Reasons to love linux and hate microsoft

[GamingRev]

Well I cant find a practical reason to hate microsoft except how it catches viruses easier than mac or linux. And how linux is free!

So what are your reasons?

[loup]

Umm... for the pants?


I don't hate Microsoft or Windows per se, I don't like a lot of Microsoft's business practices. I tend to stay away from Windows XP myself, and I'll probably avoid Vista like the plague because it sounds like Windows XP with a shiny new interface and a lot of DRM support built-in.

I'm a bigger fan of Mac than of linux, but I like Linux too. I actually use Windows, Mac and Linux for different things, they all have things that they are better at doing than the others.

[SpongeBuell]

Hatred of Micro$oft:
Does everything possible to eliminate competition, besides actually trying to make a good product that can compete with others (If you use OS X for a week straight, you begin to realize that it kicks anything from M$ right in the butt)

Cant's stand to see a market it doesn't have a part in (Oh no! There's something called MP3 that lets people play music! We need to have our own shared of the market... and so WMA was born)

Love for Linux:
It's free (as in free speach and free lunch)

It crashes less

More nerd-friendly



Ok, I'll admit that I have had problems with Linux, with crashing and stuff, but here's the thing: usually it's more of a problem with hardware not being supported by the vendor (my new TV tuner won't work with it, for example) My general feeling with other problems, like crashing, is this: sure, it may happen in Linux as well, but at least I'm not paying for it. If I'm going to pay a couple hundred dollars for an operating system, I expect it to work right something Micro$oft seems to have a problem with.

[bicostp]

My beef (and chicken and veal) with M$:

1. They killed old-school Netscape
2. XP, as a linked application, crashes if one little thing goes wrong
3. XP, with service pack 2 and all current updates, sucks up 4.2 gigs by itself
4. They shove new proprietary "standards" down our throats.
5. They pay no heed to open standards. (media player won't natively play Ogg files, IE doesn't support a whole heck of a lot)
6. Internet Explorer is used to exploit unknowing end-users out of their information through HacktiveX
7. They have created such a monopoly that people think if it has anything to do with computers, it's Microsoft. (one of my classmates thinks Microsoft runs the internet. Another thinks they own all computer things, including Dell, HP, and APPLE! XD)

Yay GNU/Linux:
1. Since the source code is readily avalible it can be tailored to your system
2. It's FREE! (Free as in free pie and chips, and in momentary value)
3. Minimal Linux distros are usable on old hardware with new software, unlike Microsoft which no longer supports anything older than 2k/ME)
4. It's getting easier and easier to use all the time, which makes it perfect for settings like internet kiosks and schools where maintenance should be kept low
5. You can easily install more than one version on the same computer and it will work properly
6. It supports almost any file format. (Linux's VLC build opens windows media files, but they're still figuring out version 3.)
7. It's very flexible for customizing. If you don't like Gnome, run KDE or FluxBox. You can make your own themes very easily for most environments.
8. It runs on almost any hardware
9. It runs the Space Shuttle. (Imagine if Windows did! )
10. No spyware, very few viruses (you can count viruses for Linux on one hand; there's something like 400k Windows viruses, unless I misplaced the decimel again...)

[Gamelver]

linux -> Penguin...

windows -> flag thingy....

'nuff said .

oh and everything that's already been said. if my old computer with linux wasn't taken apart right now for certain parts (like the sound card...my mom's computer doesn't have a midi/joystick input ) I'd still use linux! oh, and if it wasn't in my attic...it gets cold up there!

[SpongeBuell]

4. They shove new proprietary "standards" down our throats.

YES! How could I forget that? IE7 is going to be such a pain in the butt, since they are doing several things to create new "standards" Don't you love it how MS has no control over HTML, but they can still change it with how IE renders things?

Also, my coworker keeps on complaining about how he will write a page, and it looks perfect in all browsers tested (firefox, safari) except for (you guessed it!) Internet Explorer. He ended up having to check for the browser the user has using PHP, and have one of 2 pages come up in order for it to work right

[daguuy]

windows good: easy to use/ games
windows bad: tons of exploits, crashes a lot, takes a ton of ram & disk space/ has a stupid mascot/ has cooties/ evil/ huge monopoly/ sucks

linux good: rarely crashes/ very few viruses & spyware/ looks cool/ penguin/ works/ runs on almost any hardware/ games (wine?)/ doesn't have cooties/ tons of distros for whatever you need
linux bad: needs complex configuring to get some stuff to work

i just got linux working today so i don't have much experience with it so i'm missing a lot of the goods for it but you get the idea. lus i lost count of how many times i've had to reinstall windows because of fatal crashes

[Joes2Silly]

windows: cost money. Like arround $100 for XP

Linux: is free and you can order free installer CDs off the internet

In the end, using linux will cut $100 off building my gaming computer if I decide to go with linux

[Sparkfist]

Windows;
crashes
Cost too much
not enough peer suppport, or offical support that doesn't rape your wallet
Networking sucks
Firewall suckes
most programs are commercial (more green)

Linux;
Free of charge
lots of peer support, actually on par with company based.
Auto detect networking
builtin firewall (always)
Lots of free software bundled

I don't like windows because this is the second time I've tried installing it, and it will not auto detect the network. So as I'm using a copy of XP Pro from my laptop my chances of getting it activated are not that good (because I have to call). Further I've had it crash on my before and I just hate it. To add insult to injury, I for a time used Server 2003 (uses XP kernel) and that was fine, but it doesn't read FAT16 or FAT32 partitions. So really they screwed me on the ablity to have a bring partion on my system.

Linux reads every partition and file system type I know of. Is simple enough to use on my P1 laptop for school, my tower here at home for most things. About the only thing I can't do it rip DVDs, but that's only a matter of time, and I still have my Athlon64 laptop for that if need be. And I'm currently trying to get all the video codecs installed so I have full multimedia support on my linux system.

P.S. To explain the bridge I mentioned. I currently have a 50/25 partition setup on my 80GB hard drive, 50 for Windows, 25GB for transfering files between Linux and Windows. This way if I download a file and I need to use DVDshrink I can move it over to the other computer. Cause Linux still can't wrtie to NTFS, yet.

[sniper_spike]

Most points have been already said, so I'll only say one thing:
The only reason I haven't switched to Linux is because it doesn't natively (and even with wineX\cedega it' damn slow) support DirectX games.

[Robert the Small]

Well, I haven't used Linux. Ever. But I heard it can't display images on websites and thats <i>No Good</i>.

I mean, a friend of mine uses Knoppix for jokes, but still....

Hell, if I get a Linux disc, I'd test it out on me laptop, but meh, for now, I'm gonna stay at the Window's 'side, because it seems to work fine for me :<, and because Mac's can't run EXE files.

Edit: I'm gonna download Linux and see how it works. If I like it, I'll use it along side Window's, because of my total Incompatance with anything else.

[SpongeBuell]

I heard it can't display images on websites and thats <i>No Good</i>.

That statement is 100% false on all distros I have used. When I start my class in a couple minutes (a linux class) I'll prove it.

Edit:

[teraflop122]

Why I hate Microsoft: ...I don't.
Why I like Microsoft: gaming, a sense of familiarity, knowing that my hardware will never be incompatable with the OS itself

Why I hate Linux: ...I don't.
Why I like Lunix: it's free, and often has an oh-so-beautiful user interface (ala Knoppix), fun to boot from CD's

[Ghost2520]

Why I like Microsoft: gaming, a sense of familiarity, knowing that my hardware will never be incompatable with the OS itself
(ala Knoppix), fun to boot from CD's

Maybe for Windows XP, but not for Vista. Last I checked Windows Vista will require directX 9 cards. Direct X 10 is also Vista specific. I heard rumors, but haven't seen it confirmed that Vista will require that you have a "Microsoft certified" monitor to run. (although I doubt the last one is true)

[teraflop122]

Yeah, Vista is slated to use all kinds of nifty scalar and rendering stuff in it. I heard that about monitors too, but I heard that you would need a special, MS certified monitor so that Vista could pipe through HD-DVD/blu-ray content without giving access to the actual computer. Basically, you would need a monitor with high-def tv support, but Vista itself would work fine on normal monitors. Those silly MS programmers