Which distro do you use?
What advantage do you see for using a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS rather than Mac or Windows?
Is there anything other OSs can change/add that will make you move towards non Linux OSs?
How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
1–10 of 68 posts
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#2I'm in the process of switching to elementary OS.
I don't know if there are any major advantages besides of course everything being open source. Regarding that, if you don't know how to/don't want to hack the apps you use I don't see a lot of value besides from a philosophical point of view.
There are small things that I personally like better, but it also depends a lot on the distro.
Other OSes are much easier to use in practice, since most things one wants to use are build for the Win/Mac ecosystems, and things seem to just work without much work on your part, which isn't always true with Linux.
Windows, OSX and others can do little IMHO for Linux lovers, unless they release their software open source.
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#3I use Ubuntu as my OS on all laptops that I own, but not on my desktop (which is Windows 8.1). The reasons for Ubuntu are many:
1. Smaller memory footprint (laptop memory is expensive)
2. Better package management than Windows & iOS
3. I use my laptop almost exclusively for development and I develop for *nix platforms
There is just one reason for Windows on the desktop:
1. Skyrim
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#4I do! I'm a Linux Systems Engineer by trade who writes python/golang code which is deployed on Linux servers. Perhaps I'm an odd one in that traditionally, I was a systems administrator, but I'm comfortable with the Linux desktop and will likely never turn back. Currenty, I use Fedora, but the company is standardizing on RHEL7 for desktops, and it isn't all that bad at all really. I quite like it. My home laptop and 2 desktops are also Fedora 20/21.
Granted, I'm typing this comment from the beast[1] in this picture (4x dell 30" monitors) with the NVS510 video card under the hood, but really it works amazingly well. I don't honestly see any benefit to moving towards Windows or Mac OS X. OS X has homebrew where I can get some of the much nicer GNU utilities, but the stock BSD userspace I find lacking. I use several of the gnu-ish features like sed -i, grep -r, etc, etc. Perhaps it is because I've worked on Linux for > 10 years, I just find it totally second nature. That being said, I bought my wife a MPB as it is shiney and unix under the hood.
Just use what you're comfortable with. I won't even interview at a place that won't let me run a Linux desktop (seriously).
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#5i use Fedora 20. The advantage is that the knowledge i get from using it daily is also quite helpful when dealing with Linux based infrastructure generally.
It doesn't matter whether it's for digital signage, phones, servers, desktops, or neat projects with the raspberry pi.
They don't all use the same software, same package manager, or same init system, but i can still jump in and play around pretty quickly.
I don't really think there is much that Windows or Mac OS X could do to make me change to something else.
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#6I don't see any serious advantages for using GNU/Linux over MacOSX because I live in userland and I can get all my gnu utils and open source programs through MacPorts.
Linux is a programmer's paradise and you can basically whatever you wanna do with the system. IMHO the most serious lack is a set of good looking office programs and some lack of interoperability when you needed. On the other hand you get to have much more flexibility than any other OS out there.
Windows to me seems like a mobile OS. It's so restricted and the possibilities are so limited that's scary (DOS vs Bash/Zsh/any-shell + gnutools... comparison doesn't stand, no way).
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#7I've been using Fedora exclusively for 4 or 5 years... Linux in general since 1995 (slackware on a mountain of 3.5" floppies!!!)
I love it because it allows me to get the most out of my machine. I've been using xfce and like it everywhere. Most of my work is on Linux machines of one flavor or another (mostly RHEL and a few Ubuntu) so it makes sense.
If I absolutely must do something with Windows, I have a vm that I crank up; then I can edit MS Word, PowerPoint, do my taxes, or update my GPS (Win only updater). I'm trying to convince folks at work to move to Google Docs with some success.
I won't switch to anything else any time soon; Linux does everything I need!
I may switch from Fedora... the continual update process is starting to feel like a treadmill... sometimes the version updates break a lot of things. I may switch to Debian to have a stable platform that doesn't go crazy with updates like Fedora; I've been playing with it on a vm and it seems fine.
I have a Chromebook in the kitchen for web browsing, checking email, etc. and it's surprisingly useful. I couldn't live with it day to day, but I've started to carry it while on the road more often; it's very small, light, and the battery lasts forever.
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#8a) archlinux
b) I get things done faster. Every bit of it was built according to my own personal habits and is therefore a really fluid experience as opposed to interacting with a machine on someone else's terms. Its probably pretty difficult for anyone else to use though.
c) Not really.
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#9Linux Mint.
I'm able to get far more out of my small cheap netbook using Linux than I can with Windows or a more expensive Mac. I could do most of my work on a Mac but Linux affords me a deeper level of customization and different set of tools that I need/want to have and that I have found useful. Even when things break in Linux usually it is much more of a learning experience fixing it as compared to OS X and Windows IMHO.
Linux does have the disadvantage of not running popular software that I may like to use like games, image editing software and audio DAWs. But so far I've just been focusing my time on other things so I am not as affected by it as when I had Windows/Mac and Linux boxes.
Ironically if Microsoft and Apple opened up their development toolchain to other OSs, e.g. Linux. I would be more likely to use them more. The more I use Mono in Linux the more I find myself using Windows, if Visual Studio and .NET tools where more open and usable on Linux I can see myself using Windows alot more. The same goes for xcode and OSX/iOS.
Re: How many of you use a Linux distro as your primary desktop OS?
#10I've been using Fedora exclusively for 4 or 5 years... Linux in general since 1995 (slackware on a mountain of 3.5" floppies!!!) I love it because it allows me to get the most out of my machine. I've been using xfce and like it everywhere. Most of my work is on Linux machines of one flavor or another (mostly RHEL and a few Ubuntu) so it makes sense. If I absolutely must do something with Windows, I have a vm that I c…
My first experience with Linux was the same Slackware setup (1998 though)