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Need some compelling reasons

 
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I need some reasons as to why i should give Linux a try? I cant come up with any so far that I can use to convince myself.
 
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What operating system are you using now?
What were your reasons for choosing it?
Are you completely satisfied with it?

Are you a professional developer?
Do you work in IT?
Are you aspiring to do either?

If so, are you confident that you will never need to be comfortable with an environment other than the one in which you are currently working?

Depending on how you've answered those questions Linux may or may not be right for you. If you're only an end user and are content to work with whatever came with your computer then there may not be a compelling reason for you to expand.
 
Arvind Mahendra
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Originally posted by Ben Souther:


"What operating system are you using now?"
Windows XP

"What were your reasons for choosing it?"
Came with the box

"Are you completely satisfied with it?"
I am pleased with what I have. My satisfaction was slipping with win 98, 2000 but I feel happy with XP

"Are you a professional developer?"
A beginner.

"Do you work in IT?"
Yes

"Are you aspiring to do either?"
I am aspiring to be a better developer.


"If so, are you confident that you will never need to be comfortable with an environment other than the one in which you are currently working?"
Cant say for sure. I have put down Linux as one of the OS I'm 'familiar' with on my resume.

"Depending on how you've answered those questions Linux may or may not be right for you. If you're only an end user and are content to work with whatever came with your computer then there may not be a compelling reason for you to expand."

I don't know how to answer this. If it ain't broke don't fix it goes the saying. Just the mere act of trying Linux could wipe out my Hard drive.yes I could do back up n all but who needs the hassle specially when the benefits don't outweigh the risks/investment in time/learning curve etc. Maybe If I could hear some of your(ranchers in general) views as to why you decided
to install it and what your expectations were?

was it out of sheer curiosity or were you genuinely fed up with windows?
was it more for philosophical reasons?
Has Linux been able to replace your windows?
 
Ben Souther
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Originally posted by Chunnard Singh II:

"If so, are you confident that you will never need to be comfortable with an environment other than the one in which you are currently working?"
Cant say for sure. I have put down Linux as one of the OS I'm 'familiar' with on my resume.



Judging only from what's in this thread, this sounds a little less than honest. If you're already familiar with Linux you woundn't need to 'try it' as you would have already done so. If you're not then why are you saying you are in your resume?
 
Ben Souther
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Originally posted by Chunnard Singh II:
I don't know how to answer this. If it ain't broke don't fix it


I agree.
For many end users the pre-installed OS and software is sufficient for their needs.



Maybe If I could hear some of your(ranchers in general) views as to why you decided to install it and what your expectations were?


I originally installed it at home because I was working for a consulting firm that was increasingly taking on work in non-windows environments.
At the time, it had been a while since I had touched a Unix box and I didn't feel comfortable with my abilities in a Unix environment.
I set up my home machine as a dual boot system and vowed not to boot into Windows for one month. A year and a half later, I had to check to see if I still had the Windows partition on that machine.



was it out of sheer curiosity or were you genuinely fed up with windows?


I didn't become fed up with Windows until later when I found myself constantly helping friends and relatives with virus, worm, and spyware infested Windows boxen.

I tried to push my wife and daughter to use it but neither liked it at first so I re-installed Windows on their machines. Eventually both machines got bogged down with the aforementioned crap. I set them up with accounts on my own machine and told them to use it until I had time to work on theirs.
After about a month of using mine (the plumber's pipe always leak ) they both came to me and asked that I install Linux instead of Windows when I fixed their machines.


Has Linux been able to replace your windows?


Yep.
I have one Windows program that I have to run at work.
For that I use a Windows in a VMWare session.
I also use that for testing web stuff in MSIE.
[ November 26, 2007: Message edited by: Ben Souther ]
 
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Its good to know Linux as it is not too far from most Unix platforms, this is a useful skill as most large databases tend to be hosted upon Unix machines (and even some on Linux these days!).

And anyway it's fun :-)
 
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Obviously you are curious to try out Linux. Isn't that enough to try it out?

Originally posted by Chunnard Singh II:

I don't know how to answer this. If it ain't broke don't fix it goes the saying. Just the mere act of trying Linux could wipe out my Hard drive.yes I could do back up n all but who needs the hassle specially when the benefits don't outweigh the risks/investment in time/learning curve etc.


Note that you do not need to reformat your harddrive or wipe out your Windows XP installation if you want to try out Linux. Many distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora have a "live CD" - just boot off the CD and see what Linux looks and feels like.

You can also download a virtualization tool like VirtualBox (for Windows) and install Linux in a virtual machine. You create a virtual harddrive, which is really just a file in your Windows installation. There's no risk of wiping out your harddrive.

was it out of sheer curiosity or were you genuinely fed up with windows?
was it more for philosophical reasons?
Has Linux been able to replace your windows?


The first time I installed Linux was a long time ago, in 1994. I did it just because I was curious and because I was using Unix computers in university, and I wanted to be able to run the same programs at home.

Now I am running Ubuntu 7.10 most of the time on my computers at home. I like the open source philosophy. I like to be able to look into the source code of almost everything. If something doesn't work as it should, or even if you'd like a new feature in some software, it is almost always easy to contact the people who are writing the software or to spend some time and fix the problem myself. (Try getting a fix for a bug in a commercial piece of software on Windows...).

I also don't like the control that commercial companies like Microsoft and Apple try to place on me as a user. I don't want Microsoft or Apple to determine what I can and cannot do with my computer.

Linux has replaced Windows at home almost completely. The only thing for which I use Windows is for Adobe Photoshop CS3. Unfortunately there is no Linux version of Photoshop and there's no alternative software that's just as good as Photoshop.

At work I have to use Windows XP, because it's a company PC with a standard set of software. I can install software on my company PC, but not a whole different OS.
[ November 30, 2007: Message edited by: Jesper Young ]
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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