Why should i get linux over windows 8

Chipping in my 2 cents, I went from Vista to Linux totally. I'm currently using Debian 7.5 but before that I was using Ubuntu. I will never go back to Windoze. I only run XP pro to sync my iPod and thats it. I installed Debian as the main OS and installed Oracle Virtual Box then installed XP as a virtual machine. There's a great reduction in virus and malware threats (but not completely). Yeah, I made the right move to switch to Linux. SO much free software that is useful and my laptop is not being run to death as Vista did.
 


I like the spirited debate here! I think there's a lot of bias here in one direction which is completely understandable (considering the URL). I started using linux in the 90's with slackware and found it to be pretty darn rough going. Paraphrasing Steve Jobs: "You don't start with the technology, you start with the user experience and work backwards" this is where Linux has failed all over the place. There are plenty of fantastic and understandable reasons why it has failed (hello free!), but the reasons don't matter, the result does to any consumer (on the Desktop at least).

If you call Windows for novice users I think you are very mistaken. On the surface it is very usable for somebody new, that doesn't necessarily make it for dummies. You may be struggling for a coherent argument if you choose to count that against an OS!

The ease of the OS is certainly a positive, and you can go just as far down the Windows "Rabbit hole" (acquiring knowledge) as you can with linux save actually modifying with kernel (which is wholly unnecessary in Windows).

If you are saying command line is great, I say "yes it is, here's powershell"
If you are saying No Gui is great, I say "yes it is, Here's windows core"
If you are saying stability is great, see the previous comment
If you are saying Security is great, Yes it is, but the smaller target can always say "Look how many less arrows I have in me!"

Don't get me wrong, I like Linux in certain use cases, but the ~haterade for Windows which is a superior OS in most cases is misplaced. Unless you have worked in a distributed enterprise windows cloud environment I hesitate to say you can really assert a valuable and objective opinion. It's hard to hate something that "just works". Windows Server 2012/R2 is an incredible operating system.

You make good points reitton. I don't think there is necessarily as much hate for Windows as there is for Microsoft as a company. Afterall, it is hard to completely screw up an OS when a company has billions of dollars to invest and a monopoly on the market. The ways Microsoft has stifled technological and creative growth in the name of profits though is ludicrous, and its the reason the company can't gain a foothold in web-based services/products. The company refuses to "play nice" with ANYBODY which is why its not even remotely POSIX compatible (Macs are). Hell look up "The Halloween Documents" for more ways Microsoft has tried to kill the free software movement and Linux in particular.

I don't have experience with powershell, but the default Win32 command line is a skeleton of a real terminal and doesn't allow for much/any flexibility. It seems powershell is a bit better at least including features modern terminals have had for years, but it is still uses the "Microsoft" mindset of following no conventions meaning most of one's knowledge can't be transferred to any other OS or terminal.

You also mention using Linux many years ago, have to tried it recently? I'd argue it is as easy as installing any Windows platform, the only issue is hardware because Linux doesn't have the clout to pay hardware manufacturers to offer firmware compatibility out of the box.

It does come down to what your profession is and what you plan to do though. Working in the database/server world I am dealing a vast majority of the time with customers running a flavor of Linux or Unix (Red Hat, SuSE, HP-UX, AIX, etc) and I rarely see Windows servers being used.

I do have to disagree with Windows 2012 being an "incredible operating system" though. I've never had as many customers with installation issues with any other OS as I have had with Win server 2008 and 2012. Right now I have a customer hitting a ZeroGu2 OS error when trying to install database software, which I found to be a Windows issue after some simple Googling. I've had numerous problems with UAC issues and trying to mount shared filesystems as well.

Windows isn't a terrible OS, but it serves a specific purpose and unfortunately if you are a computer enthusiast or a "techie" who want to diagnose a problem and wants to see log files to find where/what failed, when, and why and take steps to correct it, Windows limits the user's interaction with hardware and system files to the point that is can probably be done, but it is a hassle and often requires third-party software.

If you're looking to just appeal to the largest market demographic for PCs, then I agree with Jobs' "You don't start with the technology, you start with the user experience and work backwards", but if you want to explore the possiblities of technology or do something more with a system, Windows does everything it can to prevent that.
 
I am going into college next year to study computer science, and I want to have a good OS, my laptop already comes with windows 8, and I was wondering why I should move to linux. I do not know much about programming, so the only reason I would switch over is because of the customization possibilities. Please someone sell me into switching over. :)
1. You need to have a computer, which either uses Windows or OSX - because all the documents you need to sign and print during the initial entry and registration with people who are just administrative clerks.
If you are smart, you contact your profs or TA's what your computer requirements are in your computer science program. You will find out when you get there anyway.
2. If you have the skills to work Unix or Linux, you can get the basic stuff to work and can figure out to log on to the Uni-Server and setup VPN and printing - great! But to learn that from scratch, that will cost you time you might not have.
However, instructions and drivers are available for Windows and OSX.
3. You might end up using workstations at school or have to buy other hardware. Therefore keep your working Windows PC. Nothing speaks against tinkering, you could install Linux in addition.
Most likely you will find students which prefer one specific distribution.
No problem there.
4. In the industry out here in the US, Windows is still the backbone system, since most secretaries, accounting people and engineers have to use it to run company applications like Office, CAD, HR software and so on.
This might look different on the Server side, but most clients are Windows based. Maybe in 5 years this will change and there are odd companies out there, who use OSX and Unix. You future job might require knowledge of Windows Systems.

Therefore don't get rid of Windows to quick! Unix might be the future, but Debian, Ubuntu, Red-Hat, ... are just different distributions which still are being developed and gain or loose popularity quick.
 
1. You need to have a computer, which either uses Windows or OSX - because all the documents you need to sign and print during the initial entry and registration with people who are just administrative clerks.
If you are smart, you contact your profs or TA's what your computer requirements are in your computer science program. You will find out when you get there anyway.
2. If you have the skills to work Unix or Linux, you can get the basic stuff to work and can figure out to log on to the Uni-Server and setup VPN and printing - great! But to learn that from scratch, that will cost you time you might not have.
However, instructions and drivers are available for Windows and OSX.
3. You might end up using workstations at school or have to buy other hardware. Therefore keep your working Windows PC. Nothing speaks against tinkering, you could install Linux in addition.
Most likely you will find students which prefer one specific distribution.
No problem there.
4. In the industry out here in the US, Windows is still the backbone system, since most secretaries, accounting people and engineers have to use it to run company applications like Office, CAD, HR software and so on.
This might look different on the Server side, but most clients are Windows based. Maybe in 5 years this will change and there are odd companies out there, who use OSX and Unix. You future job might require knowledge of Windows Systems.

Therefore don't get rid of Windows to quick! Unix might be the future, but Debian, Ubuntu, Red-Hat, ... are just different distributions which still are being developed and gain or loose popularity quick.

You seriously have no idea what you are talking about. Linux can handle any document the school requires the OP to work with. LibreOffice, Kingsoft Office, even calibre office all work with Microsoft Office document formats. Kingosft Office is exceptionally great with MSs xml formats. For .pdf you can use Adobe Reader the SAME program available for Windows.

Printing on Linux is easy. Especially with HP printers. Instructions for setting up most printers on Linux is as simple as "install driver via package manager" or "download driver in .deb or .rpm format". Seriously. Besides most Universities use some form of Linux or Unix as the print server in the first place .

"Debian, Ubuntu, Red-Hat, ... are just different distributions which still are being developed and gain or loose popularity quick." WHAT? You do realize many world GOVERNMENTS are switching to these distrobutions right? Ubuntu is the third most widely used OS on the planet. There won't be any loss of support any time soon. And the development is a good thing. Windows NEEDS more development if you have not noticed. Windows 8 was released WAY to early. Same for Vista. Linux OSs are constantly in motion yes, but in a good way.

I am a CS major at SIUE. I use Linux for EVERYTHING. If I need to use Winbloze, I dual boot. But it is RARE. very, very, very rare. Most professors want your source code and not the binaries anyway. It does not matter what program you use to create the source, so the platform does not matter.
 
Even installing programs is not hard at all. If you have to compile, the readme file will tell you how to install it. And if you need to run windows programs on it, there's WINE. I'm having more fun on Linux.
 
I'm going to weigh in here. I don't have any comment on how well or not windows works in cloud environments. I will say this though. As a blind person who depends on a screen reader every day, linux far far outstrips windows. There are free screen readers available for windows now. There didn't used to be. But the vast majority of apps simply don't work with it, because the developers haven't gone out of there way to implement accessibility support. LInux has it's accessibility issues, don't get me wrong, but I can't even install windows myself without sighted help, because microsoft hasn't seen fit to make screen readers available on the install disk. There are several linux distros that have graphical installers that work with orca, and several more that I can install in text mode. That's a win win for me. Perhaps I'm bias. I don't know. I know what works for me, and I'll continue to use it.
 
I had numerous college instructors tell me that I must have Windows or some other Microsuck product get through their class. Each and every time, I proved them wrong with my Linux software. You do not need Windows for college. You only need an operating system of your choice.
 
I had numerous college instructors tell me that I must have Windows or some other Microsuck product get through their class. Each and every time, I proved them wrong with my Linux software. You do not need Windows for college. You only need an operating system of your choice.

I couldn't understand why on earth some teachers and profs are so anal about projects that are not specifically required to be done in a Windows environment but they say you must. Especially stuff that can be done in Libre or Open Office rather than Office. I guess some colleges don't understand financial constraints that students have to go through. A while back I helped a family out who was really cash poor and needed a computer so I knew someone that was getting rid of their old one and asked me if I knew who would need it, so instantly I thought of them. They didn't have a backup disk and the hard drive needed reformatting, so I installed a version of Ubuntu and got the thing back up so they had all internet programs they needed, all the Office related programs the kids needed to do their homework (I had to install the msttfcore fonts so they didn't have any issues). But the bottom line was met and they were very happy. The older kids learned how to use Linux in its entirety, and went to college to major in computer science!
 
microsuck? Now that's a good one. I'll use that every time I refer to microsoft. I just wish I could convince my fiance, who is a hard core windows user, to at least try linux. Sadly, I set it up on her computer, she tried it, dismissed it as different, and went running back to windows. And I'm getting off topic so will keep this post short.
 
microsuck? Now that's a good one. I'll use that every time I refer to microsoft. I just wish I could convince my fiance, who is a hard core windows user, to at least try linux. Sadly, I set it up on her computer, she tried it, dismissed it as different, and went running back to windows. And I'm getting off topic so will keep this post short.

You can show her the LXDE desktop which closely resembles XP. Just a thought.
 
yeah, not a bad idea. She's blind like me, so depends on good accessibility. Both the lxde, xfce, mate and gnome desktops have pretty good accessibility, although mate is slightly better. Her main hangups are a daisy book reader, daisy books are blind specific standards for text and audio books, and her mud client. There is a mud client for linux, tintin, and probably a bunch of others, but she's dead set on mush. NOrmally I'd try wine, but wine has no accessibility infrastructure, so windows programs won't talk unless they are self voicing, and mush isn't. There are daisy book readers for linux, but most of them have been abandoned and I can't build any of them. I can open them up in firefox, but you know windows users, if they can't have it their way it's not good enough, sigh.But she at the very least lets me keep linux around to degunk her windows computer, which happens with depressing regularity, sadly .
 
You make good points reitton. I don't think there is necessarily as much hate for Windows as there is for Microsoft as a company. Afterall, it is hard to completely screw up an OS when a company has billions of dollars to invest and a monopoly on the market. The ways Microsoft has stifled technological and creative growth in the name of profits though is ludicrous, and its the reason the company can't gain a foothold in web-based services/products. The company refuses to "play nice" with ANYBODY which is why its not even remotely POSIX compatible (Macs are). Hell look up "The Halloween Documents" for more ways Microsoft has tried to kill the free software movement and Linux in particular.

I don't have experience with powershell, but the default Win32 command line is a skeleton of a real terminal and doesn't allow for much/any flexibility. It seems powershell is a bit better at least including features modern terminals have had for years, but it is still uses the "Microsoft" mindset of following no conventions meaning most of one's knowledge can't be transferred to any other OS or terminal.

You also mention using Linux many years ago, have to tried it recently? I'd argue it is as easy as installing any Windows platform, the only issue is hardware because Linux doesn't have the clout to pay hardware manufacturers to offer firmware compatibility out of the box.

It does come down to what your profession is and what you plan to do though. Working in the database/server world I am dealing a vast majority of the time with customers running a flavor of Linux or Unix (Red Hat, SuSE, HP-UX, AIX, etc) and I rarely see Windows servers being used.

I do have to disagree with Windows 2012 being an "incredible operating system" though. I've never had as many customers with installation issues with any other OS as I have had with Win server 2008 and 2012. Right now I have a customer hitting a ZeroGu2 OS error when trying to install database software, which I found to be a Windows issue after some simple Googling. I've had numerous problems with UAC issues and trying to mount shared filesystems as well.

Windows isn't a terrible OS, but it serves a specific purpose and unfortunately if you are a computer enthusiast or a "techie" who want to diagnose a problem and wants to see log files to find where/what failed, when, and why and take steps to correct it, Windows limits the user's interaction with hardware and system files to the point that is can probably be done, but it is a hassle and often requires third-party software.

If you're looking to just appeal to the largest market demographic for PCs, then I agree with Jobs' "You don't start with the technology, you start with the user experience and work backwards", but if you want to explore the possiblities of technology or do something more with a system, Windows does everything it can to prevent that.

This is a very well thought out response, and I do not directly disagree with much that you said.

MS Company: Dubious ethically at best. I think there is more to the argument ~philosophically though. You have to have the fundamental opinion that Open or/and Free software is good, not that this is wrong, but coming from somebody who has already embraced it we cannot have a unbiased opinion, that is to say the judge and the advocate are the same. You can come at this from all kinds of angles, how to be successfully operate a company in a capitalist way (e.g. legal requirement to maximize profits if you are a CEO in the U.S.). One could go on forever about that kind of stuff though, ethics can be interpreted like fashion.

MS Command Prompt: Hilariously bad! Indeed. But PowerShell is them recognizing that we can't have generations of point and clickers and call them Sys. Admins. Having no crossover is a little iffy, for instance the design team did what MS tends to do, ~copy others. The designer (ref: Windows PowerShell in Action Second Edition) said flat out they took a ton of lessons learned from the unix-like operating systems. Here's an example that you may see some similarity:
lyIqnwo.jpg



Linux today: I go back around once every so often and I don't disagree with your comments about the installers either! But I would have full on nightmares about trying to manage this in a business environment without Group Policy, compatibility with most software out there, etc. Users don't know, and they don't want to know. This will surely become less of an issue though once almost all services are hosted instead of internally operated by their IT departments. Then we can talk Linux because I'll hop over the fence to you guys!

I won't pretend to know how Linux works in a business setting, but right now I can take an installer and deploy it to 1000 machines (Group Policy, System Center, one of dozens of third party utilities) in about 20 minutes and have very little if any problems, and lets say after that deployment the installer is for an online service, then I'll make sure settings do not get changed with Group Policy, then integrate the Authentication with a third party using Active Directory which gives these 1000 users accounts automatically without ever having to leave my desk. I am happy with that result!

Windows 2012: I just fixed a problem with Windows 2012 that had my iscsi connection dropping out of nowhere when backups ran, so I feel your pain on that and I cannot deny the problems fundamentally with the OS. The capabilities and speed at which you can work are really what I was pointing to in normal situations. If I had a cleanly installed OS I could make it a hyper-visor, file share, setup file replication to another share, connect to an iSCSI SAN, setup High Availability with another server with a technical face roll on my keyboard inside an ~hour.


Thanks for the response!
 
microsuck? Now that's a good one. I'll use that every time I refer to microsoft. I just wish I could convince my fiance, who is a hard core windows user, to at least try linux. Sadly, I set it up on her computer, she tried it, dismissed it as different, and went running back to windows. And I'm getting off topic so will keep this post short.

So you like that Microsoft reference. Then, I am sure you will like these -

Windows ME = Mistake Edition
Vista = Shista
Windows 8 = Windows Hate
 
This is a very well thought out response, and I do not directly disagree with much that you said.

MS Company: Dubious ethically at best. I think there is more to the argument ~philosophically though. You have to have the fundamental opinion that Open or/and Free software is good, not that this is wrong, but coming from somebody who has already embraced it we cannot have a unbiased opinion, that is to say the judge and the advocate are the same. You can come at this from all kinds of angles, how to be successfully operate a company in a capitalist way (e.g. legal requirement to maximize profits if you are a CEO in the U.S.). One could go on forever about that kind of stuff though, ethics can be interpreted like fashion.

MS Command Prompt: Hilariously bad! Indeed. But PowerShell is them recognizing that we can't have generations of point and clickers and call them Sys. Admins. Having no crossover is a little iffy, for instance the design team did what MS tends to do, ~copy others. The designer (ref: Windows PowerShell in Action Second Edition) said flat out they took a ton of lessons learned from the unix-like operating systems. Here's an example that you may see some similarity:
lyIqnwo.jpg



Linux today: I go back around once every so often and I don't disagree with your comments about the installers either! But I would have full on nightmares about trying to manage this in a business environment without Group Policy, compatibility with most software out there, etc. Users don't know, and they don't want to know. This will surely become less of an issue though once almost all services are hosted instead of internally operated by their IT departments. Then we can talk Linux because I'll hop over the fence to you guys!

I won't pretend to know how Linux works in a business setting, but right now I can take an installer and deploy it to 1000 machines (Group Policy, System Center, one of dozens of third party utilities) in about 20 minutes and have very little if any problems, and lets say after that deployment the installer is for an online service, then I'll make sure settings do not get changed with Group Policy, then integrate the Authentication with a third party using Active Directory which gives these 1000 users accounts automatically without ever having to leave my desk. I am happy with that result!

Windows 2012: I just fixed a problem with Windows 2012 that had my iscsi connection dropping out of nowhere when backups ran, so I feel your pain on that and I cannot deny the problems fundamentally with the OS. The capabilities and speed at which you can work are really what I was pointing to in normal situations. If I had a cleanly installed OS I could make it a hyper-visor, file share, setup file replication to another share, connect to an iSCSI SAN, setup High Availability with another server with a technical face roll on my keyboard inside an ~hour.


Thanks for the response!
From a server standpoint, setting up thousands of servers at the same time is trivial. Especially Ubuntu server. MAAS.
But I do agree it can be difficult to manage that same amount of desktopts. Again though the management software available make it a mute point. Valid points though. :)

Besides rumor has it MS Office will be ported to Linux. Perhaps other management software will be available?
 
Agree with you all, but, what if he wants to be windows developer? then he must stick to windows platform. Of course, for starting lessons, you will probably find linux much more easier to set up for developing, and to run programs, you have answers above to that problematic :) Congratulation on enrolling CS, now we are colleagues :)
 
This thread has provided some very interesting reading. I see no reason the original poster, Matthew cannot keep his bought and paid for Windows 8 and still use linux, either as a dual boot setup or by installing a linux OS on a USB flash drive.

Personally, I use Debian almost exclusively, but still use Windows now and then.

Thanks to MikeyD for the links to Unix/linux learning sources, and for the mention of "The Halloween Documents".

tex
 
This thread has provided some very interesting reading. I see no reason the original poster, Matthew cannot keep his bought and paid for Windows 8 and still use linux, either as a dual boot setup or by installing a linux OS on a USB flash drive.

Personally, I use Debian almost exclusively, but still use Windows now and then.

Thanks to MikeyD for the links to Unix/linux learning sources, and for the mention of "The Halloween Documents".

tex

I'm in the same boat as well Texbrew. I'm now dual booting W7 and Mint and I am totally satisfied now.
 
Linux has its place, but as a desktop o, well, no. Its really just for servers, and even there it is losing marketshare to Windows.

Hey! do you know what android is?? for your kind info linux runs variety of devices like embedded system, supercomputers, internet routers, servers, etc etc etc, ! If we sum up the total , Windows just runs less than 20% of the devices.... i.e desktop space ! on embedded systems, Windows RT,/Windows phone is far behind superior Android!
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I am also a computer science engineering student. And i am successful in migrating my college computers from Windows XP to Ubuntu ..
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I have been using Ubuntu then later switched to Linux Mint while persuing a degree in Computer Science. I was using LibreOffice but i found myself wanting Microsoft Office, so I installed the 2010 version inside of wine. It was mentioned a few times that some teachers might have you run software that is specific to Windows and Mac and that was the case for me. However I just played with the wine configuration and got both Winplot (for calculus) and Digital Works (for Engineering) working.
For the past years of me working with Linux and also programming in it, I have found no problems setting up printers, connecting to printers on campus, finding a decent video game to play (ya that means something to me). For (dot) NET development, I use MonoDevelop. Java - NetBeans. I haven't done much C++ programming yet since I like my programs platform independent and havent found a need to use platform dependent libraries.
 

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