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A Return to Linux on the Workstation

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Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#21

Post by cobrausn »

hevical wrote: post #19
FranProgrammer wrote: post #18

I have installed Ubuntu Linux 4+ years ago, basically when its multimedia capabilities started to work in a fresh installation. I have never felt any necessity to come back to OS X/Windows since then.

Once Steam comes to Linux, I don't see many reasons why a lot of gamers won't switch over. Many of the people I who use Windows to develop in Python/Ruby/etc use either a VM or SSH into a Linux box, simply because they want to game. I think many people will not want to pay the Microsoft tax, especially for Windows 8.

Because most games on Steam will still only run on Windows. Until game developers take up the charge (which Steam on Linux might encourage), it's just a window (no pun intended) into what could be.

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#22

Post by nvmc »

hevical wrote: post #19
FranProgrammer wrote: post #18

I have installed Ubuntu Linux 4+ years ago, basically when its multimedia capabilities started to work in a fresh installation. I have never felt any necessity to come back to OS X/Windows since then.

Once Steam comes to Linux, I don't see many reasons why a lot of gamers won't switch over. Many of the people I who use Windows to develop in Python/Ruby/etc use either a VM or SSH into a Linux box, simply because they want to game. I think many people will not want to pay the Microsoft tax, especially for Windows 8.

The only games that will be on GNU/Linux, at least at first are Valve games and crappy indie flash games. While it's the first step, most developers aren't on board. Yet.

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#23

Post by throwaway64 »

nvmc wrote: post #22
hevical wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once Steam comes to Linux, I don't see many reasons why a lot of gamers won't switch over. Many of the people I who use Windows to develop in Python/Ruby/etc use either a VM or SSH into a Linux box, simply because they want to game. I think many people will not want to pay the Microsoft tax, especially for Windows 8.

The only games that will be on GNU/Linux, at least at first are Valve games and crappy indie flash games. While it's the first step, most developers aren't on board. Yet.

every humble bundle game has both been available on steam, and linux.

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#24

Post by Maakuth »

nvmc wrote: post #22
hevical wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once Steam comes to Linux, I don't see many reasons why a lot of gamers won't switch over. Many of the people I who use Windows to develop in Python/Ruby/etc use either a VM or SSH into a Linux box, simply because they want to game. I think many people will not want to pay the Microsoft tax, especially for Windows 8.

The only games that will be on GNU/Linux, at least at first are Valve games and crappy indie flash games. While it's the first step, most developers aren't on board. Yet.

Most of the Humble Indie Bundle games seem to be available on Linux and I wouldn't call them crappy nor flash. But yeah, the big titles rarely work. Valve's work on porting their Source engine to Linux will certainly help this.

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#25

Post by Danieru »

threedaymonk wrote: post #15
jnsaff2 wrote: post #2

Headline is a cheap clickbait.

You appear to assume that obtaining clicks from HN readers through subterfuge is the author's goal. I don't think that's borne out by the content of that post or of other posts. It's more likely that he's just writing for his regular audience, for whom the title expresses exactly what's happened: he's changed the operating system on "the Workstation" to Linux.

I should apologize, I submitted the article with a different headline: "Joyent sysadmin switches to linux". I contemplated using Ben's full name but I thought better of assuming everyone knew who he was. My title was an attempt to summarize the article, which I will avoid doing in the future.

For those who do not follow his blog, Ben was a major OpenSolaris proponent and even served on the council before the Oracle buy out. I never thought I'd see the day he replaced a solaris machine with linux.

Now I should also mention that Ben thought Sun got distracted by focusing on OpenSolaris as a OS for developer workstations. Thus I think it would be inaccurate to call the OpenSolaris forks dead, I'm sure he still prefers Solaris on servers.

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#26

Post by mcguire »

pjmlp wrote: post #8
gunmetal wrote: post #4

Even a Joyent tech admits Ubuntu is a more pleasant experience. Thought this was interesting, but all his points are not isolated to the desktop experience. Pretty much all the reasons he switched to linux affect the building and maintenance of servers too. I think it just boils down to community support.

I will read the article later, when I have more time, but many geeks that only know Linux and eventually BSD, have no idea how painful commercial UNIX systems can be. Several of our customers have HP-UX systems that look like plain System V systems straight out of the 70's.

Does HP-UX still want you to use the newgrp command all the time?

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#27

Post by wmf »

Danieru wrote: post #25
threedaymonk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to assume that obtaining clicks from HN readers through subterfuge is the author's goal. I don't think that's borne out by the content of that post or of other posts. It's more likely that he's just writing for his regular audience, for whom the title expresses exactly what's happened: he's changed the operating system on "the Workstation" to Linux.

I should apologize, I submitted the article with a different headline: "Joyent sysadmin switches to linux". I contemplated using Ben's full name but I thought better of assuming everyone knew who he was. My title was an attempt to summarize the article, which I will avoid doing in the future. For those who do not follow his blog, Ben was a major OpenSolaris proponent and even served on the council before the Oracle b…

I actually prefer your headline because I think it gives context to the post. Joyent has been promoting Solaris in a world where everyone else appears to be using Linux.

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#28

Post by cutie »

donniezazen wrote: post #20

After using Archlinux for a year I am back on Ubuntu 12.10. Ubuntu 12.10 is an absolute bliss. It is a complete hassle free desktop environment. If Ubuntu had support of hardware and software developers, it is definitely ready for some serious competition. On the other hand, I am not so happy with Linux kernel which is being updated every 3 months yet it performs terribly when it comes to power management. There is a…

The beta version, no?

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#29

Post by derleth »

So... what's a 'workstation' these days? Every desktop machine has the 3M: (at least) a megapixel display, (at least) a megabyte of RAM, and (at least) a 1 MIPS processor, and that's in addition to little things like graphics cards and Ethernet (and/or WiFi) hardware, both of which were defining features at one point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M_computer

Does the definition of workstation come down to what the computer's used for at this point?

Re: A Return to Linux on the Workstation

#30

Post by donniezazen »

cutie wrote: post #28
donniezazen wrote: post #20

After using Archlinux for a year I am back on Ubuntu 12.10. Ubuntu 12.10 is an absolute bliss. It is a complete hassle free desktop environment. If Ubuntu had support of hardware and software developers, it is definitely ready for some serious competition. On the other hand, I am not so happy with Linux kernel which is being updated every 3 months yet it performs terribly when it comes to power management. There is a…

The beta version, no?

Yes, I am running 12.10 Beta 1.
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