Why do you guys like linux so much?

why do you guys like linux so much?

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it's pretty nice tbbh

Easiest way for me to make the most out of old hardware. Plus it handles some stuff really nicely right out of the box, like window/desktop management and font rendering.

They're poor.

It helps me feel superior to all the other cretins who run other OS's. Even my CS professor is a dumb mactard. I ask him everyday "Why do you run a mac, mactard? too stupid for Linux." haha.

fuckin' mactards.

it respects my privacy. There's no telemetry or ad servers or anything.
I can customize it. Several major DEs to choose from, all of which can be skinned and changed to varying extents. I don't have to run one at all if I don't want to. Or I can do the desktop-thread thing and build my own from a bare window manager.
Free as in beer. Don't even have to go through that bullshit with Daz Loader or KMSPico and shit.
Much lower threat of malware.
Installing software and updating the system is easy and painless, unlike Windows.

>linux
I don't.

I use FreeBSD

You know what I know that this is bait, but I honestly do get the vibe from all the Linux users here that they are secretly thinking the things in this post.

I tried out Debian a bit ago and didn't really like it at all, it was my first experience with Linux and I just felt like I was losing alot of things if I were to switch over to it. I also broke my package manager after trying to install and use Foobar.

I mean I don't think it's BAD, I just don't think it's for me. But I just hate the general attitude everyone has towards anyone who doesn't use Linux here.

I'd rather just stick to Windows anyways because I'm more comfortable with it.

I DO think I could see myself using Arch Linux or something in the future if more options become available to it in terms of proprietary software ports and reverse engineering tools though.

Right now I'm just not in a position for it.

>Installing software and updating the system is easy and painless, unlike Windows.
See it might have been I was a newfag to Linux, but I had serious problems trying to download and install anything.

>Ok so I'll just do apt-get install x...
>Oh fuck it broke something. Let me go fix that.
>Ok it's fixed, but the software is saying I'm missing this library... Well, let me grab the library.
>Wait in order to get this library, I need to have this library too.
>Oh but to get this library, I have to have it replace this thing over here, and that will break this...
>Jesus Christ it's already 4 in the morning? I haven't even set anything up for real yet.


I don't know if the problem was me, or Linux, or what. I just didn't have a great time with it.

To be fair it does sound like you just had an unusually difficult run with it. I'm not either of the Anons to whom you replied, but I'm a Debian fan myself and I've always found the package manager thing quite straightforward because I use a graphical pacman like Synaptic. It handles dependencies and everything by itself along with updates and what not.

I'm not able or willing to handle the direct approach so I avail myself to the babby tools.

I'm not sure what you were installing, but the only way I ever saw Debian break like that was when I tried to run stable and then update things selectively with backports. I think you can get those kinds of problems if you mix repos that shouldn't go together, also. Stable is really born and bred to be a "this is what it is, we don't change anything, barring security patches, until the next release" thing. If I need anything more recent than whats in stable, I switch it to testing.

If you want a more out-of-the-box thing you'll probably like one of the *buntus better

Linux is amazing.

I also tried to install Steam and use it as well, and it just flat out broke and wouldn't let me use it. It screamed at me for missing lib32.so.1.

The only solution I could find that people said worked was just installing the 32 bit version of my driver, but like... That would have replaced my 64 bit one, and for some reason, dpkg wasn't letting me have the 64 bit and 32 bit versions both at the same time.

Near the end, after about 2 hours of trying in vain and failing, I just caved and went "fuck this I don't care anymore" and replaced the drivers, and it killed everything and at that point I just gave up entirely on Debian and went back to Windows. It just wasn't worth it for me.

I found that on Arch Linux, there was an option to install the library itself that was missing without having to do all that bullshit I did, but I couldn't find a way to get it to work for Debian.

I don't know.

I think that my negative experience with Debian has completely ruined any positive feelings I can have about switching over to Linux in the near future. I'd just like to stick with simple, easy to use Windows. Windows might have its flaws but atleast I don't have to go through Hell trying to install something for it.

Also again, nothing against people who use Linux. Obviously you're not retarded at it like me.

personally i like gnu because freedom
the customisation and all
also it's better for old hardware

i still use windows most of the time but that's because i'm a lazy fuck more than anything

I don't. OS X on my daily's and FreeBSD/Solaris on server roles. But I think I'm about to shitcan Solaris. RIP Sun.

I just installed steam on Debian today, actually. Enable the contrib and non-free repos, dpkg --add-architecture i386, apt update, apt install steam. It Just Werked(tm)

apt-get install libgl1-nvidia-glx-i386

It's not Windows and it's not written by a rapidly deteriorating jewelry company.

>i tried to run a 32bit-only program on a pure 64bit system and it didn't work
well ok

personally I like the privacy

God man like, when I think of trying to install and use Debian and going through the long install process and the fucking shit I had to go through to make my drivers work and all that jazz, I just feel fucking drained right off the bat. I don't wanna try again.

Right now I'm on Windows 10 and already have all my dev tools back and set up anyways, so I'm probably not going to switch now. Maybe in a few years I'll give it another go though.

I tried that!
It said I was missing a dependency, and when I tried installing the dependency, THAT was missing a dependency, and then that one wanted me to replace 8 things, which I wasn't comfortable with. I of course tried it eventually and it killed Network Manager and then Steam wouldn't give me any error at all, just didn't launch, so I undid it.

>Try to enable 32 bit architecture with dpkg
>It works
>Try to install Steam and use 32 bit libraries
>Doesn't work, don't know why
>..Well fuck
Frustrating as hell.

I don't know how you guys do the wizardry you do with Linux stuff. It's just mind blowing.

>I don't know how you guys do the wizardry you do with Linux stuff. It's just mind blowing.

One guy does it and posts it on the internet. Then people with broken installs google and find his blog. Voila. Linux support. It works if your time is worthless.

It's light if I want it to be, and I do, and after setup it never crashes or slows down because my installation "old".
It's keyboard driven if I want it to be, and I do.
Every problem I have has a fix, and I know where to look for the fix (now).
It doesn't have an incentive to spy on me. this is pretty important.

really as soon as you did apt install application (from a freshly updated/upgraded system) and it doesn't run complaining of a dependency problem, you need to stop and retrace your steps, cause there was probably a bit that you missed (e.g., needing to add the i386 stuff and apt update again for steam)

manually installing dependencies that a program is complaining about seldom leads anywhere good

Because it's a kernel that works nicely. I would prefer a Microkernel but sadly linux is the best option at the moment.

Well shit.
Well now that I've calmed down and manned up and admitted I made shit mistakes and stupid decisions and have received some counseling for it, I guess maybe I'll give Debian another go soonish now. I guess I already know how to fix my drivers and stuff now atleast.

So like, again, my biggest most #1 issue was losing proprietary software I rely on(Ida Pro, Foobar, etc)

Is Wine really that good for that stuff?

WINE is pretty awesome. Has been for years. Just do what
suggested and check stuff on the internet before doing anything.

ida pro has a linux version
i hear foobar works fine in wine

Ok I guess.

So Debian vs Arch Linux? I was trying the Arch Linux installer, and I couldn't find a way to have it let me install Arch to an already existing partition like Debian's would. Is there a non-bullshit way to do that?

Oh hey about Wine - Do I have to do stupid shit to launch applications in Wine, like go to the terminal and type "Wine Run X" or does it automatically add the shit to my programs menu like a normal non-Wine application? I never got that far into using it before giving up on Linux.

Also what does it mean to "think Linux" instead of "think Windows"?

No clue. I heard that Arch had a Wiki for installation guidance. I saw that Debian had a netinstaller written in plain English. Guess which one I go with.

Debian has more choices so there's a greater chance it will fit your needs. Use that first and upgrade the release cycle up until unstable (if that's good for you) before giving arch a try. Just make sure to read the debian wiki and documentation for more complicated stuff.

I have the reverse experience, which is why I stick with Linux. Of course I grew up with Windows, but I learned how to really use computers and program on Linux, so I don't know how to use Windows for anything useful.

There are people at work with really impressive windows setups, and I really respect it, but that shit's like magic to me.

>be at work today
>testing team needs some data I had been collecting
>okay
>need it in an Excel spreadsheet
>fuck
>spend two hours wrestling with excel to get the data how they wanted it
>finally say fuck it
>export everything to a csv file
>format the data with Unix command line tools
>twenty minutes later
>have the data how the test team wants it
>import it back into excel
>send it to test team
>that's the last time I offer to help the test team with "simple" data collection

Learning the tools of an unfamiliar OS takes time, and if you want to get things done smoothly, sometimes you just gotta use what you know.

you just mount everything to /mnt or /mnt/home or whatever and then run pacstrap if you're using the standard install medium.
otherwise, what installer? there's like at least two.

wine does a lot to integrate the programs in with the rest of the system
for example, if an installer puts a shortcut on the windows desktop, it will be placed on the linux desktop, start menu shortcuts will also be placed alongside the native applications list as well

>Also what does it mean to "think Linux" instead of "think Windows"?
not sure what you're referring to

Debian>Arch, especially if you're still at a stage where enabling additional repositories can be an issue. When you're comfortable with stuff maybe breaking, monkeying in the terminal, can build from source, and can add repositories, then maybe give arch a shot.
You can type "wine appnamehere.exe", or most of the time you can just click it or a shortcut.

it's not foolproof but it's a lot better than it used to be. Most stuff that's not vidya works well with only minor glitches (one thing I use has some misaligned text in the options dialog. big deal) For vidya, the more popular and less cutting-edge the game is, the more likely it is to work. Stuff like WoW will run flawlessly. In all cases though you may need to tinker a bit. notably, you might have to make a 32-bit wine bottle for 32-bit applications. This isn't hard and the Wine website tells you how to do it, but you have to know to try it.

I do stand by my advice that you'd probably be happier on some flavor of Ubuntu instead of Debian, if you're more concerned with wanting stuff to Just Werk. I wouldn't call Debian hard but it doesn't really go out of its way to make things easier for you like Ubuntu. Also you're more likely to find beginner-oriented documentation and answers for ubuntu.

Well that's true too. I really just didn't like Debian because it was too different I guess. Aspergers.

I have no idea. It was some command line based shit.

What I mean is someone once told me a while back(like an hour ago really)
>You're trying to use Linux like Windows. That's your problem.
Well how do you use Linux like Linux?

you use it like Unix.

Think linux means don't expect everything to be gui-based and oriented, and don't look for windows naming conventions. Linux is first and foremost a unix derivative, meant with different priorities than windows. Most graphical interfaces are just a prettified version of a text interface, and thus the text interface is far less hostile, and can often be more useful.
1. Debian isn't meant for first time users. Try ubuntu or Mint first, as they're just Debian geared to be familiar to those coming from windows/osx.
2. See above.

Because I like having more control over my system and choose which software I want and which I don't

so uh...
do you think windows automatically installs like, i dunno, bullshit when you arent there? and more control HOW?

i think you're just parroting what everyone else says lol

dude dont leave windows. all linux distros are just fucking bare bone bullshit for hipsters on Sup Forums.

also, i recommend using playonlinux
i use it only as a prefix manager/launcher, but it also includes scripts to help install many applications properly

installing each windows program into its own prefix is a good idea, normally they're all placed in ~/.wine, and if you fuck something up, removing ~/.wine would mean removing everything installed in it
playonlinux makes it easy to manage per-program prefixes

if you've ever used sandboxie on windows, prefixes are sort of like that, they're self-contained "windows" systems, with the registry, wine settings, and the "C drive" in the one folder, so each program can have their own appropriate windows version, settings and libraries available to it
and if something goes wrong, only the program(s) in that one prefix is affected

it also makes moving installed windows programs easy to move between computers/linux installations as well, no need to reinstall the program

i wish windows had this functionality (prefixes), actually

>Well how do you use Linux like Linux?

Takes some time. It's a new environment after all. Listening to sperglords on the internet doesn't do much except kill your enthusiasm. Maybe watch of few intro linux videos, play around.

It's not for everyone and that's not a putdown. But it works nicely for me for 90% of what I do. I keep a Windows partition as well for things that Windows does better. BFD.

>ubuntu or Mint first, as they're just Debian geared to be familiar to those coming from osx.
>coming from OSX

Why the fuck would someone want to go from a Real BSD Unix to a shitty SysV UNIX clone?

because I want a POSIX system that a.) doesn't have that shitty UI and a bunch of proprietary crap drizzled all over it, and that b.) can run on any hardware I choose, not just overpriced, nearly uncustomizable fashion-statement computers.

Because mac hardware price/performance can be deterring or prohibitive, and hackintoshes have numerous hardware restrictions.

>Well how do you use Linux like Linux?
i see, he probably meant not to assume you know how to use linux because you've used windows
linux isn't windows, and trying to use linux like you would windows will lead to frustration

the first time i used linux, i assumed you get new programs by going to websites and downloading them, after all, that's how it's done on the other systems i'd used, but that was just an assumption, and it didn't get me anywhere
so when you go to do something in linux, don't assume you already know how to do it, look it up, it might not be the same as in windows

>because I want a POSIX system
Then you don't want Linux. it's nearly POSIX not fully POSIX. OS X is not only POSIX but also SUS certified.

It's SUS certified because apple is stupid enough to pay. It's NetBSD sandwiched between a tweaked mach kernel and a pretty UI.

SUS supersedes POSIX you twit.

Your precious Linux couldn't pass certification when it tried.
personal.opengroup.org/~ajosey/tr28-07-2003.txt

That's the thing. To switch between windows and Linux, you have to completely change how you interact with your computer.

Overall, windows is about big GUI applications that do a bunch of things well enough.

Linux on the other hand follows the Unix philosophy of having a bunch of small tools that each do one thing really well. The tools generally interact with each other through streams of human readable plaintext that you can hook up however you need.

That's the beauty of Linux for veterans and the horror for newcomers. When you know enough of the tools, you can combo them together for crazy results, but if you don't know the tools, it's hard to know where to start. Almost every tool has an easily accessible man page, but how is that at all useful if you don't even know the tool exists?

If you want to understand how to kick ass at Linux, you should look up some stuff on the Unix philosophy. If it appeals to you, go ahead and give it another shot. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it. Different strokes for different folks.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux,
is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux.
Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component
of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell
utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day,
without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU
which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are
not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a
part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system
that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run.
The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself;
it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is
normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system
is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux"
distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

I get paid by all the rich linux jews like stallman to shill linux on Sup Forums
Stallman owns 58% of gentoo stock

except when there isn't anything grom gnu used, such as bsd/linux or other options.

So like, how much work would go into making a desktop look like this?

Sorry, this

Not very much

>desktop ricing
kys. We killed desktop threads for a reason.

that reason would be that autists like you can't just hide threads they don't care for

Is that what that's called? What's wrong with desktop ricing?

Nigga you gotta realize - I come from Windows. This is literally the best I can get Windows to look. No shit I'm wanting to jump ship.

I would LOVE to have a dark theme going universally on my OS. I fucking hate high contrast shit, and I'm not too excited about the new dark theme coming up for Windows 10. I want to have more customization.

Not too much if you blindly copy and paste their config files.

I imagine most people's riced out desktops weren't so much designed as they were evolved. My Linux machines, for example, are the result of me using them and thinking, "man, I wish my computer did this," then finding or downloading a tool to do that. Years of "I wish" later, I have my dream system that is essentially an extension of my own body. I'd say that's probably one of the biggest appeals to Linux.

this is using arch linux in a nutshell.

I have never had to ask for Arch support because some other guy has always had the same problem and got it figured out.

Foobar the music player? just use DeadBeef.

LINUX BTFO!

nice hobbyist OS, kids.

Ironically Arch means you rarely ever build from source because of the AUR.

the last time i did i instead wrote a PKGBUILD and put it on the AUR

Unless you have the misfortune of poor hardware support with the stock kernel.

So much b8

You fa/g/s claim to be better than Sup Forums but everything here is a repost or just more of the same bullshit.

HP printers work very well with Linux. The Linux support for printers can be a bit sketchy since the third party companies don't give the least bit of a shit about porting drivers to Linux. They don't even have the decency to open source their drivers. That's why I mainly buy printers from HP.

At the end of the day Linux is something new to you. It sounds like you had a bad experience because you didn't do your homework. It happened to me as well. If a Windows newb deletes System32 because some asshole told him to does that make Windows bad? Of course not.

Most problems are caused by the user not the OS. Linux takes time but its well worth it. I would install Ubuntu in a virtual machine. No harm to your system. You can pretty much just play with it in your spare time.

But remember: a lot of popular software is still made for Windows. Be prepared to get used to alternatives like GIMP instead of photoshop (I like GIMP) or LibreOffice, which I love, instead of Microsoft Office.

You'll be surprised that the alternatives are often really damn good. You'll be pissed off that everyone requests non-open formats like .doc when you're saving everything as a pdf or some other sensible format.

tl;dr Linux, like everything else, takes getting used to.

I feel your pain. Sun actually did some neat things with Solaris. Oracle is a bunch of major faggots but at least they may actually do the humane thing and kill Java with this bullshit lawsuit.

Debian is slightly more demanding than other distributions. Ubuntu might be more your speed. Its Debian based, has corporate support from Canonical, has graphical install tools, a graphical installer, and works right off the bat.

My suggestion would be to install Ubuntu in a Virtual Machine like Virtual box and just play around with it.

Exokernels and RUMP kernels are the future.

The main barrier to a true exokernel is getting library operating systems to play nice with each other and moving networking into user space.

The next best thing is GNU/HURD but that's been in development for like 1000 years.

Another promising advance is BitC which isn't a language for faggots like Rust and Go.

My main beef with Linux is that it doesn't really take advantage of a capability based security model. The cgroups (control groups) are really nice ideas along with linux containers to sandbox everything but you need to have fine grained security built into the kernel.

Another problem with Linux is that its stubbornly monolithic. NetBSD's kernel is designed in a way that it can be rebuilt as a microkernel, exokernel, or package with an application and run in a foreign OS (RUMP kernel).

If you're an operating systems dev and you're hungry for advances in the field then check out NetBSD and the Exokernel architecture paper by Dawson Engler, et al. You won't be disappointed.

>>cz54611508
Actually hurds development has only really started 5 years ago because nobody really cared about it until linus said that they will stay on gpl2. Have you looked into minix3 yet? Its really interesting what tanenbaum and the others have accomplished.

it's like a playground for a programmer and gives you teh epuc hxx0r feel

>playground for a programmer
I never understood how exactly Linux gives you more power as a programmer and makes development easier. Can you explain?

A command line which doesn't suck ass.
An excellent, easy to use build system (GNU Make)
You don't have to download a 10GB IDE just to be able to do anything
Package managers, so it's easy as fuck to install any libraries or interpreters that you want
You don't have to fuck around with with your environment variables and where libraries are supposed to be found
pkg-config, which makes linking libraries ridiculously easy
(Pretty much) POSIX compliant, so you get all of the nice POSIX C functions.
It just werks.

It's the only OS for real programming. Trying to do c or java or python on windows is fucking painful. Linux does everything but vidya.

>Sloppy focus in X
>GNU Emacs runs better and everything in it just werks
>not having to use cygwin or anything to do real work
>free software designed with GNU+Linux in mind runs better, because it doesn't need any wrappers
>lightweight
>customizable

I feel in control while using it. There's no telemetry or any kind of data collection by default. In the last 10 months or so, using Windows became unconformable, despite it having better performance than Debian/Ubuntu on my PC.

This.

Plus it's free.

Just started using it not too long ago. Wanted to learn more about computers, and figured giving Linux a shot would help. At that point, I was just using the computer as an internet box, so I had little knowledge about it, nor way I well verse in programming.

Decided to try Ubuntu since I heard the most about it, and I quickly fell in love with it. I felt a strong curiosity and playfulness using it I had not felt eith Windows for years. I happily took to the command line, was even a bit shocked at how neat it felt to type out commands rather than point and click.

Many of the programs I used on Windows were freeware, so the transition was very easy. I'm currently dual booting, though I use Ubuntu much more than Windows at this point.

Because Windows is shit.

Because people here love memes

If you find installing software in Windows difficult I can only assume you're a barely functioning retard.

Seriously.

It's the cheapest, easiest way to use Unix, which is really important for a career in CS.

I switched from Windows to Linux over winter break for my second semester and it was so good. It's great having Vim anywhere and not having to rely on an internet connection like the MS users had to so they could ssh into the school's server.

I don't I use templeOS

>TIL with linux you can ssh into the school's server without an internet connection

unlike windows support which also does not work but at least your time and patience was well spent

Nigger read.

I don't have to ssh now because I can just use Vim on my terminal. MS users have to access the school's UNIX server to use Vim or other command line tools.

the aur is building from souce except for the *-bin ones

>i liek vidya games

This is all you had to say. Why the novel, complete with le ebic reddit meemay hat tip guy?

sorry, I never heard from someone using command line tools (especially vim) who has Windows installed.

>I also broke my package manager after trying to install and use Foobar.
Christ.
Stick to Windows. Hell, stick to mobile OSs.

>a Real BSD Unix
The only Unix part of OS X is the part they stole: the kernel.

he means manually

it's the least shitty kernel out there, and by a landslide

everything that's competing with it is complete and utter shit

It's the only windows alternative

Well OP. I am back on windows. but i do enjoy xubuntu . but I dual boot so all is well.

After handled a few servers with ubuntu OS back in my college lab, I must say I began to get comfier with linux, and with Vulkan too, the day I jump to linux is quite near