Why I use Linux
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| AnonymousCoward Mar 20, 2009 10:22 AM EDT |
No viruses, no random crashes, software to do everything I need, no fancy licences to maintain, automatic & painless updates (Mandriva & (K)Ubuntu, at least) from local (fast, low-traffic-quota) mirrors. |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 20, 2009 10:52 AM EDT |
Because it annoys my wife, who likes Windows. |
| nicsmr Mar 20, 2009 12:32 PM EDT |
@Bob...
Now there's the best reason of all... My wife runs her own company out of the basement of our house and she does not love or hate windows. She has to use windows because all the BIG oil companies she is contracts herself to requires her to submit her work in MS Office formats. No ifs ands or Buts. Her computer is merely an annoying tool that has to be upgraded each time Microsoft issues a new version of something. Her biggest beef with that is that she has to relearn how to do everything she needs to do in the new version way. She's seen me working on my Linux laptop and is mildly interested but the fact still remains her work must be submitted in MS Office formats. Until that changes she is stuck. She tried Open Office on her windows PC but found that it did not render her work properly when saved as MS Word or when exported to PDF. BTW She loves the fact the OO can do that (PDF export) and does use it when her strict formatting rules are not as vital. My .02$ CAD worth. Nick |
| gus3 Mar 20, 2009 1:14 PM EDT |
Big oil companies, using an insecure pile of junk. How reassuring. |
| theboomboomcars Mar 20, 2009 1:22 PM EDT |
nicsmr- Office appears to work under wine, if she wanted to use linux, that may be an option. |
| caitlyn Mar 20, 2009 1:23 PM EDT |
@gus3: Another (admittedly small) reason to be happy that the U.S. government finally seems to be committed to alternative energy development. |
| gus3 Mar 20, 2009 1:46 PM EDT |
@caitlyn: I doubt that will help. Sorry for the cynicism, but in my experience, corporate small fry tend to be even less clue-ful about FOSS. The thinking goes something like this: "We already know how to use Windows, and it does what we want. If we replace it with something else, then we'll need to slow things down while our people get re-trained, and we can't afford that." The missing part of the reasoning is that maybe Windows does what they want, but it will also do other things that they don't want. Sometimes those other things are close to neutral (the only detriments are CPU time and disk space), sometimes they are nefarious (virus, worm, trojan, or remotely exploitable defects out of the box). The slow-down caused by those* will far exceed any re-training requirements. *The only Windows-based shops that have experienced no attacks, or one attack, are shops that haven't been in business very long. Larger corporations have the ability to invest in the protection of their IT investment. Smaller companies find that more of a strain on their IT budgets. Like I said, my experience. YMMV. |
| caitlyn Mar 20, 2009 1:56 PM EDT |
@gus3: My experience matches yours. My whole business is Linux for smaller businesses and I have found that the economic downturn, which I keep reading is a boon for Linux, actually has made it even a harder sell. Linux is different and in the eyes of small business owners different == risk. |
| bigg Mar 20, 2009 2:59 PM EDT |
> which I keep reading is a boon for Linux, actually has made it even a harder sell It's tough all over, but I think you'd have even more trouble trying to sell companies on upgrading from XP to Vista right now. |
| NoDough Mar 20, 2009 4:50 PM EDT |
>> ...you'd have even more trouble trying to sell companies on upgrading from XP to Vista right now. Right now? Heh. |
| hkwint Mar 20, 2009 5:11 PM EDT |
The company where I work just bought & started using Sharepoint, apart from IIS. So far from ever being independent of Microsoft. We have some nice proggy as an extension of MS Printer manager - or something like that - to print to PDF by the way, only $23 per user (CUPS-PDF is great, ain't it?) Funny thing is, they can afford Sharepoint while at the same time 1/3 of the personnel was fired (including me) because of the 'crisis' (which for my company merely existed of the 'owner' not knowing what to do with all that money, so buying stocks on the stock market. Half a billion gone!). |
| NoDough Mar 20, 2009 5:19 PM EDT |
>> We have some nice proggy as an extension of MS Printer manager - or something like that - to print to PDF by the way, only $23 per user (CUPS-PDF is great, ain't it?) Ouch! Even for Windows systems there's PDFCreator. |
| Scott_Ruecker Mar 21, 2009 1:21 AM EDT |
I use Linux cause it makes me cool..I think..;-) |
| tracyanne Mar 21, 2009 1:26 AM EDT |
I'm cool, and I use Linux because Linux is cool. |
| tuxtom Mar 23, 2009 6:54 AM EDT |
So I can stick it to The Man. |
| ColonelPanik Mar 23, 2009 11:45 AM EDT |
So far Linux is using me, but I enjoy it. |
| theboomboomcars Mar 23, 2009 1:49 PM EDT |
I use linux because I was able to mold it into a shape that fit my hand, a few different shapes acutally. Windows and Mac always seem to have weird protuberances that are just bothersome when trying to use the system. Initially linux had some too, but I was able to move those protuberances and now in stead of making it uncomfortable to use they make the system more usable. For some reason MS and Apple want those protuberances there and in that spot and actively prevent you from putting them in a useful place. |
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