Anyone Running Linux as Their Primary OS?

Synthros

If so, which distro?

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

keenon

ubuntu 10.04.. been thinking on going back to full XP as of right now XP is the guest

tiersten

ally_uk wrote: »

Although I want to just say that Windows Vista was the biggest resource hogging piece of s**t I have used.

Vista worked fine for me on my laptop and desktops. No problems at all. You've not used Windows ME have you...

dynamik

tiersten wrote: »

Vista worked fine for me on my laptop and desktops. No problems at all.

Ditto. Not a single problem on multiple systems...

it_consultant

I really really really like the SUSE desktop. I use Windows 7 (which is also very good) because frankly its easier to work on Windows networks with Windows.

Hyper-Me

The virus thing is such a moot point anymore. This is 2010 not 2001.

Windows 7 + UAC turned ON + Free Microsoft Security Essentials = Never had one single virus on any of my machines with this combination.

Bl8ckr0uter

Man there are some die hard windows guys here. I guess that's a good thing. It will help keep us future linux admins in short supply lol.

earweed

tiersten wrote: »

Vista worked fine for me on my laptop and desktops. No problems at all. You've not used Windows ME have you...

I have and compared to ME Vista is the greatest thing ever.

Mojo_666

knwminus wrote: »

Man there are some die hard windows guys here. I guess that's a good thing. It will help keep us future linux admins in short supply lol.

Well it is the career path we chose to walk.

you guys will always be in short supply...i wish i was.

RobertKaucher

knwminus wrote: »

Man there are some die hard windows guys here. I guess that's a good thing. It will help keep us future linux admins in short supply lol.

Yes, this is true. But from the admin's perspective it is the demand that is important... not simply the supply.

ally_uk

Get off Bill Gates d**k already lol, ME sucked, And so did Vista don't know how anybody can give Vista props, clearly was rushed to the market and what a resource hog it was load anymore then two programs on it and your system grinds to a halt install anything and it either bombs or gives you a BSOD what a piece of s**t rant over.

Windows 7 is basically what Vista should of been in the first place, Vista was a embarrassment if I had to support it in a work enviornment i'd more then likely shoot myself hehe.

Thing is though being skilled in Linux I guess has it's perks afterall if you went to a company and said that you could implement there network at a fraction of the cost of the Microsoft way i'm sure they would take note.

it_consultant

knwminus wrote: »

Man there are some die hard windows guys here. I guess that's a good thing. It will help keep us future linux admins in short supply lol.

So, if we have tried both and prefer Windows, we are die hard? How about we just decided that despite the problems with Windows, I am the first to admit its not perfect, its easier for many people to live with in the long run than Linux.

I like Linux, its existence makes MACs and Windows better products. No matter how hard Linux guys rail its just not that easy to move everything to linux. Beyond that, its also not hard to get damn near 100% uptime out of Windows server with a medium good admin.

Having said that, most problems are not because of the technology, its the a-holes who implement it. Every crappy network I have been on has been crappy because of the admins, not the OS of the servers and desktops.

Bl8ckr0uter

it_consultant wrote: »

So, if we have tried both and prefer Windows, we are die hard? How about we just decided that despite the problems with Windows, I am the first to admit its not perfect, its easier for many people to live with in the long run than Linux.

I wasn't talking about you personally. Relax a little.

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Yes, this is true. But from the admin's perspective it is the demand that is important... not simply the supply.

This is also very true. It is pretty obvious that there are more windows jobs than anything else and I didn't mean anything buy it. I respect anyone who is an OS ninja, regardless of platform

it_consultant

I am sure it wasn't a personal jab -

tbgree00

I used Ubuntu on my laptop before my wife moved in. She hated it and wanted me to reinstall Windows so I put Vista back on it. Now that machine runs Windows 7.

I never understood the Vista hate really. It wasn't as bad as its reputation after drivers started coming out. It was painful early on but that's the price you have to pay to be on the bleeding edge. Also UAC and Windows Security Essentials has kept every machine in my house virus free for a very long time now. Then again I don't click every ad for free casino games and such so it's never a big problem anyway.

msteinhilber

I've gone the route of trying Linux as my primary OS a few times, like many before me, and have switched back. There is just enough out there that I use on a regular basis that doesn't really work under Wine and I'm not one to rely on running something in a VM to use it, just not my cup of tea.

That being said, I have Linux in use on numerous servers in our enterprise and they do great. We are also going to transition over to Linux for a good portion of our company owned workstations as well. As long as you have a set of needs that can function well on a Linux system I see no reason using it as primary, it just depends on your needs. In our work environment, until a short time from now we require Windows based machines as one web application our users require needs ActiveX support. They are switching over to eliminate that requirement and go cross platform, at which point Linux will be a viable alternative since 99% of the resources our users require are web based.

Myself personally, I use some Linux VM's for some of my studies but don't foresee myself switching entirely to Linux anytime soon.

Regarding the whole my OS vs your OS debate. It's stupid, always has been and always will be. If you prefer KERNAL/BASIC 2.0 from your C-64 as your OS of choice because it fits your needs, then good for you. Use what provides you with a match for your needs and that which you simply prefer to use.

tiersten

msteinhilber wrote: »

Regarding the whole my OS vs your OS debate. It's stupid, always has been and always will be. If you prefer KERNAL/BASIC 2.0 from your C-64 as your OS of choice because it fits your needs, then good for you. Use what provides you with a match for your needs and that which you simply prefer to use.

No. Everybody should use Plan 9 and a port of TECO as their editor.

tpatt100

I remember back when XP came out the headaches that were involved. I remember PC gaming companies were still offering Win98 SE becaue it was faster.

jahsoul

Ubuntu on my main desktop with CentOS, Solaris, and Backtrack as guest.

I do run Windows on my Macbook Pro for portable music production tho.

N2IT

earweed wrote: »

I have Ubuntu on dual boot on my "other" computer and have Fedora server in VM both just to work witrh and learn Linux. I use Windows 7 or Vista for normal day to day use just because it's so easy.

Windows 7 with several other OS that I use that are on a VM platform.

SrSysAdmin

I like working with Linux but I use Windows 7 as my primary operating system.

I have an Intel i7 965 Extreme CPU, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, dual GTX 285s in SLI, 3 TB of storage, and everything else I could ever need right now.

What the hell am I going to do with all that power if I'm running Linux??? I may put Ubuntu or CentOS on an old laptop but there is no reason to use Linux on a box this powerful (when I'm not using it as a server).

jovan88

Hyper-Me wrote: »

The virus thing is such a moot point anymore. This is 2010 not 2001.

Windows 7 + UAC turned ON + Free Microsoft Security Essentials = Never had one single virus on any of my machines with this combination.

that's a big call

DevilWAH

Hyper-Me wrote: »

The virus thing is such a moot point anymore. This is 2010 not 2001.

Windows 7 + UAC turned ON + Free Microsoft Security Essentials = Never had one single virus on any of my machines with this combination.

See I have never had a virus on my PC for many years now, but that is not due to the OS.

Set up correctly and with someone who knows what they are doing, you should never get a virus on a PC. For many years I ran with out an active Virus scanner on my PC, and only a simple hardware firewall, and again never had any problems with viruses.

On the other hand at work sitting behind a Government secure gateway, with tons of anti virus and anti malware systems, we still see viruses on users PC's on a daily bases.

The fact is that the people who write viruses still target Microsoft compared to Linux on what must be about a 100:1 + ratio. So the number of "real" linux viruses/malware in the wild is a tiny % of those for windows.

And by default Linux is set up in a much more locked down state than windows. or at least where as Microsoft are big on the community spirit and almost invite the outside in to the PC (which has many benefits I agree), Linux goes the other way and is much more shut of from the out side world.

The argument about security is in my view a faulse argument. Linux is currently the more secure OS, not because it is fundamental more secure in its self (although I would argue it does have the edge). But people who used linux, because of the very fact it is less user friendly. Generally have more knowledge of IT and the security threats that exist than your average 60 year old pensioner (no offence). And because LINUX starts of with default settings that are secure and you have to open it up to make it vulnerable (and also to make it work as required). couple these two fact together and you should expect that it suffers from less security issues.

To put it another way, I have cleaned no less than 10 or so viruses of family PC's in the last 4 or 5 years, (about 7 users in total). But I have yet to hear of one member of the IT unit at work suffer an attack. (about 20+ of us).

Security of a system has little to do with the OS running and much to do with the user.

dynamik

Hyper-Me wrote: »

The virus thing is such a moot point anymore. This is 2010 not 2001.

Because there has clearly been a decrease in viruses and malware...

TheShadow

Swmbo walks in thumps me on the back of the head and drops a FedEx box in my lap. Heavy "what did you order now" me nothing I swear at least not that I remember <smirk> I open it up and I won a book a while back on NetworkWorld.

Unix/Linux System Administration Handbook copyright 2011. I was just reading Steve Hawkings book but I think it is still 2010. Anyway you gotta love freebee's future present or past. Folks you have got to join Network Worlds contests, they really do give stuff away. This is a monster book 1279 pages covering Ubuntu, openSuSe, Red Hat, Solaris, HP-UX and IBM AIX.

This is really nice for a givaway, list 59.99 US but my invoice from Pearson says 0.00 and bill to Cisco press Marketing.

I showed it to you know who and asked if I am cleared? I guess I will find out later, she hates it when I mess up her book keeping. Lady accountants are bad at work also.

This book looks like a keeper it has a free online edition too but I will be surprised if it is there yet. This is a small type information dense book so a pdf version will be nice to have.

Hyper-Me

dynamik wrote: »

Because there has clearly been a decrease in viruses and malware...

If you had read the rest of my post it would probably make sense. There have been strides in security on Windows that simply weren't there XP and prior (UAC, programfiles virtualization, IE sandboxing, etc). There are free AV solutions that are very effective and dont' bog down the system (MSE).

[Edit by Webmaster: rude/personal remarks removed - discuss the topic, not the poster]

NightShade03

SrSysAdmin wrote: »

I have an Intel i7 965 Extreme CPU, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, dual GTX 285s in SLI, 3 TB of storage, and everything else I could ever need right now.

What the hell am I going to do with all that power if I'm running Linux???

Setup a cluster, learn multi-parallel processing, and begin the search for the next prime number in the sequence

Record 12-Million-Digit Prime Number Nets $100,000 Prize | Electronic Frontier Foundation

shaqazoolu

SrSysAdmin wrote: »

I have an Intel i7 965 Extreme CPU, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, dual GTX 285s in SLI, 3 TB of storage, and everything else I could ever need right now.

What the hell am I going to do with all that power if I'm running Linux??? I may put Ubuntu or CentOS on an old laptop but there is no reason to use Linux on a box this powerful (when I'm not using it as a server).

Unless you are rendering video, playing Crysis and working on something in CAD all at the same time, I'm not sure you'll tap that in Windows either.

I'm a hardware junkie though so I completely understand why you would want to have that just to have it.

jovan88

UAC drives me insane, it wouldn't be so bad if the whole screen didn't go dark every time it pops up

edit: just Googled and there are ways to disable the screen going dark, thank god, but I still disable it entirely

hypnotoad

I think Linux is great and has a big place in the world, but for me there's just no incentive to use it. It would be like learning to speak Chinese. Yeah, it's neat, but what's is the utility in this?

apena7

hypnotoad wrote: »

I think Linux is great and has a big place in the world, but for me there's just no incentive to use it. It would be like learning to speak Chinese. Yeah, it's neat, but what's is the utility in this?

Haha, off-topic I am learning how to speak Chinese. With all the business the US does with China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, I'm betting it'll come in handy 10-15 years down the road (which at my rate of learning, will probably be the time I'll be able to have a meaningful conversation