Linux

[Ansatsu Ra'Karth† 0]

I am running ubuntu, myself, on an older PC next to me, its running a few servers for some of the games I play. After I set up the mysql database I haven't really had the need to touch the ubuntu machine and has been running for several months.

 

I game on Windows XP, so far I have had no problems with XP. I keep everything running quite well, no viruses, no loose registry keys, keep the hard drive defragged and a windows error check twice a week. The only issue I have is Kaspersky slowing the comp down to a crawl. Usually I have to disable startup components of kaspersky to get the comp to boot up faster as it takes about five minutes longer than it did with mcafee.

 

As for ubuntu its very easy to use and very easy to learn, they should have tutorials on the ubuntu website or a link to a third party site. You can also google more tutorials.

 

Only issue I have had with ubuntu is with a usb modem since my router and main PC are in another room. I had to run a cord through the wall to be able to access the net.

 

If you are running any AT&T DSL or Uverse you might have a few issues here and there which require a little assistance to get working. When I swapped from AT&T DSL to Uverse I had a couple of issues. It might have just been a local thing though since AT&T has been slacking in my area for several months (yayz for free internet for the eight months of downtime they had because they couldn't figure out the problem).

[Carson Coyote† 0]

I dual-booted Vista and Ubuntu on my computer until it died. I can still boot into Ubuntu from my computer's drive on any other computer, but Vista doesn't work.

 

I love Ubuntu.

[Luke Wolf† 0]

*Goes back through this thread finding the misconception that mac and Linux security are equivalent*

 

... no, no, no. that's not right at all.. Yes because they're both *nix, they're supposed to both have proper UAC (I doubt Apple implemented it properly though but I haven't touched and refuse to touch a mac, because they are proprietary pieces of ...) , yes because they *nix they're obscure... but wait is linux? In the Desktop arena sure, but in the business and server arena, not at all. Linux pretty much runs the internet through LAMP servers, NASA with the Beowulf cluster and all the Beowulf clusters that followed, Then There are Asterisk Servers which I'm uncertain about the market penetration of but they give a free voip server setup (obviously you have to pay for the hardware). 90% of the Worlds Super Computers run on Linux, etc ad nauseum.

 

Linux is not the small obscure target it's made out to be, Rather it's like ARM which is used in everything else but PCs.

 

Now just why is Linux secure, then if it's not because of obscurity?

It's called, It's open source. an easily pointed to example of why being opensource helps is the "Ping Of Death" Bug from the 90s. This is something that effected all OSs, now Proprietary solutions took days, weeks, and even months to fix it. Guess how long it took Linux ... 2 hours, and that is with a much smaller userbase than they have now in 2010, with all the refinements to the GUI, compositing, driver support and otherwise that allow users other than techs to use it, with the top three (Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE (I'm not counting all the derivatives of ubuntu other than just to place them under Ubuntu)) you don't even have to touch the command line unless you're doing things outside of the realm of a typical PC user.

 

Also you're typically going to be running either SELinux or AppArmor, developed by the NSA/Redhat and Novell Respectively. These are security layers that try to prevent the execution of dangerous code. SELinux is more evident, while AppArmor usually you don't know is running unless you check in on such things. SELinux is also known for being paranoid which is why the second version of Fedora Core had it disabled by default, and it took 6 months to build up a whitelist, and various policies that SELinux was to take.

 

Add to this that a majority of software installation comes from repos (yes one can download source and do the "./configure, make, make install" dance but the typical PC user isn't going to do that or know to do that). But what if someone hacks the repos? Well then the signature on the package changes from that of the repo, and the package manager won't install it (sure you could force it.. however that requires someone with more skill than the typical user to do, and they should know better). Also you have people like myself who go out of their way to report such things. Even if it turns out to just be a package that hasn't been recompiled since they changed the signature.

 

It is this that makes Linux secure, it is this that separates it from OSX, It is why Linux is truly secure, and the most secure. To create a proper analogy:

 

Apple is like riding a bike along a road, sure you're safe, unless you get hit by a car. Windows is like a heavy tank in a battlefield, It's in a hotzone however it is relatively well protected, Linux is like a paranoid man in a bunker, surrounded by a minefield, with computer controlled AAA, and Antitank missles, and he's sitting on a nuclear missle.

 

tl;dr version:

Linux is far from being as obscure as many think, it just doesn't have as large a PC market share. Open Source == Secure. DEP security of SELinux or AppArmor == More Secure. Packagemanger == ++ security, Linux inf()> OSX as far as security goes.

 

Also I've ditched Ubuntu for Fedora and openSUSE and couldn't be happier about doing so.

[Wolveon† 0]

*necros thread*

I love Linux, much better than the other OSes out there. I like the look and feel of OS X, but I'm not paying whatever ridiculous price Apple is asking for one of their Macs. $20 for a Hackintosh is manageable, however.

Can you even count Chrome OS as an operating system? ._. And Windows is just.. Windows.

 

But anywho, Linux. My favorite Distros are Ubuntu, Zorin, Pear, and Pinguy. I can't run any recent versions of any of those (stuck with Windows 7 at the moment) because of my outdated wireless card, which I am planning on replacing. Whenever I do I plan on installing Ubuntu 12.04 to my other hard drive.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Wolveon

[Flechmen 0]

Hmm, this is an old thread isn't it?

 

In managing this site, I'm dealing with CentOS, Debian and openSUSE.

 

Each has their ups and downs...

 

Ubuntu in recent times has gone to a really weird interface. KDE has gotten a lot better, and a lot of other things have gone downhill.

 

OpenSUSE with KDE is really easy. I like it a lot. The webserver the forums runs on is OpenSUSE, but without a user interface..