Good things about linux?
 

ok, first of all, I wanna know how do you people stand linux?
You can not install things easily, and most software doesent work for it...what is so great about it?

I wanna keep mandrake linux, but.. I need to know some good things about it befor I waste my time trying to fix it up.

Im realy confused...I heard a lot about linux being stable, and fun, not lots of errors...but all im seeing here is posts about errors and porblems, and all im having is errors and problems.

you are so right so start reading about the programs and how linux works. IF you know about linux you can install stuff easily...most of the time (dependencies can be hell... right now I am having a problem with kernel headers). Also most programs will install...if you know what you are doing.

As for good things: faster, more stable, and I can make it look better than windows. Add in the multitude of free (as in no price) software and I can do more with linux for less.

Is there ways to get games to install easily on Linux? I am a big PC gamer, and so far, Linux has givin me nothing but problems.

But you are right, the default KDE look on Linux to me looks better then any look you can have on windows, and it is free, so that is nice as well.

You can't install pc games on linux unless you use wine. However installing games in linux is no different than installing any other program in linux. Just make sure you have dri enabled for your videocard and the games should run as good if not better than in windows. I suggest that you learn more about linux before you start playing games on it. I found that learning linux is fun. And I still am learning things about linux.

Well theres wine...www.winehq.com and transgaming... www.transgaming.com that will allow you to install your windows games on your linux machine. I would start reading about it before downloading and trying to install it. The more you know about it, the better chances of "fixing and problems" you make have installing and trying to get the games up and running. I just bought a ati 9800 and will be looking it this soon so i can get a some better benchmarks and impress my friends at the next lan hopefully. Im not a overclocker, but i do talk it up about linux...hehe, now i got to convert my friend with a working system of linux and gaming ;)

I will learn more about linux and wine befor I start installing games, thank you both for your help :)

Good things:
I installed SuS 9.0 on my 3G laptop.
works fine.
screen OK, (little fiddling) sound DVD RW
Have you never spent hours, days setting up Windows?
never? never ANY probs? no IRQ conflicts? no driver downloads?

Positive things:

you get:
C
java
lisp
python
perl
apache
php
MySQL
PostgresSQL
OPenOffice
loads of desktops
some silly but nice games
chess games
card games
Gimp (good image processing)
browsers,
logic circuit simulators
mathematical tools
mail clients
etc etc etc

not all good
not all useful
but lots that is really superb.
what you get with MS?
notepad, paint.

Yes...But what about easy installs, easy updates? those are important.

Im not saying I dont like Linux, becuase I do, I just figured out how to customize KDE a little, which is very cool :), the looks of linux are without a doubt much cooler then windows. Just all the typing, and hard installs are annoying...but fun to learn.

I do not use linux as my primary OS, but rather as a webserver, and something to telnet into when I'm bored


It's a very fun OS

if you want to install games on linux i suggest using wine-x. i havent used it personally but i hear it deals with games a lot better and its real cheap or you can even get the cvs version for free but i havent had much luck with that.

if it's cutting edge games you want though.
stick to windows.

linux really appeals to people who like
to program and fiddle and get to the guts.
It's not user friendly but it has infinite power
when you learn to use it.

regards, billy

I like the multitude of software I get with linux for no cost. I mean I got slackware 9.1 off of a magazine cover CD, installed it and decided I wanted to do some programming in C++. And there's gcc right when I need it. No need to buy, or look for on the internet, a C++ compiler because I have one right here by default. Dito Java. In fact, when I was at Uni I ran Windows alongside Linux and I did ALL my programming in Linux because everything is so much better integrated.

What else do I like? Umm, the community atmosphere. I think support for linux is BETTER than for windows: if you get stuck on windows you pretty much have to call a pay helpline, if you get stuck on linux there are 10s or 100s of others who have overcome the same problem and are willing to help you FOR FREE. Also, the FSF and GNU General Public License are two of the best ideas ever. If I want to learn how to use GTK I can download another GTK application and just muddle through the source code to teach myself.

I also like the pretty much infinite customisability of the desktop. I don't like the windows look but (if I used windows!) I'd be stuck with it, unless I fudged through installing litestep again...but with linux I don't like Gnome or KDE so I used WindowMaker. Then I tired of that so I switched to fluxbox, sawfish, enlightenment...and now I'm back with WindowMaker.

I think where with windows you are stuck with 'the default' application for everything, on linux there are several open source possibilities for you to try until you get the one that suits you.

p.s. I now run ONLY linux. There is no windows partition on my PC. It's been this way for just over a month now and there is nothing that could convince me to switch back...particularly not with TCPA coming this way...

good things about linux? when I had used linux a few days, I was completely in control of the operating system :) never had that with windows, wich always had some program or service to run at the most unwanted times... with linux, the user (or admin) really is in control!! this is the best pro according to me

You all have very good points...but about games, I did hear that UT aNd Counter-strike run better for them on Linux becauase of it's stablility...this true?

I just found the LookNFeel KDE customize options :), very cool.

http://www.para-dox.net/snapshot6.png

That is pretty awersome... where did you go to customize the taskbar like that?