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Post subject: What made you switch to Linux, why did you switch to Linux ?
 Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 10:07 AM
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Joined: Feb 01, 2007
Posts: 399
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Status: Offline
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I was wondering what made people switch to Linux.
For me it was for the following reasons :-
1. Learnt and passed the MCSE.
The more that I learnt the more I kept asking myself "why does M$ work like this, its so overbloated"
2. Each variant of M$ OS'es just get more and more bloated needing yet more new hardware.
3. That genuine advantage stuff gets really off putting after seeing it several times (with various patches and fixes).
4. updates forced down to the user (even if updates are turned off!).
5. restarts needed just for any sort of trivial update.
6. I could never truly clean a windows machine of spyware, trojans.
You may think that you can but it it quicker just to perform a fresh install and start all over again.
7. having to set time aside to perform maintenance (like defrag the hard drive). That's a terrible and ill thought out process. How can this be productive ?
shouldn't an OS manage this properly ?
8. Using M$ OS's without a firewall or antivirus software is just asking for trouble.
I setup a win 98 machine once plugged direct into the wan (as a test) and it was hacked and infected within 5 minutes !
anyway these are my reasons for switching to Linux.
Id like to hear other peoples responses for switching, I am sure there's some very good reasons.
So what were your reasons for switching ? |
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ich weiß nicht
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Post subject: RE: What made you switch to Linux, why did you switch to Lin
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 10:12 AM
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Joined: Aug 28, 2008
Posts: 48
Status: Offline
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| because linux is fun and i stopped gaming. |
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Post subject: RE: What made you switch to Linux, why did you switch to Lin
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 10:41 AM
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Joined: Dec 03, 2006
Posts: 229
Status: Offline
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| linux does what i want it to do. it is not annoying (no ten thousands of popups each login). it's fun. it just works and allows me to focus on my work, not on the computer! |
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Isn't it nice that your GNU/Linux support team doesn't just wait for your emails, but rather services your call tickets on every random blog on the internet where you happen to leave them?
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 03:37 PM
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Joined: Nov 25, 2007
Posts: 65
Location: Hamelin, Germany
Status: Offline
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I didn't remeber... it was in 1997 oder 1998 
OK, I looked in my old e-mails: It was, because I want a local newsserver (leafnode) and an offline-proxy (WWWoffle)  |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 04:37 PM
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Joined: Jan 11, 2007
Posts: 517
Location: Darmstadt, Germany, Europe, Earth
Status: Offline
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i escaped from M$ only about four years ago. back then kanotix made it happen.
i suppose i was fed up with all those windows issues and instability. actually, i do not really know exactly anymore... |
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Ουρέα - AMD X2 4450e, ABIT A-N78HD
Έρεβος - IBM T43
if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find it - maybe you can read ... the sidux manual
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 05:56 PM
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Joined: Dec 01, 2007
Posts: 203
Location: Enschede NL
Status: Offline
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For personal reasons I was developing a website. Based on Drupal via XAMPP, an installer which sets up Apache, MySQL and PHP on Windows.
I finished the website and decided it would be fun to see it 'live', if only for testing purposes. It seemed only proper to find a host based on Linux (because it's called LAMP and not WAMP) and just before I was getting a hosting contract, I figured it would be wise to get some experience with this Linux thing.
My first goal was a dual boot system but I didn't RTFM completely. I ended up with a zero boot system. And since I didn't have any Windows CDs around but plenty of freshly burnt Linux CDs, there was only one way to go (well, many ways actually but after the dual boot fiasco I found it wiser to try one distro at a time).
The start was not very good due to some hardware problems but after I solved those I felt right at home. I could do pretty much all I used to do with WinXP (except play my games), I started to use the commandline immediately again (which I hadn't in XP) and I found much new fun with programs I'd probably never found had I still be using XP, most noticeably Amarok, Inkscape and Python. Linux brought back the fun I used to have in using a computer, fun I'd lost in the years I used XP.
The website's still not up, I've been looking into Django lately but not very actively. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 06:01 PM
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Joined: May 27, 2007
Posts: 85
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
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I started my computer education with Unix (sco unix), that was in 1997. I enjoyed it and appreciated the power of bash.
After this for a long time I used Windows and also programmed in windows mainly VB, VC++, ASP etc.
Then sometime in 2003 I thought I have forgotten all the unix commands and I will never be able to use any *nix based systems. To brush up my command-line skills, i started with Feather Linux. A very light, knoppix based system with fluxbox as main WM, this was because I had only 40GB hdd machine which I shared with my room mate.
During this time, I played a lot with knoppix based systems, LFS, Slackware and finally installed debian testing (etch - at that time), on my new Dell laptop. While searching on LQ got interested in debian sid and while searching the web on how to install it, got to sidux.
Still, I have dual boot with Windows XP, but only because of some projects in VC++, generally I boot into sidux. I am so habituated to it, I always try my fluxbox key-bindings in Windows  . |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 07:19 PM
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Team Member
Joined: Nov 24, 2006
Posts: 1990
Location: w3
Status: Offline
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Why and when I finally switched completely to Linux was one of the questions I answered in an interview with DistroWatch, which besides is a good read for every sidux user, anyway.
Another reason was my disgust for Microsoft as a company and Windows as an operating system, this made me even not cashing any more the very last check I received from there.
The most important reason for me was to gain free time away from computers by using a much more efficient operating system. Unfortunately this plan did not work out very well, as I fell into contributing the time I saved into several open source projects - sidux one of them.
Greetings,
Chris |
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64bit stuff for sidux
development is life - code.zikula.org
an operating system must operate - sidux.com
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 07:27 PM
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Joined: Nov 01, 2007
Posts: 59
Location: Houston, Tx
Status: Offline
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I was looking into ways to track changes in hardware and ran across references to 'version tracking' which seemed to mostly refer to Linux. Reports that it was extremely stable and fast led me to try it in dual boot mode.
That accomplished, I no longer had time to go get a cup of coffee and sip half of it waiting for the boot to finish. Ended up blowing out that Mandrake 8.0 installation with an fdisk mbr after a panic over something (don't recall what), but by that time I'd been bit and had it on my home pc as well.
Still have ME on the hard drive, but I see I haven't been there for 110 days (or had to shut down for a crash) and since I can access all my old files in one way or another, don't expect to go there again.
And no, I never got around to running any of the version tracking software I'd been looking at - it's just what got me to looking at it. The stability and versatility is the reason I stayed.
regards,
rumbarg |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 10:12 PM
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Joined: Jun 03, 2007
Posts: 11
Status: Offline
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It was 2005, and I had recently bought a new system with Windows XP installed. One quick click for an Automatic Update...
I lost everything. It was backed up, of course, but I had also grown tired of constantly attending to the anti-virus, the anti-spyware, and free software firewalls.
Now it's amazing. I'm no guru but I know some basics and where to look up the rest. Choosing a low-maintenance distribution like sidux is half the battle. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 04, 2008 - 10:57 PM
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Joined: Dec 05, 2006
Posts: 1023
Location: Wiesbaden, Germany
Status: Offline
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absolut wrote:
i escaped from M$ only about four years ago. back then kanotix made it happen.
i suppose i was fed up with all those windows issues and instability. actually, i do not really know exactly anymore...
similar for me:
- fed up by the MS "concept"
- trying to enter Linux several times, frustrating
- Suse did not work (version 6 and 9 or 5 and 10, I do not know exactly anymore)
- kanotix did, tried cd
- installed besides MS
- could no longer answer the question for what reason I feed two OS
- could no longer answer the question for what reason I feed MS as OS on my hd's
- reinstalled kanotix as only OS
- migrated to sidux
- enerve the forum and chat community with questions (q's that might anticipate that I have comprehensive knowledge and experience, although I see myself as a linux beginner)
- like to test the forum and chat community with questions, as I think that out there are also companies and business clients for whom sidux might be a recommendation. So I want to learn whether the community/chat combination on sidux can support a "wide field distribution"; as I think the success in comparison to MS is community/relation based and is a success principal for the future.
One day I will find big commercial clients for this model...asking SLA based support and pay for
(vision) |
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Viele Grüße
mylo
sidux [Έρως]@2.6.27-6.slh.4-686 Intel Core2 Duo E6550 @ Cache/Ram 4MB/4GB nVidia G72 7300 2*250GB
scroogle.org: an alternate web search?
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 06, 2008 - 01:44 PM
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Joined: Dec 01, 2006
Posts: 927
Location: DE, near Hamburg
Status: Offline
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My reasons for switching from Windows to Linux:
KDE 1 had a lot of goodies Windows hadn't:
- more than one virtual desktop - and they all can have different wallpapers (dropped in KDE4)
- filemanager shows last used directories in other color, like in a browser (dropped in KDE2)
- startmenu shows path of entries on mouseover (dropped in KDE2)
- icons on desktop can have any size (dropped in KDE2, kind of remake in KDE4)
- I even can use gifs as icons (dropped in KDE2)
- separate taskbar which means more space in the panel (dropped in KDE2, optional in KDE3)
- huge panel with huge icons in it
And the gui-independent part:
- Symlinks!
- more than one "DOS prompt"
- no time consuming and confusing wizards.... just straight changing of what I want
- easier and safer to install additional software (and much easier and safer to uninstall it!)
I can adapt the system to my needs and needn't adapt to the system...
And with KDE3 it became very easy to adapt the the applications' look to the needs of visually impaired people (size of toolbar icons etc., kind of dropped in KDE4). Very important for me too, nearly impossible in Windows. |
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Susan | Hw:  | "Chaos"
Last edited by spacepenguin on Sep 07, 2008 - 04:41 PM; edited 1 time in total
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 06, 2008 - 07:49 PM
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Joined: Feb 22, 2007
Posts: 477
Location: The Netherlands
Status: Offline
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Well, I beg to differ on the kde wizards. There is a wizard that will fire if you start KDE with no /home/user/.kde directory present. In this case it's a good thing though as it allows one to easily set some preferences.
My reasons for switching to Linux are pretty much all listed above. I don't play many games on the computer and I got sick of dealing with anti-virus updates daily.
The ironic thing is, since I began running sidux almost 2 years ago, I have started my own business as outlined in[url] http://sidux.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB ... 646[/url]. While I try to convert all of my clients to Linux, most of them just want me to fix their Windows problems, which I do only if they pay me to do so.
I'll still install sidux for free since it takes all of 5 minutes to do |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 06, 2008 - 11:17 PM
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Joined: Jun 18, 2007
Posts: 5
Status: Offline
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| My reasons for leaving Windows and coming to Linux are pretty much the same as everyone else's. No need to elaborate as we've all been there, and done that. That was eight years ago; and, gosh, I struggled with Linux. I thought I'd never get over the steep (to me) learning curve - but, I did. Frankly, I've enjoyed the move to Linux because I learned so much about my computer and just how things work. I've installed and reinstalled more times then I can count, suffering through frustration and overcoming my own stupidity Even went through the distro hop, trying then retrying distos to end up with an almost identical system. I've long since settled down to one or two - sidux being my favorite. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 07, 2008 - 02:14 AM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 1628
Location: England
Status: Offline
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The main reason I switched was because I was bored of windows and wanted to try something different and I also wanted to learn more about computers.
Also, I was becoming so paranoid by the malware horror stories (even though to this day I have never been hacked or contracted a virus on windows) that I became obsessed with various security apps: antivirus, very complicated rule-based firewalls, anti-spyware, anti-adware, intrusion prevention systems etc.
I soon realised that all these security apps were actually making my comp so slow and unusable they were probably giving me more grief than the malware would
I was advised that gentoo was THE distro so underwent a gruelling 20 hour long stage 2 install followed by a compilation of kde lasting several days (or so it seemed, it was a very old comp).
After finally getting it up and running I accidentally deleted the partition while doing some repartitioning so went through the whole process again before finally deciding gentoo wasn't for me.
So I moved on to knoppix which was a better experience but I still wasn't quite right, many things not working out.
I decided to have one last try, choosing kanotix after several recommendations on the knoppix forum.
It was kantoix that convinced me I could use linux as a day to day OS and went from there. |
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sidux 32 & 64 | Parsix | Mandriva Cooker
repository of shame - compiz fusion repo for sidux/debian | 32-bit | 64-bit
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