# Linux and other Operating Systems



## lightwing (Feb 17, 2013)

If you've used Linux, what is your favorite?

Currently I'm running Linux Mint 15. I find it's a nice balance of features and polish for me. I've tried out a lot of different ones since I'd like to switch to it permanently, but I keep getting pulled back to Windows for games I like to play.

If you're not into Linux, what other OSes do you like?


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

Linux is lame; GNU/Hurd is the future, man


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## wellnowwhat (May 24, 2013)

I tend to roll Ubuntu for desktops, CentOS for servers, and Slackware just to mess around. Mint is a great choice for Linux newbies.


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## lightwing (Feb 17, 2013)

wellnowwhat said:


> I tend to roll Ubuntu for desktops, CentOS for servers, and Slackware just to mess around. Mint is a great choice for Linux newbies.


Haha, I wouldn't exactly say Mint is good for newbies. Well, maybe it is if it works on the hardware it's installed. My experience with 14 was flaky, or maybe it was a bug in grub 2 but every now and again I'd start experiencing kernel panics for no apparent reason. I'd have to boot to a live cd, chroot, and remove the grubconf file because it kept getting screwed up. So far, 15 seems more stable. Personally, I'd say Ubuntu for newbies, but yeah mint seems great too when it works.

I used to use Vector Linux and vlocity linux which is based off slackware and really liked that too.

@*aestrivex*
First I'm hearing about it. Briefly looking it up says Debian uses it. Isn't Ubuntu based off Debian? Does that mean Ubuntu is GNU/Hurd?


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

lightwing said:


> First I'm hearing about it. Briefly looking it up says Debian uses it. Isn't Ubuntu based off Debian? Does that mean Ubuntu is GNU/Hurd?


uh no. lol.


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

but i would be very, very entertained if canonical rolled out a Hurd release.

"We have decided that, because of fundamental limitations in modern two-ring hardware, we are going to pursue our own fork of GNU/Hurd called XXXX. We expect to have a working version by 14.04, we hope users will stick with us past the initial hurdles."

"Also, we will pay special attention to supporting hardware with builtin advertising; there will be a userland advertisement driver that you won't be able to turn off without crashing every other part of the system. But that's okay, it won't get in your way very much."


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## lightwing (Feb 17, 2013)

aestrivex said:


> uh no. lol.


Sold! Where do I sign up? :dry:


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## Uralian Hamster (May 13, 2011)

I've used ubuntu and found it very easy to use. I used the KDE desktop...because I'm dependent on windows.


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## Staysys (May 23, 2013)

Gentoo user here.
After experimenting with other distros (I started on Ubuntu) I came to the conclusion that the biggest difference between distros was the package management systems. So I just looked up all the different ones and I fell in love with portage.

I've been using it exclusively for a little over a year now, Valve bringing steam to Linux really helped me ditch windows altogether.


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

I used Linux for years until Windows 8 came out. I mostly used Ubuntu, up around until 11.10. After that everything was utter shit. I also tried Many Ubuntu based distros, and Debian, Arch, Gentoo, puppy, DSL, Fedora, OpenSUSE, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, OpenDarwin (although darwin isn't really linux)....


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## Staysys (May 23, 2013)

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> I used Linux for years until Windows 8 came out.


Well that's something I never thought I would hear.

I would imagine going from Linux to windows 8 (not just windows... but windows 8?!) is like going from Iron man's suit to a body cast.

Not to be rude or anything but, why? and how? "how" meaning how did you survive?


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

Staysys said:


> I came to the conclusion that the biggest difference between distros was the package management systems.


I agree, I have always found apt really nice to use. I am unhappy with a huge number of things about ubuntu, a small number of things about debian stable, and am experimenting with mint debian edition.


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## wellnowwhat (May 24, 2013)

aestrivex said:


> I agree, I have always found apt really nice to use. I am unhappy with a huge number of things about ubuntu, a small number of things about debian stable, and am experimenting with mint debian edition.


The biggest thing that bums me out about CentOS is its lack of apt. I love that package manager so much I could marry it. CentOS has Yum, but it's just not the same.


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

Staysys said:


> Well that's something I never thought I would hear.
> 
> I would imagine going from Linux to windows 8 (not just windows... but windows 8?!) is like going from Iron man's suit to a body cast.
> 
> Not to be rude or anything but, why? and how? "how" meaning how did you survive?


Maybe before most distros turned shitty it would have been that way. Windows 8 just works. Not once has it crashed since I have it, it's security is comparable to many linux distros (especially if you make it ask for a password to install stuff or make any system changes), and I have had zero issues with it. No driver issues, no unrecognized devices, no hassle trying to make programs work with WINE... It just works.

How did I survive...? Any specific OS is not necessary for survival.


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## Staysys (May 23, 2013)

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> Maybe before most distros turned shitty it would have been that way. Windows 8 just works. Not once has it crashed since I have it, it's security is comparable to many linux distros (especially if you make it ask for a password to install stuff or make any system changes), and I have had zero issues with it. No driver issues, no unrecognized devices, no hassle trying to make programs work with WINE... It just works.
> 
> How did I survive...? Any specific OS is not necessary for survival.


Mostly I was talking about the environment though. Isn't it just so stiff?

I mean, on my Linux box if I decided that I wanted to be able to push a single button to bring up firefox, a music player, and 5 terminal windows and resize them all so that they fit visibly on my desktop then I can do that quite easily.
On top of that I can switch back and forth to this desktop and several others to make multi tasking a breeze..

Windows 8 seems like using a phone. I would imagine you're supposed to just use the mouse for everything.
How easy is it to get, let's say, 5+ different windows on the screen all arranged to take up as much space as possible without overlapping?
How quickly can you pull up files while in the middle of doing other things?

Because on Linux I can do all these things in seconds (or fractions thereof) and that's not because Linux is fundamentally better at them, it's because Linux allows me to write scripts / customize every single little thing about my system so that it behaves exactly how I want it to. Not how someone in an office decided would be best for me.. Not just me but also people who don't know the first thing about computers, so naturally it is very limited (intuitive).

That's what I meant by going from an Iron man suit to a body cast. Even though more programs might work on windows it's just so limited as to what you can do.
Windows feels like you are telling the OS what to do and it does it for you. Linux feels like the OS gets out of your way and let's *you* do the things you want to do.

Anyways, not trying to start an argument or anything. I hope I don't come across as offensive. It's just really hard to explain how Linux viewers see windows without sounding like that.
But I do respect your choice and I know windows has some really good things to offer too. But the UI is just horrendous IMO.
Even Microsoft decided it was bad and wants to go back to their older style of desktop with a start button. I think they are going to release it as Windows 8.1


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

Staysys said:


> Mostly I was talking about the environment though. Isn't it just so stiff?
> 
> I mean, on my Linux box if I decided that I wanted to be able to push a single button to bring up firefox, a music player, and 5 terminal windows and resize them all so that they fit visibly on my desktop then I can do that quite easily.
> On top of that I can switch back and forth to this desktop and several others to make multi tasking a breeze..


I could do that all on WIn8 with a few programs if I wanted to. I never used those features in Linux anyway.



> Windows 8 seems like using a phone. I would imagine you're supposed to just use the mouse for everything.
> How easy is it to get, let's say, 5+ different windows on the screen all arranged to take up as much space as possible without overlapping?
> How quickly can you pull up files while in the middle of doing other things?


You seem to never have used windows 8, because if you did you would know that the only "phone" like thing is the start menu, which I never use. The desktop is still the same.


> Because on Linux I can do all these things in seconds (or fractions thereof) and that's not because Linux is fundamentally better at them, it's because Linux allows me to write scripts / customize every single little thing about my system so that it behaves exactly how I want it to. Not how someone in an office decided would be best for me.. Not just me but also people who don't know the first thing about computers, so naturally it is very limited (intuitive).


Good, but I have no need for scripts. I just need an OS that isn't going to get cranky every time I upgrade something or simply for no reason at all. 


> That's what I meant by going from an Iron man suit to a body cast. Even though more programs might work on windows it's just so limited as to what you can do.
> Windows feels like you are telling the OS what to do and it does it for you. Linux feels like the OS gets out of your way and let's *you* do the things you want to do.


Except an OS should just work without me telling it what it needs to do. I would say it's more similar to ditching the suit and still having all the powers. It does everything I need it to do, it's safe, stable, and it just works. 



> Anyways, not trying to start an argument or anything. I hope I don't come across as offensive. It's just really hard to explain how Linux viewers see windows without sounding like that.
> But I do respect your choice and I know windows has some really good things to offer too. But the UI is just horrendous IMO.
> Even Microsoft decided it was bad and wants to go back to their older style of desktop with a start button. I think they are going to release it as Windows 8.1



The UI is not what I care about. The UI is NOT the OS. I care about what the OS can do for me, and Linux used to work, but recently it's just been crappy. Too much hassle just so I can start doing what I need to do, when I can simply install Windows and be working in 10 minutes.


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## TranceMan (Aug 26, 2012)

I first started using Ubuntu on the 7.04 release. Over the years until 10.04, I started to lose faith in Canonical. I've switched back and forth from various distros, ranging from Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Debian, and a couple of other ones that just completely died out.

OpenSUSE is where my heart is at. Their new YaST control center and Zypper makes my life 10 times easier than APT ever did. It's what Aptitude on Ubuntu should have been before they dumped it. Pacman on Arch Linux was okay, but knowing me, I break package managers more than I break money into smaller bills (I really need to stop hitting CTRL-C in terminal).


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

I use Fedora 18 at work. I'm pretty pleased with it. I was thinking of trying SUSE because I hear the KDE implementation is excellent. It's weird, because I used to hate KDE, but 4.10 seems like it resolved a lot of the lag issues. 

F18 had some negative reviews but I don't see why. The installer was a bit weird but it wasn't the trainwreck that some reviews made it out to be. Fedora comes with SELinux by default (although it's very unintuitive to create policies.) I don't think that's standard in Ubuntu & derivatives.

Anyway, when I was using Debian it was a little annoying to install a deb locally and resolve dependencies at the same time. Yum does it very easily (yum localinstall something.rpm).


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

timeless said:


> Anyway, when I was using Debian it was a little annoying to install a deb locally and resolve dependencies at the same time. Yum does it very easily (yum localinstall something.rpm).


it's not "sudo apt-get" simple (and perhaps it is in rpmworld, i wouldnt know) but doing this with dpkg is not that bad.


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> The UI is not what I care about. The UI is NOT the OS. I care about what the OS can do for me, and Linux used to work, but recently it's just been crappy. Too much hassle just so I can start doing what I need to do, when I can simply install Windows and be working in 10 minutes.


That linux used to work but now doesn't is very odd to hear. What flavors of linux generate a hassle and what is it that you expect the OS to do that it is not doing?


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> Not once has it crashed since I have it, it's security is comparable to many linux distros.


This is essentially not true for a variety of reasons. Most practically, tons of people write viruses and malware targeting windows systems and very few people do this for linux systems (which isn't to say that people don't; because people do).

More idealistically, linux systems give you much finer control over the privileges and permissions of the system. This makes its security better by default. In some ways windows systems replicate aspects of these features -- but they are far clunkier to actually use.


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## spada (Jan 11, 2013)

i'm using lubuntu in my netbook and it just works out of the box, it's light and has everything i need, i used to try lxde fedora spin and it was fine too but i had to install some non free drivers and soft, i will try it again when the next release will go out in july.


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

aestrivex said:


> That linux used to work but now doesn't is very odd to hear. What flavors of linux generate a hassle and what is it that you expect the OS to do that it is not doing?


Mainly Ubuntu and its derivatives, and Fedora. Debian was fine, except when I tried installing something proprietary. Anyway, I just don't want my computer displaying random artifacts every now and then (Windows has NEVER done this) and I don't want my startup to look like my computer is about to die (glitchy, static-y startups). At first I thought it was my GPU, but it happens across multiples computers with different GPU's.

Then I had issues with stability. Programs would crash for no apparent reason, especially browsers and music players. IE on WIndows 8 has crashed on me, but never Chrome (although Chromes new flash SUCKS!) 

Finally, I had the issue of having to google some code pretty much every day because I could not figure out how to do this or that. On WIndows I don't need any codes or tutorials because most things you need are right there, and the ones that are hidden are easily accessible through the RUN prompt.



aestrivex said:


> This is essentially not true for a variety of reasons. Most practically, tons of people write viruses and malware targeting windows systems and very few people do this for linux systems (which isn't to say that people don't; because people do).
> 
> More idealistically, linux systems give you much finer control over the privileges and permissions of the system. This makes its security better by default. In some ways windows systems replicate aspects of these features -- but they are far clunkier to actually use.


I shall rephrase. It's security is comparable to that of Linux if you know how the internet works. And how to do a few tweaks on the OS... Which, I admit, are hidden for some reason.


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## jdstankosky (May 1, 2013)

I liked Windows 8 Pro while I had it on my laptop. I like Windows 7 too.

My desktop runs Windows 7. My wife and 5 year old use this box more than I do. I use it for various server purposes since it's exposed to the intarwebs by DNS services and such. I'd switch it to Linux too if it weren't for League of Legends... Damn that game...

My powerhouse of a laptop (which I use for pretty much EVERYTHING under the sun) runs Kali flavored Debian. I tried the recent Debian version of Mint first (with the Kali repos), but hated it.

My little netbook runs the lightweight desktop environment of Mint 13 or 14 or something, but I'm thinking switching up distros on it. I get the feeling there are faster distros available (any suggestions? 2gb ram, ho-hum Atom processor, nvidia ION2 graphics). Have been putting Mint on this little guy since version 11. I think he deserves a break.

My phone runs an Android flavor of Linux, lolz. I want to toss a Debian install on it though... chroot anyone?


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## FlightsOfFancy (Dec 30, 2012)

I have to admit: I never gave Win8 a serious chance. I just didn't like the way it worked. Perhaps if I owned a tablet, I would care for it more. My brief experience with it lead me to prefer Ubuntu, which I am currently using.

For me, I enjoy the fact that I can bounce between oblivious user and power user. With Windows, I feel as though much of what occurs is unbeknownst to me. Also, virus scanners are reactive and not proactive. I can very well have a virus/keylogger/etc for months before its signature is discovered.

This can happen on linux as well, but with a large portion being mandated to be open-source, I don't have to worry AS much. Furthermore, I use a cheap laptop and have found it to be much better with resources.


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

aestrivex said:


> it's not "sudo apt-get" simple (and perhaps it is in rpmworld, i wouldnt know) but doing this with dpkg is not that bad.


If I recall correctly it was something like dpkg -i, then apt-get -f install.


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## MegaTuxRacer (Sep 7, 2011)

Typically if I use Linux, it's to run a server or something like that or just to mess around in a terminal. In college, I would just log into the cs department server.

I use OS X 10.8, so I can do everything i would use bash for already. I don't really have a need to install Linux anymore.


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## aestrivex (Mar 7, 2011)

MegaTuxRacer said:


> Typically if I use Linux, it's to run a server or something like that or just to mess around in a terminal. In college, I would just log into the cs department server.
> 
> I use OS X 10.8, so I can do everything i would use bash for already. I don't really have a need to install Linux anymore.


It isn't the first time I've asked -- but what on earth do you have the alias MegaTuxRacer for if you don't use linux.


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## Chaerephon (Apr 28, 2013)

I used to use Ubuntu and loved it. I basically have to use Windows for school so that is the only thing on my laptop.


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## Quinlan (Apr 18, 2011)

Running Ubuntu for both desktops and servers. I wasn't a big fan of Ubuntu pushing the Unity interface. I'm used to it now.


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## Johnston (Dec 16, 2012)

I'm fairly certain most of you guys have already heard about this project, it's something worth linking to:

Linux From Scratch


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## HypoTempes (Nov 25, 2013)

Windows 8.1 (work makes communicating much easier when using office everyone ((still) works with .docs ) 
Windows 7 (work, for stuff, that doesn't have full/stable 8/8.1 support) 

Mac OS X (work , Dev. machine for IoS apps) 

Solaris LOL's and used to be Sun fanboy, not realy Oracle lover <--- understatement.


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## sehvral (Apr 19, 2013)

I was a longtime Gentoo guy, starting in 2003. Had to finally abandon ship a couple years ago after the project nosedived. I still miss it. Right now I'm a plain old Debian guy.

I actually like FreeBSD, but I have always had issues getting the damn thing working right. There's always an important package that just won't build or a piece of hardware that doesn't work right. BSD now == circa-2000 Linux, sadly.


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## Playful Proxy (Feb 6, 2012)

Ehh, I'm enjoying Ubuntu at the moment. This is coming from someone who's done ArchLinux, Crunchbang, Debian, Fedora, and Mint. I've found just plain ole Ubuntu with gnome-shell has the best hardware compatibility and doesn't give me much crap. It's also perfect for how I do things.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

I guess first off, Linux has never appealed to me in the past because it always seemed like it was an agglomeration of quick fix hacks that you had to do to make things work and a bunch of config files to edit whereas Windows allowed me to install everything pretty effortlessly and flawlessly. I did take a course in college based on the Linux+ curriculum for my degree and I'd say if I'd prefer a distro, I'd take CentOS. I do some basic Linux server administration with my job but it's a very heavy Windows Sever environment here. I think Linux is becoming a little more straightforward like Windows and eventually due to cost pressures it might really take off in an enterprise environment.


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## LibertyPrime (Dec 17, 2010)

I'm using Linux mint 16 Cinamon dual booted with windows 7.

Most of my linux usage revolves around photography, learning linux and multimedia. I use GIMP and DARKTABLE a lot. I also use debian, puppy linux and ubuntu on live USBs for various rescue operations, data recovery. Puppy Linux is perfect for this actually, just slap in the USB, reboot and I can back up an entire HDD before attempting to recover / repair or anything else.

The only thing I use Windows 7 is for gaming and so I don't forget what I learned about the OS (practice). I also have another machine with win XP for this specific reason, thou it has become obsolete starting 2014.

:\ I'm not a fan of windows 8, but its great for anything touch, its nice and stable, uses less resources. Strip the GUI and its the best windows to date imo as far as performance goes. Despite this as a gamer I dislike the fact that MS is pushing gamig to the X-box which is a disaster imo and Direct -x is old, outdated and in the way of game performance.

Here is where we get Steam OS (linux based), which will replace windows 7 as my gaming OS.

2014 will be the year I completely migrate to Linux imo :\.

-.- I just dread the day I'll have to migrate all the office workers from windows 7 to windows 8. *Some people still have no idea how to use E-Mail....wtf!?* How they will cope with Win-8? I can't even imagine.


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## Dragheart Luard (May 13, 2013)

I've used Ubuntu, Fedora and I've tested OpenSUSE and Linux Mint. Sadly I haven't installed any Linux distro on my new notebook, as I've read that it has issues with the hardware and the FastBoot option seems to cause also other problems, so I'm waiting until it's safer to install any distro.

Ubuntu was good until that trainwreck of Unity appeared, really it was difficult to use and wasted resources as well. With OpenSUSE I could barely work because there were problems with the graphic card driver, and the sound drivers failed as well. I've also barely used Mint, and with Fedora I have mixed impressions, as F17 was a rather good version and stable for that distro's standard, but I couldn't update to F18 thanks to the weird Anaconda installer. Besides I had troubles with earlier versions, which also had many problems with the Nvidia drivers.

About all desktop environments, I liked KDE. Gnome 3 was useless for me and a mess for finding programs and archives. I would like to use only Linux, but I'm tied to Windows because no ones uses LibreOffice at my university. I really don't play games on my computer, so that wouldn't be an issue.


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## geekofalltrades (Feb 8, 2012)

I used to dual boot my machine into Windows 7 and Fedora, but then Fedora just up and stopped working for whatever reason, and I realized I wasn't using it hardly at all, so I just destroyed its partition rather than fiddle with it.

Gentoo looks pretty inviting, but I'm a gamer, so I won't be moving away from Windows any time soon.


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## Vic (Dec 4, 2010)

Mac Mini with Win 7 and OSX 10.7.5.

A laptop with Ubuntu 13.10.

Ubuntu's a hassle at first on account of the amount of work to do in terminal, but I got used to it. I've come to like it.


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## Hypaspist (Feb 11, 2012)

I really enjoyed OS X when I got to use it for my graphics work a few years back, but have Windows 7 on my personal laptop due to games. I tried Kubuntu on a previous laptop, but the network card on the laptop was the only known network card that would not work with Kubuntu no matter what. Real FML moment there, but I wouldn't mind Ubuntu on my current system once I build my desktop.


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## TranceMan (Aug 26, 2012)

Naukowiec said:


> I really enjoyed OS X when I got to use it for my graphics work a few years back, but have Windows 7 on my personal laptop due to games. I tried Kubuntu on a previous laptop, but the network card on the laptop was the only known network card that would not work with Kubuntu no matter what. Real FML moment there, but I wouldn't mind Ubuntu on my current system once I build my desktop.


Definitely do some research when it comes to network drivers. I just recently found out that Linksys doesn't release source code for their drivers, so I was kind of disappointed when I ended up installing OpenSUSE on my desktop and it wasn't receiving any kind of connection.


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

Johnston said:


> I'm fairly certain most of you guys have already heard about this project, it's something worth linking to:
> 
> Linux From Scratch


Dude that is a lot of work. xD

I use windows 7 for now.
Have used ubuntu for a very long time, but switched earlier this year.
There are pros and cons obviously.
But I kinda like windows 7.


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## Hypaspist (Feb 11, 2012)

TranceMan said:


> Definitely do some research when it comes to network drivers. I just recently found out that Linksys doesn't release source code for their drivers, so I was kind of disappointed when I ended up installing OpenSUSE on my desktop and it wasn't receiving any kind of connection.


Couldn't do much about the network card, it was a box store laptop. Linksys used to be the standard on my first few PCs. If you needed anything network related, you went Linksys. Good thing there are so many options these days. There's always a way out with desktops.


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## Lucensis (Nov 21, 2013)

Linux is great and easy to set up for programming / software development, work and general use. I'm currently running Linux Mint 15 on my box.


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## peabrane (Nov 1, 2009)

Switched from Vista to Mint 16 a few days ago. No issues so far - seems at least as user friendly as Windows, and I can use my scanner again.


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## Dope Amine (Feb 16, 2012)

PowerShell said:


> I guess first off, Linux has never appealed to me in the past because it always seemed like it was an agglomeration of quick fix hacks that you had to do to make things work and a bunch of config files to edit whereas Windows allowed me to install everything pretty effortlessly and flawlessly.


I have the exact opposite experience xD


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## Chaerephon (Apr 28, 2013)

Currently I have ubuntu that boots from an external hard drive. I have been learning several computer languages recently, and I used to have linux on my old laptop. I need windows for FL Studio, but I like learning Linux language for several reasons.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

Dope Amine said:


> I have the exact opposite experience xD


I've never had to edit multiple config files (or even one) to get something working in Windows. The MSI installers pretty much take care of everything. Maybe when it comes to really deep stuff like coding, Linux might be better but from a general daily use perspective, Windows seems to work for the most part (As does OSX).


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## synod (Jun 13, 2013)

The most obvious advantage of using Linux is the fact that it is free to obtain, while Microsoft products are available for a hefty and sometimes recurring fee.


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## PowerShell (Feb 3, 2013)

synod said:


> The most obvious advantage of using Linux is the fact that it is free to obtain, while Microsoft products are available for a hefty and sometimes recurring fee.


Except if you buy pretty much any laptop or desktop from the store, Windows automatically comes preloaded.


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## Avidya (Oct 12, 2013)

Linux is quite fun, I'm exploring and experimenting currently. Lately I've tried to install Ubuntu but md5 sums have been a bitch for me.


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