Ok, quick question here. I'm a Windows user. Have been since MS-DOS and Windows 3.1, and probably always will be. I don't particularly love Windows for many reasons which I won't get into, but I'm a gamer...case closed. My question is, what makes Linux so much "better" than Windows? I've heard people raving about Linux, but I don't know what is different between it and Windows! I thought I might as well post here. Seem to be a lot of Linux users. Thanks.
Reading the stickies in this forum will probably give you a good idea of its benefits. As for gaming, once you have video card drivers set up and use Cedega DX9.0 software you can play most windows DirectX games on linux with no performance hits. Linux is also much more secure and resistant to virii, spyware and worms so using an AV isn't necessary.
Here's a non-comprehensive list off the top of my head: It's free as in "free lunch" -- the code is licensed so that it can be sold, but it must also be given away. That means companies can be capitalistic with it, yet it must always be freely available. It's free as in "free speech" -- the source code can never be locked up and hidden away by any one company or individual, which guarentees both its continued growth and its free availability. It's based on the UNIX design, which was designed by forward-thinking computer scientists, not a single company or individual. It has avoided many of the pitfalls of the popular OS while natively offering functionality unheard of in non-UNIX-like OSes. It's flexible. Linux can be scaled down to run on a PDA, or scaled up to run on a supercomputer. Stability. Linux's modular nature means that even if there is a problem with one part of the OS, it's not going to drag the whole system down with it. It also doesn't need to be rebooted unless you replace the actual kernel (the central-most part of an OS). Security. Linux's default user privilege seperation puts the defacto OS to shame. This means better security, better portability, easy backups of data, more privacy, and yet a very unrestricted feel for unprivileged users. Best of all, this means no virii or other malware. Industry backing. Linux is backed by some of the biggest players in the industry, including IBM, HP and Novell. Linux is not tied to any one company. Due to the licensing, no matter what happens, no particular company or group can decide the fate or direction of Linux. Rocks as a server -- Linux can do more with less. In fact, using Samba, Linux is actually 250% faster at, get this, Windows File and Print Sharing than an actual Windows server on the same hardware. Yes, really. Memory management. Even wonder why when you listen to an audio CD in Windows, your HDD activity indicator is spiked? It shouldn't be, that's a design flaw in Windows' memory management. In fact no matter how much RAM you have, Windows will always lean heavily on virtual memory, also known as the swap file. Remember, "free RAM is wasted RAM". This slows your system and wears out the moving parts in your HDD. Linux on the other hand, uses all of the memory available to it, and it never swaps unless it is absolutely necessary to do so. Contigious journalised filesystems -- Linux gives you the choice of several fast, contigious, journalised filesystems. That means that Linux can handle hard power-offs and adverse conditions (such as failing hardware) many times better than the popular OS without losing your data, and that it never requires defragmentation. In fact, the more you use a proper journalised filesystem, the less fragmented it becomes. Choice of multiple GUIs -- Linux is not tied to any single graphical user interface, or 'GUI'. That means not only can you choose the one that suits you best from a long list of candidates (or swap between several), you can forgo the GUI altogether and do everything from the command line interface, or 'CLI'. That may not be appealing option from a desktop perspective, but there is no compelling reason for a dedicated server to waste resources on a GUI when nobody will be sitting in front of it. Network portability -- Linux is capable of of remote use and administration that is every bit as powerful as sitting right in front of the remote machine, and it does this more securely than the badly implemented and barely usable remote administration mechanisms of the popular OS. In fact, Linux/UNIX is capable of easily and securely running remote applications natively in your GUI (i.e. ones that are installed on another computer, not on your own) -- even whole login sessions, should you desire. Just take a look at this screenshot; the window on the left is running from my wife's PC over our LAN, the window on the right is running from my own PC. Tabs, multiple destops, multiple concurrent sessions... very, very productive environment.
Ha, yeah I knew you'd get into this AT. Very nice list there. I realize the only real thing at would bother you UnSeEn is the gaming issue. Well yeah the convienence issue is pretty relivent as you can't just go into a store a hope to find a Linux section. But there are a lot of Linux compatable big deal games, like UT2k4, Quake 4, etc. It's not all inclusive but it's a start. What I'd do if I were you is have two partitions on your harddrive (or two separate harddrives). Install XP on one and a "Anti-trend recommended" distro of Linux on that other and then just use that partition for most stuff but if a friend offers you a game to try out or whatever go to the XP partition. Just a thought.
One of my favorite things about Linux is how it just works. Think about the last time you did a fresh install of Windows. You spent probably a good few hours installed Windows, which left you with a crippled Web browser, Notepad, 4 card games, and maybe Windows Media player. You still had to install games, an office suite, a decent web browser, anti-virus, anti-spyware, cd/dvd burning software, photo software, music software, etc. Last time I installed Linux I instantly had a full office suite, three browsers, 3 mp3 players, several games, several photo editors, and more software than I knew what to do with. All included. All free. And when I wanted more, it was just there in the repositories, no hunting down downloads, paying, or buying cds. Instead of wasting time and resources on AV and AS, I just know I am safe. If you still need Windows, I recommend at least having a linux partition. One time Windows became unbootable due to a virus, and I was able to "rescue" all my unbacked up files in Linux and burn them to a CD. Even though I wrote the papers in Word in Windows I was able to open them in Write in Linux, burn them to a CD in Linux, and read them again in Word in Windows. It just works. Let's look at a few other tasks. Resizing a picture: In Windows, to resize a picture you need to find the picture, get a program that can do resizing, install that program, and right click to select that program, open it, and resize. In Linux usually the default program can resize. In Windows when I upload from my camera I need to install drivers, then upload. In Linux my I plugged in and got a pop-up asking me if I wanted to upload. I could go on and on. Linux is not without it's problems. When you do need drivers, finding them can be a problem. But I do recommend you give it a try.
Wow, guys, thanks a lot for all the information. I wasn't expecting such a lengthy, yet personal and well thought out reply. I was expecting to get a link to a Linux information site. Yeah, the topic came up in Computer Science class about Linux. I knew that it was popular open-source software, but that's it. Now I know. It sounds really good! Perhaps I'll try it out when I go home for the break. I was particularly interested in the change of GUI down to the old character based format. To tell the truth, I miss the MS-DOS days. Everything was so simple (well..except memorizing commands). It seems like only yesterday!
Yeah, plain old CLI is what I prefer for dedicated servers, although I use the KDE GUI on my desktops. But don't think for a minute that any CLI in Linux is anything like DOS! It may look similar to the uninitiated, but a *nix command line is a powerful and flexible thing. Visit my server (see sig) for lots of documentation on Linux, and we've got plenty of walkthroughs & info stickied in this forum.
What I recommend you do is when you install a distribution like Mandriva (very good desktop linux) or another good distro like SuSE you have it as a dual boot system. You can boot into linx normally, but if you really need to use a windows app its always there if you need it. Then you can do most web browsing and general usage on linux and be secure, and minimize the time spent in Windows.
That's how I started out, and look where I am now. I can't shut up about Linux and I haven't run a MS product in years, let alone bought new ones.
