Why Linux is Not for You!

[csirac_]

I use linux only, and have done so for about 12 months. I've built up my "server" (also linux) to provide services including jabber, xoops portal on apache, email, ftp, shell accounts, quake 2, and most imortantly remote X sessions with all the nice C/perl/python/mysql tools my windows-using friends who need to do their Uni assignments.

Linux takes a lot of time to get it running nicely. You have to want to make it do things for you, because it sure 'aint going to do it for you. The reward: it's user friendly for my users, because they don't have to be their own sysadmin. They say "I want to be able to do this", or "I want my account to do this" (thank goodness for usermin!) and I can show them how to do it in 30 seconds (I've done it before) or I go away and install/configure some package for them (thank goodness for apt-get and webmin

Bottom line: I don't have any windows installation on either of my two machines, because I don't play games and I find Windows to be FAR LESS "developer friendly" than Linux. And as far as user friendly goes... as long as the user doesn't have to be their own sysadmin, it's pretty much the same as windows, plus they have, in my opinion, far superior developer tools at their disposal.

My 2 cents..
- Paul

[csirac_]

Standard installer?

Dude... apt

http://www.debian.org

It is possible to break apt, but only purpose... all other times it's wonderful. Updates all your software automatically with no hassels (except this one time where a MySQL app. was updated and didn't like it's old tables any more, but it gave me plenty of warning).

And because apt gets it's software from a common archive, it's easy to search for new or alternative apps. Don't like openoffice? Do a search in dselect or gnome-apt, and you find abiword and a few others. Anjuta too bloated as an C/C++ IDE? You find (lots) of editors, but recently I found scite in this way (it's pretty cool by the way, much like anjuta but without the project managment stuff).

And most importantly, apt handles dependcies, and most apps uninstall gracefully (you can chose to leave their databases/config files, or purge them completely; and best of all, it will remove other packages no longer needed (ie. that depend on the app you uninstall)).

- Paul