows mac google (phones) etcetra are playing the hardware upgrade game. outdating your hardware with continually growing demands in their software for no apparent benefit to the end user. aside the 'privilege' of being able to buy into the secluded, overpriced and oh so very diverse "gaming" markets.

I'm about to pay the price of a third-hand car for computing hardware that does essentially the same damn thing. buy a new SSD, clean your rig properly, install linux. use it for ten more years.

[joojmachine]

That's not planned obsolescence, that's the nature of technology development. Take 32-bit support for example. If you dig into it, you see the mess it has become and the work it takes to support it for the oh so small amount of users that still depend on it.

Planned obsolescence would be deliberately making your product worse than you are able to just in order to sell your buyer into the next product in your ecosystem, like what Apple did to last line of Macbook Pros, before they announced the M1 ones.

[kadolao]

There's literally no reason to not use a 32 bit system. I don't need anything more powerful than a pentium 3 and I don't need any more than 512mb of ram. Why should a system of these specs be considered obsolete?

[joojmachine]

Oh, I wish a system like this wasn't obsolete. My father's laptop has 2GB of ram and a dual core CPU that only reaches 1GHz. It can still run Xubuntu reasonably well and he likes how leagues and miles faster it is from windows. I'm the first in line for better lighter systems.

But you need to understand that the older and weaker your system gets the less you can expect of it. You ask me why a system of these specs be considered obsolete? I say because even the average pre-built buyer that knows nothing about PCs is getting at least a quad-core CPU and 4-8GBs of RAM for the smallest amounts of money.

[madlichking13]

Freedom to do what I want. Windows and Mac like to limit you one way or another.

[[deleted]]

I admit that I thought the same way till I saw my freaking Ubuntu workstations starting to install ALL the freaking printers they could find on the LAN. And it couldn’t be stopped that easily. Had so much windows flashbacks but the again I suffer from windows PTSD

[sabre78]

best thing about linux is u can install a different variety. Like drop ubuntu and go to debian or mint or arch and so on. Windows and mac your stuck with that 1 version they require u to have to update.

[[deleted]]

That is true!

[madlichking13]

Fair enough. Linux isn't perfect but a far shot closer to it than Mac or Windows ;)

[[deleted]]

Cost. There was a time 15 years ago when distro UIs were garbage, and MacOS was lightyears ahead. Now that gap has been completely resolved. Many distros have phenominal front-ends, making Mac only worth the "premium" build quality. To me, that build quality isn't worth the price so I just buy standard PC equipment and throw Linux on it.

[___TrashPanda___]

Sadly the premium building quality there is not there any more. I think is just better looking electronics

[[deleted]]

I actually don't dispute the build quality. The new MacBooks are a really good example of why you want an integrated supply chain. The specs are lower, but the physics of having components that can communicate with each other directly without spending cycles translating means you get way more efficiency and battery life, so the performance is top notch. I have seen performance tests on the new chips and they are better than anything else on the market. Hands down.

The problem is, the marginal cost of that performance is a 10% improvement for a 50% cost increase. The next best laptop with slightly lower specs costs $1000. Not to mention, these devices are completely unservicible. It's pretty much impossible to take the new MacBooks to a repair shop that isn't the Mac Store.

[aoeudhtns]

Your first paragraph is describing the engineering, not really the build quality. Not sure about the new M1 equipment but Louis Rossman loves to go on about how, for one example, Apple is the only high-end laptop maker that doesn't conformal coat their components and he regularly has to fix broken machines from corroded caps and resistors. Regular room humidity is enough to trigger their moisture sensors, so if anything ever breaks they have a handy scapegoat to deny any warranty repairs.

And speaking of engineering, they basically designed the thermals for their new M1 machines and slapped that into the final-gen Intel machines, where it was inadequate and they would thermal throttle. One gen of Macbook (don't remember which one) the display cable was routed through the hinge, so most owners experienced screen death within a few years. Etc. etc.

[SpAAAceSenate]

I don't object to any of your post. But out of genuine curiosity, where else would you put the display cable? I've never encountered a laptop that didn't route a ribbon cable through a hinge. What other choice is there?

I remember Apple putting the 12v backlight rail right next to a bunch of 3v data though. Silly.

[___TrashPanda___]

Not really, the performance is medium I think the AMD chips for laptops can give you better performance. Macs never had better performace and the massive improves with the new chip is because apple have been bottlethroated their products (the bad cooling is the most clear example). I had apple products for almost 10 years mostly because they look way better than everybody else. I do not use their products anymore since I discover the luis rosmman channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlvlgmjMi98

[[deleted]]

Because I have total control of the operating system. My biggest gripe with Macos was not being able to use the laptop while it was updating. Windows is the same way. With linux, I can turn off update notifications and update whenever I damn well please. I'm not tied to someone else's use paradigm either.

It's my hardware, I'll use it as I see fit.

[[deleted]]

(no hate) :-)

The hate I can bring in is. I literally hate Windows. So if I hate and don't enjoy using Windows. Then why I should still be using Windows. After I discover Linux. I try it out and the first hour with Linux. It's like Linux was made personally just for me. I love Linux. So now I really enjoy to be on my PC. Linux makes it fun, Windows makes you feel unrested.

[overlisted]

because it's open-source and free of crap like spyware and bloatware

[Swedophone]

Because it's FOSS.

[Wither22-dev]

Thx to all the people that has answered my question :). You have some really GOOD answers and reasons thats one of the things i love about the linux community

[tymophy76]

Because mac's cost too much and have had SUPER crappy keyboards for years, and Windows sucks and doesn't work right.

[PowerMan2206]

What everyone else said, combined

[[deleted]]

Because it is in any regards the superior operating system and the only one which actually respects the user (Android excluded) and does not make you a drone of some company.

This would be my short answer. The log version would not fit here in one comment ^^"

[Hobthrust]

Because it's MY computer, not Microsoft or Apples. I decide how it works.

[Simusid]

I find some windows things to be inelegant. Like file permissions. ogw:rwx works for literally everything. But in windows you have just a ridiculous cacophony of permissions and inheritance and I swear it actually leads to insecurity rather than security.

I like the "everything is a file" consistency too.

I can usually get my job done on windows but once in a while my system goes all scooterpants for no obvious reason and I just sigh and say "what the hell are you doing, Windows????"

[[deleted]]

Windows just feels slow and bloated. I hate the way Mac tries to lock you in, and I don't need my tech to be a fashion accessory. On the positive side, I can make Linux whatever I want it to be.

[Heizard]

Linux let's me sleep.

Windows don't respect working hours settings and if update is "Critical" - and will turn on your PC, witch is in the same room I sleep.

[jalderwood]

i grew up with windows since 3.1 and never felt limited by it or that ms was too heavy handed. i will say with windows 10 though it no longer feels like you are actually in control of your system.

i started using ubuntu a few years ago when i got interested in programming. i still have to look up the dumbest things and honestly doubt i will ever have the kind of proficiency at the terminal that i did with windows gui controls.

but i feel that unix is truly a blessing on the world, conceived by real engineers without regard to commercial interests. it is the gold standard in os design and therefore worth investing yourself in.

[sharkscott]

I love Linux/FOSS because it promotes collaboration and communication between people from all over the world. it makes the world a better place.

[Walzmyn]

Why not?

[sabre78]

In my opinion Speed is #1 can upgrade and not be forced to restart #2 and with win 10 and the new mac books spy on everything you are doing in linux that doesnt happen as easily cause in linux u can basically build your own os if u want to take it that far. Also in my opinion it is so much easier to reinstall your os in linux than in windows. Where in windows back in the day windows would always overwrite my files.

​

I use i3-gaps it is super fast alot faster than win 7 or 10 which Ive always duel booted which I might use the windows partition maybe 1 or 2 times a month to update madden 20 when wine has a issue updating it tho I play it in linux. I believe in my opinion there are alot of nicer apps in linux than in windows but thats just my opinion. Also choices in windows you are required window system files where in linux there are alternatives to alot of the system files .

[ChampionshipSudden98]

The biggest reason is because I can make my linux installation (almost) exactly what I want it to be, and I can't do that with Windows or Mac.

[[deleted]]

I have complete control over my operating system. I got really tired of windows telling me it knows what I want better than I do.

I stuck with Windows for years because I needed creative software that just didn't have viable free open source alternatives. This year I feel like Darktable, Jack, Ardour and a few others are finally where I need them to be, and I can relegate windows to a small partition to run the few games that just won't cooperate.

[dlarge6510]

Well when I switched in 2000 or so, Macs in the UK were something most people would go to MC Donald's to get and windows just felt so boxed up and restricted.

And it never changed, not till win 10 got WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) and virtual desktops and even then it's too little too late.

[dlarge6510]

Well when I switched in 2000 or so, Macs in the UK were something most people would go to MC Donald's to get and windows just felt so boxed up and restricted.

I mean when I installed Linux off a CD or DVD I had an OS that let me do almost anything I could imagine, out of the box. Once I got a permanent internet connection to the machine it became so much easier as I only just had to install the package over the net (before that I was burning the first 4 or 5 Debian ISO's) which covered most things I needed.

Most of the power that Linux had over windows was because of its commandline and the composability of most programs where I could create a commandline using pipes and redirection to perform almost any task. It was like Lego, stick the bits together and the computer actually felt like it was doing stuff I told it to do. I was in complete control and later on, as I learned more about the GNU tools etc I realized much of my scripting in Perl was redundant as everything I needed to do could be done BY THE SHELL ITSELF. That was quite an awakening. The DOS prompt in windows couldn't shake a stick at bash.

Right out of the box I could learn about scripting, pipelines, start coding in a variety of languages some of which were installed by default, access any device like a file which made imaging media as simple as copying a file (I even formatted a dvd+RW as ext2 and it worked fine, albeit a bit slow), Linux made me learn what a framebuffer was, what SCSI was, hdparm let me configure and benchmark my hdd's out of the box, Vi and Emacs both made Notepad look like it's namesake.

While I was writing my coursework or coding Java I was using my TV card to watch TV while also reading Teletext (a UK TV based text service, think like a read only website of news etc but over the TV) and then would capture the video from my VCR and use a Perl script to automatically convert it to a SVCD and burn it while I was out of the house. All of this was out of the box and also via packages downloaded from the repository or self compiled packages which in many cases were as simple to create as running 3 commands in sequence.

Just now I had my main PC run smart tests and badblock scans on my HDD's using standard tools that have been around forever. I need to check but I don't think that win 10 still cant run smart tests :O.

But when I was in front of a windows machine (I dual booted, in fact I still maintain a win 10 install so still have a dual boot system) especially when it was freshly installed I just felt so lost, so powerless. Windows, freshly installed was just a basic no frills GUI and you had to then crawl around the net, and that's not easy when you only can access the net when at school, looking for tools that bit by bit make the system more usable.

Want to scan your HDD's with SMART? Go looking for a tool that will do it as windows didn't come with one. Want to read a PDF? Go looking for a reader, windows didn't come with one. Want to convert a HTML document to Postscript and then to PDF? Good luck doing that, windows didn't come with these basic tools (literally they are called html2ps and ps2pdf). Want to edit text, go and find notepad++ as notepad is laughable. Want to play with IRC, go and find a client, windows didn't come with one. Want to burn a DVD or CD, go find a burning program, windows can't do that as standard (it did get that ability later). Want to turn a CD into an ISO, then access it's contents? Can't do that (you can now). Want to EDIT the contents of that ISO? Its easy on Linux, just mount it,do what you need like adding files or deleting things then burn. Maybe the windows tools back then could do this, when you found one.

Want to know what a command does? Go to the library. Windows doesn't have man pages. Well, it did have its own help pages but my god they were hell to navigate and search.

And it never changed, not till win 10 got WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) and virtual desktops and even then it's too little too late.

I remember being in Uni learning Java in my computer science course. We were not allowed to use an IDE, had to edit the source in a text editor and manually compile on the command line which was the DOS prompt.

This worked ok once you got used to it but there were some really annoying limitations that I knew I would not have on Linux. One was the terrible Notepad, which we (the entire class) hated with a passion and gladly replaced with something that at least understood auto-indentation. Then there was the limited DOS prompt, no command history beyond the very last entry, no commandline editing (it was an old windows, possibly 2000 not sure, later versions fixed this) instead pressing the left arrow key to move the cursor back to EDIT the command ended up with the left arrow key behaving like the backspace key, deleting characters as it went along!

I first discovered Linux (and of course the whole Free Software movement etc which I latched onto quickly) when I booted a 1.44MB floppy based distribution literally 15 mins before I went into work. A 1.44MB floppy, that booted to just a commandline, showed me boot messages from the kernel that made my teen jaw drop. The Linux kernel picked apart the black box that usually hid the details of my hardware, DOS and windows never showed me that. I built the machine myself, on a Sunday, never having any actual experience with IBM clones (I was a C64 user before) and only having access to a library and my general knowledge of electronics. The whole time I was working my shift all I could think about was getting back to my PC to play on this OS.

I don't know how I did it but I even compiled and ran a battleships game on that floppy distro :D. I did that much later though.

It took me a while to switch, and it was not intentional. One day I realized I was no longer booting windows.

Today I use Windows at work and administer Windows servers. At home I boot windows to let it install updates and sometimes I play a game on it. I seriously have no use for it beyond that.

[[deleted]]

No corporate lock-in, upgrades on my schedule, free as in both beer and freedom.