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Ubuntu and why?? (1 Viewer)

Sham

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saw other threads on ubuntu - but more on specs that the general outlier im after.......

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my sister just got incredibly excited about the ubuntu 8.10 disk arriving today..

im not sold on it - current system works fine and shes ranting how great it is - parroting three of her mates - who are wannabe little hackers, reckon windows will be gone in 10years oh, and reciting every bit of praise online - propoganda much?

...mind you she knows nothing about operating systems and thinks linux is cool because of tux. i can just see her botched install crashing all our computers and leaving me with enough reboot work to last a lifetime...



so im after convincing pretty much - why'd you change?



..and i know you can run it along side and trial it - but i really dont see the point..
 

darkwolfzx

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ubuntu is targeted toward the average user, so you do less command line work than most other linux distributions. The terminal is still the most powerful application in the linux world though, and with mastery of it you can make desktops look inefficient and slow.

However all this takes time and effort to learn how to use a whole new operating system. People emphasise heavily that linux is not windows, although one of the ways to cushion the move is to use the KDE desktop instead of Gnome.

I installed ubuntu 8.04 on my asus laptop, and although configuration was a bitch, I managed to get my resolution, sound and wireless drivers working perfectly. Now I use it as my default operating system because it is much faster to run applications and it also has lots of eye candy (search youtube for compiz fusion). Its also heaps stabler, less crashes, no more blue screens of death.

The downside is you can't run lots of stuff that was made for windows (although with some hard work you might get starcraft to run), and the lack of ease is what puts most people off in the long run.

If you prefer windows, stick with it. microsoft gets paid for a reason, to make software that people can use without becoming geeks.
 

darkwolfzx

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cutting the crap out, if you are the sort of guy who says "I just want a computer that works", use mac or windows.

Otherwise if are the sort of guy who says "i'm going to test myself and build an operating system that will give me less grief and lots of choice in the long run", use linux.
 
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Sham said:
im not sold on it - current system works fine and shes ranting how great it is - parroting three of her mates - who are wannabe little hackers, reckon windows will be gone in 10years oh, and reciting every bit of praise online - propoganda much?
10 Years? Windows will be lucky to survive 5 years.

Anyway, your argument here isn't very smart. It's like you've been living in a prison your entire life, and you see it works fine, because you simply aren't aware of the big great world outside.

Sham said:
...mind you she knows nothing about operating systems and thinks linux is cool because of tux. i can just see her botched install crashing all our computers and leaving me with enough reboot work to last a lifetime...
Still beats apple users thinking mac comps are cool because they are for artsy people and whatnot.

Ubuntu is dead easy to install, easier than any OS Microsoft has ever made - this is a certainty.

Sham said:
so im after convincing pretty much - why'd you change?



..and i know you can run it along side and trial it - but i really dont see the point..
How can you possibly see the point if you have never tried it?

Personally for me, I like Ubuntu and linux in general because:

1. I don't have to waste time and effort pirating new firewall and anti-virus software every year, and scan my comp with spybot s&d, ad-aware and all that crap. Not to mention waste precious boot time, ram, and cpu seconds running it all the time.

Quite simply put, linux is not prone to any security problems, and you dont have to waste money or time/effort and resources of security software.

Not to mention I never have to worry about running any program I get off the net.

2. It's the convenience of having an operating system which always works, is very reliable, never breaks, stuff works perfectly (others may disagree here, but in my experience it has).

3. I love the linux way of installing and updating software. It is much easier and faster than the windows way, and the user does not need to waste time and effort searching for software, getting updates every now and again, etc. This is ridiculously convenient and time saving.

4. I don't have to worry about my files being in over 9000 places, and have to de-fragment my HD all the time. Also applies to clean comp, registry, etc, etc. Linux isn't prone to all the bullshit which slows down your comp overtime like every version of windows is.

5. The open source software which is linux only or newest versions are linux only, etc simply fucking rocks, and is the best software in the world, hands down.

Not to mention a lot of stuff is made to work on unix based systems (especially linux), and then ported to windows, meaning a lot of stuff works faster on linux. This is especially true when it comes to web development, of course this is specific to me.

6. COMPIZ FUSION FOR THE MOTHERFUCKING WIN. This shit is the best thing ever invented in the history of computing, and unless you run it, you must be tasting bawls every day or something, because your life sucks, and you simply don't know it yet.

7. Frequent versions - Ubuntu has a dev cycle which means you have a new version every 6 months, and they generally have quite a lot of new features and things.

8. More productive. In general, it's more product for work and study. This is hard to explain, but will become apparent if you use it enough.



There's probably over 9000 other reasons, but these come to mind first.

/rant
 

AsyLum

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Starcraftmazter said:
Typical linux spiel about being a fatty


Can you really afford to take advice from someone that looks like that?
If you value your brain cells, put this guy on ignore.
 

chicky_pie

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calm down with the fighting peoples.

anyway

pro: doesn't take up too much memory or clog your computer like vista

con: not a lot of software could be used on ubuntu yet
 
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That depends on what kind of software you mean.

Photoshop, dreamweaver, etc? Sure...

But in general, web browsers, email clients, office suits, IRC clients, IM clients, etc - the best such programs exist for linux.

GIMP is pretty good as far as graphics goes, may not be the best, but a skilled gfx artist can accomplish anything in gimp. Development tools, there's nothing equallying the large variety of graphical and non graphical editors and IDEs for linux.

Movie editing software is a work in progress. There are at least a coupple of projects currently in development which hold high promises.
 
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Starcraftmazter said:
Quite simply put, linux is not prone to any security problems, and you dont have to waste money or time/effort and resources of security software.

Not to mention I never have to worry about running any program I get off the net.
This line of thought has never caused any problems, ever.

I didn't really want to invest the time in doing the blow by blow because I didn't want you to think you were being taken too seriously, but pretty much everything you've said is retarded. This one in particular made me laugh because once again you're advocating stupidity.

To be fair, this is not entirely your fault, because the entire concept of someone else making up a list of compelling points as to why *you* should be using something is pretty dumb in situations like this where there are individual preferences and needs which come into play.

On a related note, it also reminded me of that time I said I'd pop up every now and then to remind you that you're a dickhead, so, here it is: you're a dickhead.

To the OP: It's really up to you to try it if you're willing to go to the effort, and decide what works best for you. Nobody can tell you what the most appropriate OS for your purposes is, and anyone who tries to is a moron. If Windows works well for you and you haven't encountered anything important that you want to do but can't, the time spent trying out Ubuntu might be wasted. Conversely, you might give it a shot and discover that it changes your life and opens up amazing avenues of computer adventure which you never thought possible. It's pretty difficult for anyone to accurately predict which will be the case.
 

Enteebee

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I like to keep ubuntu for when windows fucks up... I can quickly fix a lot of things by loading into ubuntu.
 

Teclis

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If you're worried about not being able to use programs that Windows would use, you can either run a dual boot...

Or you could run a desktop Virtualisation. Check out the Latest APC for a really good guide to Virtualisation.

You may even be able to find the article on their webiste, not sure.

But this means you can test out Ubuntu, or any operating system really... without having to format or play with partitions or anything like that. Or worry about completely raping your current setup (or having to fix hers)
 

strjms72

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the question was how to convince his sister out of this. i'd say let her try ubuntu on her pc and see what it's like. there's no reson for her to force everybody in the house to install it on they're computer too
 

Dota55

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If your aim is to discourage her from using Ubuntu, then let her run the livecd.

Chances are, if she's just a normal computer user she'll simply grow bored and revert back to windows.
 

emytaylor164

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oh and the reason's it is simply cool:
1. it is fast
2. it is stable
3. it is probaly one of the easiest linux OS's to use
4. it is free, no paying for new releases, just download, or order a free CD
5. Mad graphics with compiz
6. I prefer the linux alternative programs (excluding itunes or other ipod software alternatives, although songbird is rather good it does not yet beat itunes)
7. almost everything you need comes pre-installed( minus drivers in some cases, my old computer worked perfectly with out needing to install them and in this one i needed my wireless driver)
8. it is more customisable
9.workspaces is something i love, use it all the time and always miss this feature when i am using windows
10. It is extremely secure, as in you do not need to install any internet security, and there is very few viruses
11. great user interface, i personally like this better then windows
12. it is not memory hogging, the mininimum system requirements are like 256 MB of ram and 700MhZ processor or something.

all i can recommmend to you is to pop in the live CD and try it, none of us can convince you, you should try it for yourself
 

AsyLum

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Chances are if you have a reason to use a linux distro, that you're going to be using a more hardcore version for performance/management issues. You aren't going to get street cred from the programming/linux crowd by saying you're using Ubuntu, heck, you'll get laughed at by any serious person.

Its diet *nix, with no real functional reasons for using it, its a perception thing.

Remember these things were originally made to run servers for free and more efficiently with more access and power, and that remains their primary purpose.
 

russs

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Linux is very good for some dedicated purposes e.g. web development/programming workstation, touchscreen kiosks, servers.

I use Slackware Linux for all commercial applications.

For the average user, Linux really has got little to offer yet - although I can't comment on the ease of Ubuntu use.
 

AsyLum

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*effectively*

And I don't see how that means they're dying?
 

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