Comments on: Even When Linux Fans Win, They Lose

By: absolutezero1287

absolutezero1287 — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:09:40 +0000

Well K, I agree that the Linux community’s elitist attitude does turn many new users back to whichever OS they started with. However, at least when I give advice I choose to give terminal commands because it is nigh impossible to mess up. Most of the time all you have to do is copy and paste commands.

If I was going to help you partition your hard drive (for example) I’d say:
-open the terminal (located under Accessories)
-type “gksudo gparted” (without quotes) and hit enter
-enter your root pass from the prompt that pops up.

In my opinion, those instructions are fairly simple. However, it can get complex if you’re doing something like compiling a program from source.

By: makefu

makefu — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:19:08 +0000

rm -rf / is “fix’d” btw from the huge demand to filter this command (discussed in Ubuntu Bug-Reports). –not-preserve-root will underrun this “security-measure” even thou there are tons of self-destructing commands to run from command line ( dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/sda , your weapon of choice ). Linux never meant to save the user from its own stupidity, but now ubuntu tries to as this os tries to compete in mass market.
anyway, even stumbleupon is flooded with “lectures” about how to use ubuntu and which free software there is etc.
it really starts getting on my nerves, but still i would recommend ubuntu linux for beginners.

Cheers

By: gilbert wham

gilbert wham — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:59:32 +0000

‘Play with the big dogs’? Jesus.

By: Roger Rabbit

Roger Rabbit — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 05:07:24 +0000

Scribute, if deleting the root of the file system from the command line is your test of “1337 H4XoRs”, then I question how big the “big dogs” are in “your territory”.

I have tried lots of distros, learned much, don’t consider myself a “big dog” nor do I consider Linux “my territory”, and after, Gentoo, Redhat, Slack, DSL, Coyote, Puppy, Knoppix, Sabion, Madrake, Mandriva, Fedora, Freesco and a bunch of others I have forgotten, I use Ubuntu. It likes my hardware, it lets me get my work done, and it seems devoid of asshats.

To anyone who wants a friendly community, that will not give you a pseudo elitist attitude, Ubuntu has a community full of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet; come on in, the Linux is fine.

By: MTecknology

MTecknology — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:28:45 +0000

To become an officially recognized Ubuntu member you need to go through an interview process. Part of what the review board looks for is your attitude in the community. Users with this type of mentality are usually rejected which hopefully says something.

I even have people that know nothing about Linux come up to me and made uneducated remarks that they’d think I’d be using Gentoo. I have people that know me that think I should use Gentoo because I like to compile things myself. In the end, I choose Ubuntu because it fits my exact needs without budge. As far as I’m concerned, there’s not many more improvements Ubuntu can do other than faster boot speeds (already 15sec).

This isn’t “Ubuntu is da bomb diggity”, this is “I found something that does exactly what I want.”

This (IMHO) IS what Linux is all about. There shouldn’t be a fight over distros.

I’ve tried Gentoo, Zenwalk, Debian, Fedora(bad), CentOS, Arch, PCLinuxOS(BAD), openSUSE, LinuxMint, Mandriva, DreamLinux, gOS, Ubuntu, Yellow Dog, openBSD, etc. I’ve also tried a number of Live CD’s. With enough time to have a solid opinion.

With the exception of Windows clone systems (because of their poor security concepts) such as PCLinuxOS, and Fedora, I won’t ever say that your choice sucks. I may perhaps suggest you try Ubuntu, but if you tell me you tried it, I won’t push it. (secretly not a fan of debian community but nothing against the os)

One thing that is keeping Linux strong IS the availability of choice. If every user in the world switched to Ubuntu, then Ubuntu would quickly become a bloated piece of crap. Ubuntu devs work one way, RHEL devs work another way, etc. I hear about unifying all distros and hate that because it would become Windows. On the other hand, the constant bickering among the community makes me with I could burn the computer of those who say things like that.

[I'm tired and this probably got off topic a few times.] [Hope it still made sense.]

By: jim sadler

jim sadler — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:34:34 +0000

Photoshop will run on Linux. It has for some time now. You’ll need Wine to get it going. The Gimp can be as good as Photoshop, perhaps even better. But I am aware that if you do much in Photoshop you have endured a serious learning routine and have time and emotion invested in it.
I do need to say that heavy duty professional video people apparently run neither Windows nor Linux. Hard core custom video gear can even stem from the Amiga era of computing. Some of these pro systems use insane computing power and the programs even for windows users are in the multi thousands of dollars. I do not study or try to keep up with video issues or movie making. You need an inside with someone from a studio like Lucas who is willing to spill a few of the beans. I do know that those who consult in that industry under contract are getting 5-7K per week in compensation and perhaps even more under certain circumstances.

By: jim sadler

jim sadler — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:00:18 +0000

I keep my programs duplicated on a second hard drive. When it comes time to upgrade my distro I have no concerns about starting with a fresh hard drive and then importing my old programs from the second drive. Obviously I could repair a broken OS by simply and quickly duplicating the install process but Linux has been so glitch free I doubt that I’ll ever need to do such a thing other than at upgrade time.

By: jim sadler

jim sadler — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:54:48 +0000

I try a huge number of new distros. When I got to Ubuntu I saw the wisdom in their work but was also aware that it had a few quirks. I tried Mint which is derived from Ubuntu and Mint is fast and has not had noticable upgrade burps along the way. Right this moment Mint and Mepis 8 RC3 are probably the hot ticket in the world of Linux. Mepis is now also derived from Debian. Underneath it all Debian’s offspring are by far the great power in linux land.

By: jim sadler

jim sadler — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:44:32 +0000

Geez, they’ve given back the most popular of all Linux distros. It seems to me that that is a huge gift. It is not written in rock that a person who comes into using Ubuntu may not eventually prefer another Linux distro. Bringing large numbers of people to Linux can do nothing but help Linux grow. And with that growth we will get more developers whether they are creating free programs or commercial programs. You may be kicking the wrong donkey.

By: jim sadler

jim sadler — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:37:23 +0000

There have been situations in which older people had a younger relative install Linux on their PC and they continued sending email and photos of their grandchildren all the while oblivious to the fact that they were no longer running Windows.
That is really a hoot. They are doing exactly the same tasks without anyone telling them that their OS changed. They simply assume that some sort of auto update took place.
This being the case we can conclude that for a certain group of people Ubuntu and a few other distros are exactly like Windows.