Just wondering what the most popular way Linux is being used by home users. Servers? Development? Workstations? Game machines?

I've set mine up as a server, but never really considered setting up as a workstation (for more general day-to-day type applications). I know I could do word processing with a server setup also, but seem to spend most of my time tinkering with network/server related items.

I'll look forward to hearing how others are using Linux.

Thanks,
Ron

I have 3 different machines I use Mandrake-Linux 8.2 on.

At home, one is a dedicated server, for WWW, SSH, FTP, and a few others. No X, just console. It doesn't even have a monitor, just the power cord, ehternet cable, and keyboard. (wouldn't even have the keyboard if the BIOS had a setting for disabling the "Halt on keyboard error" thing). I access it using SSH from other machines.

On my main machine at home, I use Linux for almost everything- games, internet, etc..

At work, I also use Linux, as my workstation.

Hi,
Well my input here is that as of right now my two pc are set as workstations, but I'm planning to setup a network at my house and mostlikely will make changes to configure one of them as server.

I use my Linux box for server and common use (like internet).
It is safe, stable and it's not microsoft

NB:Staceman,why are you using Mandrake if you don't use X?

Because that particular machine is used only as a server, and thus, I really have no need for X on it. I can do everything that needs to be done on it with from the console.

To edit the web pages on it, I either use vi directly, or, since I have it also being the Samba domain server for my home network, I can just edit the pages with a graphical editor (if I'm in a GUI mood that day ), and copy them to the /var/www/html folder on the machine, from the machine I'm working on.

It also helped me to learn a ton more about Linux than I use to know, being forced to use all console on that machine...

With the other machines, however, I mostly do use X.

I dual boot this machine I'm on now between linux Mandrake 8.2 and Win98. Comparing the two side-by-side, I get very frustrated with windows 98. I need to boot to it to burn CDs (USB drive, no *nix support). I know win98 is 4 years old, but many still consider it the best windows for many applications. recently it tried to eat one of my partitions, that didn't make me happy

however, Mandrake is good. i've had a couple of total lockups though, and i can't nail down why but I suspect it was bad drivers. nvidia, creative, AMD, and that nagging USB cdrom that linux just doesn't like... is there any way to check the logs to see what happened just before it went down by the way?

My brothers use my other PC as a gaming/fun box, dual booting from win98 and Mandrake again - the gimp and other tools are great for my younger siblings, they love it.

workstation and development. not enough machines in my house to run a server.

mine is setup as a personal education device...i have nothing to do in spare time...

My Mandrake 8.2 box does a bit of everything.

I have another PC running Windows XP that I use nearly exclusively for games, although my gf uses it for other stuff, like the occasional bit of word processing, and web surfing.

Occasionally, a laptop from work makes it home too - and that gets connected to the others while it's there.

So the Mandrake box does the following :
DNS server
DHCP server with dynamic DNS updates
Mail server
Web proxy

Occasional games, though most of the linux ones suck
the odd bit of "Office" work
Gimp - I love it - wish the interface was more lile Photoshop though.

Thanks for the replies. I ment to ask if all were using a graphical interface or just the console. My small room is getting full of computers, so I am interested in using just the console (I can at least eliminate a monitor).

Current Setup:

Dell Optiplex (PII 333 Desktop) with Redhat 7.2
Web server
DNS
DHCP
Samba
FTP

Dell Latitude XPi Laptop (Pentiun 166)
Windows 95

Macintosh B&W G3
Mac OS 8.6

Macintosh SE/30
Duel OS's Mac OS 7.1 & 6.0.8

These are all networked. I also want to add my wifes Dell Optiplex to the network (Windows 98).

Also have an Atari 800 and Apple IIc+ with monitors and disk drives (not networked).

I don't have much spare time either.

Ron

I have 5 machines at home. 1 is dedicated server running Mandrake 8.2. 3 of the others are dual boot Mandrake/Win98. Win 98 is used for gaming only.

At work my main machine is 8.2. I have a Win machine so I can access the company email. (no pop3 available). I have 2 other Linux machines in my cube and I have setup 2 dedicated Linux servers that are now in the server room.

I use linux for all my computing needs which are:

programming : java / C / C++
the internet / email
writing music ( midi sequencing and sound synthesis )
playing games ( xmame )

Mine macjines are used for everything. I use only Linux, so it's used for text processing, development, somethimes gaming, playing music...

I run a Linux server for www, ftp, and Half-Life. It serves mainly to Windows clients, but of course can handle this job better than win2k server.

I always fall for these threads...

Earth, Debian 2.2r3, wireless lan NAT box
Venus, Slack 8.0, other side of wireless lan NAT box
Jack, Tyler, Spacemonkey, Marla, Bob (one machine, penta-boot), Slack 8.0, FreeBSD, LFS, RedHat 7.2 [about to play with Mandy 8.2 instead], uh... Toy; crappy development, creative slack, workstation
Wolfwood, SuSe 7.3, workstation more or less.
Tenacious, Slack 7.1, FreeBSD, LFS, coffeetable email/browsing crate.
Wurlitzer, Slack 8.0, music server.
Gomer, Slack 7.1, looks for aliens... Seti@home, no keyboard, no monitor, just sits there.
Morphy, RedHat 7.2, laptop, testbed for wireless gear. Slackstation.
Horatio, Slack 8.0, web/ftp/mail blah blah blah server.

That's about all I have running,

Cheers,

Finegan