Really, the only things I can think of that you can't use Linux for are professional video editing and professional photo editing. Really, just the professional creative stuff - anything you'd use Adobe Creative Cloud for. If you could get Adobe Creative Cloud on Linux, you'd probably be able to use Linux for absolutely anything.

So, windows 8, 8.1, 10 etc are state of art and the definition of modern desktop? I don t know what is considered "outdated". But even in my poor
openbox setup, i can watch movies, listen music, read e-mails, write books, view and edit photos, write in latex, use R. All these without losing my time with bells and whistles.

1 members found this post helpful.

My first computer job was in 1974. What a hunk of junk. Then, pdp1134, crash, type in the address. Sun OS was like a dream. I thought Windows was a fad. I didn't need little pictures of my files. I knew where they were. I put them there. It took our sysadmin all day to download a b/w topless photo of a girl he was never going to have a chance with. I watched as our security fell prey to file "attributes" and a 64k base architecture. The Chinese got our missile guidance system. The technology for IC design and doping were all outsourced and shared. The whole world was hacked. Not by me. I wouldn't dare. Really.
Now, according to Oxfam, 8 men's wealth equals all of the 3.6 billion people's wealth at the poverty end of the scale; 1/2 the world. Who's at the top? Bill. I think Microsoft has enough wealth.
I make money cracking passwords for a pawnshop (one client) using Knoppix on a stick. I've got Q4OS on an old hyper threader and I may start pushing it out to folks who have had enough of windows 10 and can't revert because their restore partitions are corrupted. I love, love, love my CAELinux box. It can do anything. My Fedora 20 screwed the pooch. Maybe I'll throw on 23 over Spring break. I still have a Win 10 partition. I need it for Adobe's graphics stuff (college teaches that stuff) but I'm teaching myself Krita and blender. Open shot is great. I still have 2 XP systems that update and a Win 7 partition, too. Most of my school work can be done in Linux, but sometimes you have follow their rules. I prefer my Linux boxes.

Finally! Somebody who agrees with me on Window's 10 privacy intrusions! I was talking about this in MacRumors, and you'd be surprised how many people there defend Windows, saying "it's not intrusive at all, and you can just switch off the spying stuff". Personally, I think those guys are just in denial because they have to use Windows for some of their software or because they've switched over to Windows because the Mac hardware has become very limiting in terms of upgradability, expandability, and repairability.

1 members found this post helpful.

There are several reasons I have been using Linux for almost 2 years now.

1. At work, I was charged with overseeing the functional requirements of a #FOSS library ILS (integrated library system on our server). We chose Koha from the community - which runs on Debian or Ubuntu servers. This project forced me to learn the command line, linux servers (of course) and the community of repositories and version-control that is part-and-parcel to linux and so much FOSS.

2. In the process of learning what was "only for work," I also realized how diverse was the linux community. In response, I started thinking about the sharing of information relative to simply using a day-to-day computer for most tasks, I wiped an old PC and loaded debian 7.x on it and realized that I could learn a great deal more about personal computing and have so much more fun in the process.

3. As I started learning people's arguments over which tech editor was preferred (personal), which desktop environ people liked and similar ideas, I also got to know Richard Stallman's persona and the Free Software Foundation - which simply made sense to me (though I do use a few proprietary drivers and things in ubuntu because I have not found a non-ubuntu compatible work-around for a couple different productivity tools I use) and started actively promoting open-source and free (particularly free).

4. Now, almost all my personal tasks and daily computing take place on a linux-only laptop.

5. I am looking into Qubes next...

Cheers

1 members found this post helpful.

What do you mean by "bike tuner laptop"?

Which GPU are you using?

Theoretical reasons:

- EULAs, 'nuff said.

- Given the choice between an OS designed to make money for someone else, or an OS designed to be useful for end-users (and primarily software developers, since many linux-devs develop Linux primarily for personal use), I can make a wild guess as to which one will be making better design decisions from my point of view. As I observe the decisions made by various leaders of the Linux communities I'd say they tend to indeed be better on average than the decisions made by Microsoft/Apple/Google/etc. and even when a decision does not seem good for me, I can always find some other linux distro, or a fork/patch/guide how to fix things. So I'm never forced to keep using a system designed against myself.

- I've seen how Microsoft tries to force people to use the latest Microsoft technologies... usually by crippling people's ability to use older technologies. And occasionally crippling people's ability to use non-Microsoft alternatives. This for me is good reason enough to never rely on Microsoft technologies, and to not develop software on their platforms.



But theory aside:
- My father familiarized me with Red Hat when I was a teenager, and even though I remember struggling with the dependency hell when installing things, I did love the FLOSS software available there. Having to choose between: using freeware for Windows; pirating software for Windows; begging parents for money for commercial software; or using FLOSS software, much of which is labor of love... let's just say since then I have a GREAT respect for the FLOSS community for what they do. And thus I want to be a part of it.

So I think around 15 or so years ago, I switched to using Linux as my primary OS of choice, and I think around 10-8 years ago I decided to no longer dual boot. Windows is relegated to a virtual machine. Because you know, sometimes when I release multiplatform software, windows users will file bug reports, so I have to check if it's something windows-specific, while still having access to my real development tools.

Around 1993 beat head against wall with Borland C[++] on some old looping Windows on DOS. Came across Yggdrasil Linux on two 5.25" floppies at a bookstore, ran it on a 586 (no X), ran some jobs in different virtual terminals, and sold. Did Slackware, RedHat, Debian (18 years) and now moving to Arch. Also enjoy the freedom of open source.

Basically, my title is my answer.

I started with computers before the IBM PC was released. Programmed in the BASIC interpreter on the Commodore PET and the Tandy TRS-80. Suffered my first data loss on the TRS-80 when the mass-storage device (an audio cassette recorder) ate the only tape of my programming project. That turned me off to computers until MS-DOS was in its 2.2 release. The instability of DOS, the eventual inferiority of DOS and MS-Windows, and the anti-competitive practices of MS drove me to IBM OS-2. OS-2 was an excellent system, but suffered lack of widespread adoption due to MS's withdrawal from OS-2 in favor of the inferior Windows95. In 1994 at work, I was programming on various UNIX systems on commercial hardware. I tried installing Yggdrasil Linux on my PC, but there was a lack of driver support, so I had to stay with OS-2. By 1996, I was running Solaris-X86 on my PC. In 1997, I again tried to install Linux. This time it was RedHat, maybe the 4.0 release. Since then, it has been all Linux on all platorms from desktop, to laptop, to embedded systems, clients and servers.

I have run many distributions, including Debian and Gentoo. I also built a Linux From Scratch system. My current go-to distribution is Arch Linux. I run multiple servers for web, email, telephone (asterisk PBX), source code management, etc.

That's what I've been saying! Graphical User Interfaces are the only way to get normal people to use Linux. Until the GUIs improve, Linux will just be for programmers, tinkerers, and hobbyists.

I see so many post about how easy Linux is, and why the commentators do not understand why Linux is not more popular with the general public. The problem is that most people don't want to have to configure their software or OS just for casual computing or to use a computer to do their jobs. They want quick, easy, and intuitive. Linux is none of those things to these people. Most places I have worked, I am the "computer guy". If they had a computer problem, folks came to me instead of IT because I knew how to communicate with non-techies, something almost every IT person (and most Linux users) I have known has not been very good, or are completely awful, at.

Windows is much easier for non-computercentric people to understand and use. I have worked with people that struggled to grasp the concept that the data file was not the program! They click on the data file (<document>.doc) and the program started, so, to them, the document WAS the program. Most Linux users cannot grasp the fact that intelligent people may not be able to understand what they (the proficient Linux users) consider to be simple concepts. So many times, a new Linux user will ask for help that most Linux users would consider to be extremely basic and they get short answers that assume knowledge that the new user does not have. Then the "helping" individuals get snippy when the new user does not understand the answer or get upset because the new user hasn't learned some basic skills already. They are NEW USERS for Pete's sake! Everyone has to start somewhere and they may only be using Linux because they have to. I'm not saying that it happens on this forum. I don't use this forum all that much...yet. But when I search the net for specific info on Linux, I constantly come across threads that are like what I have described above.

Personally, if I had to make a choice of one and only one OS, it would be Windows. I get more done in less time. I can play games that don't run on Linux. But I like to play with Linux. I like the idea of designing my own distro to fit my exact needs for a specific use. I like the security of Linux, but I can get sufficient security from Windows that I won't abandon it for that reason alone. I like open source and, while I do dabble in programming, I don't have the programming skills to contribute in that way. I do donate to the projects I use regularly. Now that I'm retired, I will investigate non-programming ways that I can support my favorite projects.

2 members found this post helpful.

I moved to linux because of the freedom it gives to user. And then because of political reasons too. First I was on windows 7, for a couple of months I experiment on linux mint but came back to windows because the technical intricacies of linux. Then one day I grew real courage and wanted for once to be a computer power user and moved to linux definitely. First on mint, then on Ubuntu and from two years till now in the super free Gnu/linux Trisquel 7.0.
And he saw that was good, real good... hehe!

I use Linux for several reasons.
1) It is basically free.
2) Very good online support.
3) Similar to UNIX which I am familiar with.
4) Allows me to play with the software and try different things all the while learning.

While there are a lot of people using Macs now, there are also a lot of Mac users who have left Apple - many of them have switched to Windows, but some have actually switched to Linux. I actually switched to Mac five years ago, but I'm getting ready to possibly switch to Linux because the Mac hardware from the last five years can't be upgraded or repaired, and the new MacBooks only have USB-C ports. I don't want to go back to Windows, so Linux looks like a good option.