Hi folks

I was wondering what do people use there linux home box's for besides running hosting web pages on them and running web server like apache. Is there anything else you can do with your linux box at home? I know that ms-windows is more of a home OS it works with pretty much any application out there specifically because of drivers compatibily and besides its constant crashing you can play games on it, work with office, email, surf internet, stream videos off internet, play any kind of extension ...etc. Now I'm not promoting ms-windows but I just cant understand what do people need unix for as a home computer desktop that is. I tried using linux openoffice it looks somewhat poor and a bit foggy. Tried surfing the web but the text is kinda crapy looking even though Im using ms-windows fonts. It took me couple of days to find out and configure streaming video online! After which I realised I can only use realplayer to play streams from firefox. Tried burning videos from cdroast, and completely blew it. Killed like couple dvd's because it crapped out dunno why maybe drivers or something not to mention I have a really good burner. Plus anything I have to do in linux like configure something like fonts or something as simple as configuring the streaming video from web I have to do alot of reading and heavy research just to do something very simple. And its kinda bugs the hell out of me I dont know everyone else feels about it but I just hate spending lots of time to find out how something works only to forget about it after its been configured. Again Im not trying to put a damper on linux or ms-windows I just want to know how other people feel about it and what do they really use linux for besides hosting web pages and running a webserver?

Thanks

And share your thoughts.

I use Linux at home for everything I want a computer to do, including some things you can't do with Windows at all. I browse the Internet, run chat programs, view and edit photos and pictures, watch videos, listen to music, edit web pages, do some programming...

Really, the only thing I can't do with Linux is play all computer games--but I'm not into computer gaming so it doesn't bother me.

To me, Linux does stuff in a more fun way and easier than in Windows. In particular, I'm addicted to Debian's apt-get package management system. Installing/removing/updating software in Debian is so incredibly sweet. I'll never go back to the painful way of doing stuff in Windows. Also, I find that generally getting hardware to work is easier in Linux than Windows.

That's really the main thing that caused me to ditch Windows entirely. For a while, I was dual booting but then I realized I was spending far more time just getting Windows in a usable state than Linux.

And like I said, the way Linux does stuff is MORE FUN than Windows. I use KDE, and I love I can customize the interface to "look cool". Windows's look and feel is so boring.

And then there's the cool stuff that I can do in Linux which can't even be done in Windows. There's LiveCDs like Knoppix. I love being able to run a fully functional operating system with software off of a CD. It makes swapping around hard drives and copying around partitions and stuff really pleasant.

My latest thing that I figured out in Linux was how to do diskless net-booting. It was much easier than I expected, and it's just incredibly cool. It's magical. It's weird being able to fully access a computer's OS files when it's not even turned on. It's great being able to backup all of my workstations's OS's all in one go.

For me, there simply isn't any appeal to Windows. It can't do all the stuff that Linux can do, and what stuff it can do it doesn't do as well and it's more of a pain to get done. For me, Linux is easier, more capable, and more fun. It's no contest!

If your profile is correct, and you are running FC1, perhaps you should try a more up to date distribution, like Fedora Core 5.

You can do anything with Linux that you can do with Windows, and a great many things that you can't do with Windows.

For Office-like software, I personally prefer Gnome Office (Abiword and Gnumeric). You may also want to try KOffice if you are a KDE user. While OpenOffice gets a lot of media attention, it is neither the only free / open source office suite for Linux nor necessarily the best.

I use Linux exclusively as my desktop OS. As does my wife, my brother, my nephew, my sister's friend... If you have a specific issue, post a question. Most everything an end-user would do is performed by GUI these days. The only "heavy research" needed is typically during the initial installation/configuration and customization. Since most people tend to get their OS pre-installed and never perform these tasks with Windows, I suggest you have a knowledgeable Linux user configure a desktop system for you. I've done this for others, and haven't heard any complaints.

Thanks for the reply fellas macemoneta sorry for the unupdated profile I had good catch on your part. I actually use centos at home now I used to be a FC user dual booting with win2k. Now I use centos dualled with win2k. Anyway sounds like you guys really love linux and seems like everything works great on your parts. I dont know how you guys use linux but I usually try to do everything from command prompt not gui. Maybe I should give gui a try in more depth. But like I said anytime I have to configure something in linux oh boy does it really put a strain on me. All the research and reading just to find out which file to configure and how to configure is really hard. Plus since linux is opensource I have no way of knowing every application for it which is good which is bad. As you said openoffice is more popular but you tend to stream towards abiword or gnumeric Iv never heard of them only abiword of Iv heard but never really used. Thanks guys any more comments ideas and uses of linux on your part would be greatly appreciated and read with interest.

I run Linux From Scratch as my desktop. Yes, I don't have auto-configuration tools. Why?
1. I'd like to have Firefox, Thunderbird, GVIM, TeX, some compilers.. Obviously I lose nothing of it in Linux. I am not font freak, and in a case I am I can compile freetype with illegal-in-mad-countries-due-to-patents bytecode interpreting. Well, games are sometimes fun. No, I meant fun, not photorealistic . Yes, it means interesting gameplay and some graphics. Under Linux such games are easier to spot. Yes, if I test web page, I can launch IE.
2. I want to come with my notebook and use network. With all proxy settings done with one touch. Yes, I can do it in Linux console. And when Window$ will include usable convenient console? I know it is already powerful, but inconvenient.
3. I want to have some FS's. Yes, I want to use this ftp server as I would use floppy - something with just-a-directory interface, whatever speed it has. No, its owner won't let vpn+windows sharing - as Unix-likes are popular on servers for some good reasons. I also want to stick a couple of tags on file, and then create a pseudo-directory for all files with such a tag. What is it called? WinFS? Planned for Longhorn/Vista? Dropped? Oops. I use a pre-alpha SQL-based FS for such capability. And yes, package management in a style "merge all these dirs" is cool.
4. I want USB 2.0 . In Linux it's one generic driver which boosts my flash disk 10x. In Windows I would need to download drivers which I failed to find. Why???
5. I simply want my desktop to be incompatible enough (tm) to make viruses fail. If I have more vulnerabilities, but they are never exploited, what I lose?
6. For a critical spyware update to get on my box I must do something, not WGA developers. It's called freedom. Also I really use the possibility to send patches for software when I think it is missing features..
7. The best cause to reboot system is kernel upgrade. No, not IP address change. Wow, I can do it by just logging out and logging in. How should I guess it?
8. Change settings forth and back. Get another state of system. No, thanks.

CentOS is a fine distribution, but it is server oriented. If you are curious about the use of Linux on the Desktop, I suggest you investigate a distro that has that orientation. Ubuntu is popular now, FC5 has wide support, Mandriva and SuSE have their supporters.

what do I use linux for? Hmm... nothing much really.

Surf the 'net.
Chat on IRC/ICQ/MSN
Type letters, make webpages
Scan documents
Print things
Play games, like StarCraft, Quake, Doom
watch videos
listen to music
draw pretty pictures

Amazingly I can do this without rebooting every ten minutes, crashing every five minutes or getting viruses.

Let's not forget about home security. I had a book I was writing for nearly a year when some friends thought it'd be cute to *break* into my windows account and rename/move my work and drafts into random directories. All they had to do was go into another administrator account and, BAM, switch my account to no password, then log into it and play with my files.

Is this possible in linux....nope, not as long as my BIOS is password protected (for no change on boot order) so that a live cd won't boot

I can see where you are coming from with somethings being a little difficult, but it is more to do with it being different. Say different to M$ Windows, which almost everyone has used at some stage. But with a little perseverance it almost becomes second nature, and the variety is great, different strokes for different folks. Ubuntu, Fedora, Slackware, Mandriva, etc... It beats the hell out of just changing the desktop background for customisation.

I was wondering if you do everything text based in Windoze, with 'prompt'. If not why the hell would you jump in the deep end. You need to crawl before you run lad.

Also there are plenty of great resources for configuring and setting up everything on a *NIX machine available online, some even here at LQ.org...

HUH???? CentOS is a clone of RHEL. In our workplace, RHEL4 is the standard Linux desktop system--ie the only they officially support.

As for the original question:
I use Linux for 95% of all computing--office and home. I don't even know HOW to set up a server.
This reminds me of a recent flap involving an article in PC Magazine by Lance Ulanoff. One of his memorable statements was something to the effect that "Linux is primarily for servers" or "designed for servers".

Linux is a general-purpose operating system.
Any good GP OS can be used in a server, desktop, embedded, you name it.

What IS true is that Linux has the greatest market penetration in servers. That does not imply anything about its suitability for the desktop.

All good post's guys very informative thanks... I would like to know in your opinion what would be an ideal desktop distro or a favorite one for that matter. I know that FC is probably most popular one although I did get tired of constantly upgrading from FC1 to FC2 to FC3 ..etc. Which one is most stable and easiest to use? which one is most up to date with softwares and most stable. And which one is less frequently updgradable as in FC versions 1 thru 5. Any advice, opinion, fact would be greatly appreciated. Thanks gents!

People are likely to recommend Ubuntu for your first distro. I've never used it though, but I think Debian based distros don't suit me to be honest.

I use a server oriented distribution myself, but I don't run any servers except SSH so I can log in remotely. I use it as a desktop.. browsing, email, music, etc. The only thing I keep Windows for really is games.

FC5UbuntuSUSEPCLinuxOSArchetcetcetcetcetc.......

They're ALL good!! Start with any of the free ones and move on when you find something that is not working for you--or if you just get curious.

Note that many of us keep several on our drive to tinker with...

All have periodic upgrades/new versions, but NONE require you to upgrade--that is your choice.

Mandrake or Mandriva as they call themselves now.
Or kubuntu.
Or knoppix if you want a live CD.

They're what I use, and very good they are too.