Linux

[Sindwiller]

This is the moment where dualboot is very useful

Wfr, Sindwiller

[Thrik]

"Complete control of your operating system"?

So it is indeed as I originally suspected: Linux is simply designed for control freaks and efficiency-obsessed programmers.

[Sindwiller]

"control freaks"? What should i control of? A KI? Hello? I just want a operating system who does not just frickin' makes something what i dont know. I want just a operating system, who cant be infected (ok, honestly, Linux can be infected, but only very hard) by viruses and spyware.

Wfr, Sindwiller

[Thrik]

But the simple answer to that is to be an intelligent user. I've not had a virus hit my machine in years, and I'd imagine the same goes for anyone else who knows how to use a computer properly.

As for the rest of your post, I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Squirrel gave the argument "you have complete control" and my post was in response to that.

[leileilol]

Even non-intelligent users can't infect a linux computer with spyware and viruses.

Also Ubuntu is a rather user-friendly distro as well as KDE being a rather user-friendly GUI, so what's the "hard core user" excuse there?

[Duff-e]

whatever...lets just put it this way

windows + firefox = my mom hasn't gotten a virus or spyware yet...and she has no idea what the fuck shes doing.

[Thrik]

I'm still not seeing any hard incentives to use Linux. And if you're going to keep using the virus/spyware thing, can I please refer you back to my original post?

I'm not really sure what the incentive to use Linux is. I understand that it's a fairly well-developed operating system, but what makes it special? What does it have over Windows and OS X, both of which are extremely comfortable operating systems that for most people never have any significant stability/speed issues?

OS X is about as user friendly and secure as a commerical OS gets, and there is a lot of good software for it now. The only downside is shit game support, but let's discard that for now since you can always dual boot. I won't hold it against Linux either. :wink:

[Bic-B@ll]

if you're still getting viruses/spyware its time to just stop using computers

[Sindwiller]

Even non-intelligent users can't infect a linux computer with spyware and viruses.

Non-intelligent Users (even Windows Users) dont touch the user management. So, they wont work as root though. And intelligent users who are aware of the user management and the danger, who comes with using root, will even not think about, to touch something.

Almost the same thing under Windows: Non-intelligent users work as Administrator, with thousands of anti-spyware and anti-virus programs, who just steal performance and intelligent users, who are very, very rare under Windows, work as normal user and when they need to do something with admin rights, they use "start as" or a "MakeMeAdmin"-Script (like me).

OS X is about as user friendly and secure as a commerical OS gets, and there is a lot of good software for it now. The only downside is shit game support, but let's discard that for now since you can always dual boot. I won't hold it against Linux either.

It costs too much and i can get the same kind of security and under-the-hood techniques with a Darwin-Distribution (eg. GNU-Darwin) and a PPC-System (x86 still makes problems though). Where's the point?

Wfr, Sindwiller

[Thrik]

So other than being free (which isn't really a concern for someone who does a lot of work on a computer and is prepared to pay for the best possible experience), there's really not much incentive for someone who isn't interested in all the under-the-hood stuff to use Linux.

I get the general impression that Linux is more for tweak maniacs and those who love absolute control (as someone else said earlier). But really, the market of people who don't want that and simply desire an operating system that works beautifully for them from the get-go is a lot larger.

That's why Apple's admittedly pompous (at least in the latest ads) but truthful "it works out of the box" advertising mantra is working so well right now. I think this lack of wanting to configure/control everything is something that many die-hard Linux users really can't really get their head around.

[Zacker]

Sorry Thrik but after reading the first sentence in your post I just have to say this:

It's not just free as in free beer, but also free as in free speech:)

[Ginger Lord]

Agreed, i'm posting this from my iMac and it worked out the box. Picked up the University wireless signal no problem and away I went.

Now when I wanted to do that with my PC, I had to go out and buy a wireless card. First one I got I had to put in a PCI slot and as it turned out didn't work anyway, so got it replaced with a USB one, had to install tonnes of software and then it worked.

OSX is a great OS, its pretty simple even for someone who's used Windows most of their life. It just...works. Now I've never tried Linux but all this talk of tweaking this and that just puts me off, I want functionality and simplicity straight away, I have that with OSX and XP, whats the plus-side to Linux?

Free?

[Zacker]

Regarding you guys who want something which works out of the box, I just wanted to say that this is how most linux distros work. If you want more you can go root around with stuff in the kernel - you are however not forced to do this.

[Ginger Lord]

The other thing that bugs me about Linux is theres so many versions, too many chefs spoil the broth etc.

Theres one current version of OSX, theres what 3 XP but they are all pretty similar and theres about 120 billion versions of Linux.

Can imagine it in a shop:

"I'd like a copy of Linux please"

"Which distro?"

"You what now?"

"You know, Redhat, Ubuntu, *goes on for hours*"

"Ok...i'll take a copy of XP thanks."

[Thrik]

Sure Zacker, but once again we come back to the incentive of using Linux for someone not interested in all the tweakery: an average user. Being free obviously isn't flying as otherwise it'd be a lot more popular than it is.

I'm not trying to put down Linux or even criticise it, but after hearing dozens of "lol windows" comments and whatnot from Linux users over the years (not necessarily you guys) I've about had enough and want them to stand their ground. Put up or shut up as they say.