Ubuntu Linux As Free Operating System Alternative linux operating system

[rvalkass 5]

and the worst os for a home computer

Perhaps some reasoning for why you think it doesn't work as a home OS would be nice?

[A donut 0]

I dual-boot Windows XP and Ubuntu, which is great because I need Windows XP for certain programs and Ubuntu becuase I want an alternative to Windows. (I also tried Fedora Core but I decided that Ubuntu was easier for me.)I've also known other people who switched to Ubuntu and found out that their computers improved performance and their computing made easier, including a 68-year-old grandmother, who she said herself that she can use her computer easier.

[strange-garden 0]

When I get my computer fixed I'm going to duel boot my old computer withh XP and ubuntu. I love my adobe stuff, I'd hate to lose it!

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

Well, I think the one thing that Linux users and Windows users can agree on is that Windows kicks the crap out of Linux for gaming, and Linux kicks the crap out of Windows for developing.

[DarkPsycho 0]

Well the gaming thing isn't exactly the fault of Linux developers. Game developers don't recognize Linux as an operating system they need to cater to, so they only produce games compatible with Windows (and sometimes Mac).

[dre 0]

Well the gaming thing isn't exactly the fault of Linux developers. Game developers don't recognize Linux as an operating system they need to cater to, so they only produce games compatible with Windows (and sometimes Mac).

Which makes perfect sense when you look at the pie chart, so Linux pretty much has to play indie games unless something multiplatform is made, which is unfortunately, rare.

[DarkPsycho 0]

Yea, that is true. I was slightly misinformed about the gaming of Mac's vs. Linux. They are about on par in compatible games. Which makes sense because they are both relatively close (~0.5% apart) in terms of users.And I can see the problems that would be created for compatibility with all of the different distros.

Edited December 29, 2007 by DarkPsycho (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

And I can see the problems that would be created for compatibility with all of the different distros.

Not necessarily. Consider the programs brought about by Mozilla. You can start using these programs on a Linux-installed machine almost immediately after extraction without having to compile these programs from source. Opera has made for source-based distros a shell script that installs the Opera browser onto the system (the only dependency being QT-mt). All these programmers have to do is precompile their software for Unix-based systems and make a bash script for the installation.

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

No, not necessarily. I personally am using Xubuntu as my Desktop OS right now. It runs alot faster than windows for most things. For instance, anyone who has tried Net Beans IDE on windows knows how it can sometimes be too slow to even bother using. I installed it on Linux the other day, and while it was still not quite the speed you'd like, it was noticeably faster than on windows.

[ranperij 0]

I've just gotten into Linux, but I have enjoyed using Ubuntu. I own a PS3, and one of the major (geek) perks of it is that you're able to install Linux on it. So now I have Ubuntu on my PS3, which feels awesome with the 47" HDTV acting as a monitor.

[albumfreak 0]

I own a mac, and it's great for everything I want to do and I'm glad that I switched from windows. I do web design, photo editing, video editing and am going to start doing some animation and I find that it handles everything that I want to do very well. I have found, in my experiences, that it has better quality of programs and is more intuitive to use than windows. It also has the benefit of greater security ( I know some people doubt this and say that it can still be vulnerable to a trojan horse, but these are still rare) which I find to be great as I don't have an anti-virus taking up my computers resources. It's a lot of little things that you find when you use a mac that will make you happy. Although due to Vista copying a lot of features from Tiger, a lot of these may not be so new if you've already used vista.

[lefehe 0]

I started to work with Linux many years ago, when the most important distro out there was RedHat 4.2. I really never liked it, but it made me feel curious about the existence of alternatives. Slackware was an old distro then, and I did not find it very attractive. But then I accidentally discovered Debian. And it was truly wonderful.Debian was not an easy distro to install or to maintain. But it had two things I was looking for: power and flexibility.Eventually Debian became the biggest distro out there, and it has been taken as a base for building many other distros. Ubuntu among them.I still think Debian is at the top of the hill of the Linux distros. But I cannot ignore many of its derivatives as terrific choices for those who are starting to migrate from other platforms. Ubuntu is a wonderful example of development. It is easy to install, to update, to upgrade and to maintain. It has free and good quality support. It hides most of the complexity of the Linux world to the beginner, but it does not restrict the full power of this OS to the initiated.Reading the posts in this thread I realize that for many people it is still very difficult to think in Linux as a serious production environment. Maybe because their favorite applications have not been ported to Linux. Maybe because their hardware is not well supported. Or perhaps just because they have been tied to other OSs for too long. That is normal, because migration is a process that takes some time.Although Linux is not for everybody, I think there are many people out there that could use it for their regular computer needs. It's only matter of trying. Live distros are good for this.And here comes Ubuntu again, that has reciently released a new version (8.04 LTS).Best regards,-L.

[Carson 0]

I decided to switch from Windows to Linux when my computer kept getting too many viruses and spyware. I had to keep re-installing windows to get rid of them all, and the process starts over. At one point my computer just switched off 5 seconds after booting up, so I get so tired of windows I decided to switch to Linux. I had no issues with it, apart from the fact it couldnt run the everyday programs I needed it to. I use my Xisto account to run a forum about a particular software, which was not available on Linux. I tried to get it working but it proved impossible to get it working, so I had to switch back to windows. Someone suggested to me I have two computers: One for internet use only and using Linux, the other for offline use only using Windows.

[Gravedigger 0]

Installing software from source is not the nicest experience, but there are lots of benefits as well. Sometimes it isn't the most reliable, but it can be more reliable than others.

[StaticIp 0]

I guess we are lucky its free, it works and it works well ( if you set it up correctly ) I haven't had to go back to windows once. But WINE could be a little better, it would be nice to be able to use every program I had in windows but I not complaining cause Ubuntu was free. I think having a software repository like linux does is a lot safer than going out and downloading from a public server. The Ubuntu Programmers maintain all of that software ( if you only use the official updates) and I don't think they're out to get us all with viruses...