Hello people!!
I just wanted to knock on the forum doors to check if there are any linux aficionados out here.
I am a die hard linux fan and want to know if I got company here. Just for kicks.
I just got myself a new desktop (a superb config! - if anyone is interested I can post that) and running ubuntu 9.10 64 bit OS.

Just checking, thats all.
Adios,
Cannon

I can't call myself a die-hard fan but I've been using Ubuntu for a fair while (and evangelizing about it :p), from the Edgy Eft days up to Jaunty Jackalope. I very recently shifted recently to Linux Mint Gloria for their flexibility with respect to media codecs.

Yea go ahead and post your desktop configuration, you geek. You know you want to [:D]

Was a Mandrake user for a while - then shifted to Mandriva as they rebranded themselves for the next 2-3 years. Kubuntu for desktop and CentOS or Fedora for servers have been my distros of choice in the last four years or so. I currently have Vista on my laptop because it came with it and I've been too lazy to install anything. It's going to change eventually but I'll keep windows too. My old desktop is now at home mainly used by Chacko and it's running Win 7 now on a new hdd - there's another hdd there which I have kubuntu on.

Linux is cool. I do like it way more than Windows, but it's still got a long way to go.

used a lot of Ubuntu (worst distro IMO). prefer fedora with KDE4

Haha. Linux sucks. Its favoured principally by geeks pining for the time when not just about anybody could use a computer and doing just about anything required you to type in a small books worth of commands . Overnout.

That opinion may have had a smidgen of truth in it some 2 decades back...or if you get your linux exposure through watching Srikanth, who likes to type things in just to show you what a software sh-tud he is. I never have to type in stuff for any regular activity. Fact is, I used to have to type in more stuff in the days of Windows 98 to get Redneck Rampage to play.

HathyaSaiBaba wrote:
Haha. Linux sucks. Its favoured principally by geeks pining for the time when not just about anybody could use a computer and doing just about anything required you to type in a small books worth of commands . Overnout.

Sometimes you need more than MS Word 2003 to do things.

Neel wrote:
HathyaSaiBaba wrote:
Haha. Linux sucks. Its favoured principally by geeks pining for the time when not just about anybody could use a computer and doing just about anything required you to type in a small books worth of commands . Overnout.

Sometimes you need more than MS Word 2003 to do things.

Yep. Which is why God invented Excel and Powerpoint.

Looks like a mixed group.
I think Linux has come a long way for it cannot be no more dubbed as a geek friendly OS.
I think its UI and usability is far more user friendly than Windows.

I am currently running the latest ubuntu 64 bit version on a ASUS EVO motherboard with 4 GB Corsair RAM and I got to tell you - it loads at the speed of light. The deadly Windows progress bar - no such hassles.

I think it is more of a perception issue where people think linux is hard to use. Well, I would like to be a linux evangelist but even at my work place I find it difficult to get people to even try out linux. Sad !!

If you guys are interested check out linuxiseasy.org. It is a site started by a bunch of Delhi univ teachers (one of them is my friend who is an Economics prof) - I guess we are all trying to preach and put up a fair competition to the market-blood-sucking-and-monopolising Windows (due apologies to the Gates lovers here!!!)

I have no great affection for the bloatware that is Windows, but in my knowledge, it's the simplest OS with which to play games on a computer, which is primarily why I haven't shifted. Not that it's ideal, it's just that Mac and Linux don't support most games, so you have to either have a dual-boot option or jump through hoops to run Windows on an emulator on those systems.

Yep, gaming remain Linux's Achilles heel. Microsoft has worked tremendously hard to push DirectX. In the early days Dx used to play catch up with OpenGL and struggled at it. But after Dx5 or so, the tech improved greatly and after Dx8 they've pretty much been the trend-setters. Since the people behind OpenGL aren't so much into gaming-related features, OGL has fallen behind the curve and developers are almost entirely behind DirectX. I think Doom 3 was probably the last major league engine to use OpenGL for the renderer.
Of course people talk about WINE for gaming in Linux, but that's not a guaranteed solution and in many cases you have serious performance degrades. So ya, I won't be quitting Windows anytime soon, but my Linux works fine for pretty much everything else...and looks much prettier :D

I agree that gaming is probably quite a big deterrent. But have you guys used Virtual Box (Sun's virtualization tool).

I am new to VB myself but I got it installed and I managed to get windows on it. And whats good is that is makes all those dual boot problems go away. And if anything crashes restoration is a walk in the park. It is quite an awesome and powerful tool. Only thing is you need good RAM - you can allocate how much RAM and HD you want to give for each of the OS you install into virtual box.

BTW, VB is available for windows too - so if you guys want to give it a shot you can. (virtualbox.org)

ravenus wrote:
Yep, gaming remain Linux's Achilles heel.

Oh please. Not just gaming. Animation, audio and video production, image editing, design etc are way less advanced. Some of the hardware-software integration that I've myself experienced on proprietary software like pro-tools and logic pro is fantastic. Something an open source DAW hasn't been able to match and probably will never be able to. There are some things that are completely kick ass about each OS variety. If I'm developing, I'd be on a macintosh or on *nux, if I'm gaming or doing advanced MS Office work (neither of which I incidentally don't), or using some tool that works only on windows (bank, accounting) I'd be on windows, and if I'm in any art/production type thing I'd for sure be on a macintosh machine.

Obviously, I'd like to have all. Can't afford a macbook pro, so have to be content with windows and linux for now.

Regarding Virtual Box, it's not what I would regard as an elegant solution for gaming. If I wanted to run a modern game like Crysis (that makes use of 2GB and more RAM, depending on how you run it) on a virtual system, the RAM requirements would be ridiculous.

HathyaSaiBaba wrote:
Haha. Linux sucks. Its favoured principally by geeks pining for the time when not just about anybody could use a computer and doing just about anything required you to type in a small books worth of commands . Overnout.

Muhahahaha! Would've been my line, had I made it to this thread earlier. However, I think Panaman just overcomplicates shit on his comp because he has pr0n that he doesn't want people to know he watches.

loki wrote:
Neel wrote:

Sometimes you need more than MS Word 2003 to do things.

Yep. Which is why God invented Excel and Powerpoint.

Outstanding.

I am quite comfortable with Windows and have never had the need to experiment with any other OS so yeah.