Linux Pros and Cons

[JazzyJay]

Pros.
- It's free.
- Lots of developers
- Open Source
- Secure
- Doesn't require high end equipment, therefore reducing your carbon footprint.

I would add that one of the best things about GNU/Linux for me is the ability to customise almost anything.
Another great thing are repositories. Not to mention command line one liners such as copying stuff across computers with simple command etc.
Many things come out of the box by installing an OS from a single CD - compare WinXP where you get a notepad, worpad, IE, paint and calculator. Ubuntu, for example, comes with OpenOffice, full blown email client, browser, IM client etc.

Cons
- It doesn't fair well as a desktop environment compared to Windows, because no-one wants to make POPULAR games that work in Linux.
- Some people just can't get on with it, because it's not taught in schools as a part of the governmental school curriculum, so they have to learn it on their own.

In my opinion, games on PC are not such a big market anymore, there are plenty of consoles that reduce the revenues for PC games industry. If companies who make games found a way to easily port PC games as they do it for PS3, Xbox etc., GNU/Linux would become even more popular. There are already decent proprietary drivers made by ATI and nVidia.

I have switched to GNU/Linux at home and work 5 months ago and have not looked back since. There were some difficulties getting things run etc. but community support is superb and things get fixed rather quickly. GNU/Linux seems like a way of life sometimes

JJ

[IXL]

Linux, is actually wider in use than people believe.

Its used in hardware kits and devices "on a chip" right under our noses.

I think if there was more of a business module for it, it would be a lot closer in market share than what it is now.

To my knowledge, games do run on linux, but its the hardware drivers that are more tricky to sort.

Lets hope that it gets more development.

[bambam]

Pro (and it's a biggy):
* Linux will run for frickin months without a re-start - it's an amazingly stable platform. So for a web server give me Linux + Apache anytime.

Another pro (and it's another biggy):
* Linux has a couple of robustness features that make it much less vulnerable to external attack and viruses:
(i) in practice it has had very few of the external attack vectors that Windows has left open, e.g. exploits of a myriad of poorly written network services that are running by default
(ii) the concept of the 'root' administrative user is well established so if you're logged on as a normal user you (or a virus executing as you) shouldn't be able to shag the system.

[JazzyJay]

Pro (and it's a biggy):
* Linux will run for frickin months without a re-start - it's an amazingly stable platform. So for a web server give me Linux + Apache anytime.

Another pro (and it's another biggy):
* Linux has a couple of robustness features that make it much less vulnerable to external attack and viruses:
(i) in practice it has had very few of the external attack vectors that Windows has left open, e.g. exploits of a myriad of poorly written network services that are running by default
(ii) the concept of the 'root' administrative user is well established so if you're logged on as a normal user you (or a virus executing as you) shouldn't be able to shag the system.

Yup, one of our computers at work that displays some stats and monitoring of our servers run for over a year without a restart - using one of the older Ubuntus.

[recruit]

Pro (and it's a biggy):
* Linux will run for frickin months without a re-start - it's an amazingly stable platform. So for a web server give me Linux + Apache anytime.

Another pro (and it's another biggy):
* Linux has a couple of robustness features that make it much less vulnerable to external attack and viruses:
(i) in practice it has had very few of the external attack vectors that Windows has left open, e.g. exploits of a myriad of poorly written network services that are running by default
(ii) the concept of the 'root' administrative user is well established so if you're logged on as a normal user you (or a virus executing as you) shouldn't be able to shag the system.

I couldn't have said it better myself. This about sums up the reasons why its great... however there are others.

What you have to be carefull with is this whole... Oh I want to try it because its cool shite... its not cool. Its an OS and if your a home user who plays games and already has windows I'd just leave it alone.
If you dont play games or have some old hardware and want to do some even basic stuff there will be a degree of learning involved - someones not going to sit next to you and show you as they are not many linux users around compared to windows although the online community is great.

I use CentOS for webhosting, Fedora for my desktop at work and Novell OES for the central network infastructure. All linux. All work.

At home I use windows Vista and play games all day and it works great. I see no need to upgrade to Win7 as its the same OS as I already have and what I have works just fine.

If you still feel like you want to still have a crack at linux due to all its good points you can ask myself or Jazzy as well would be happy to help you get up and running.

[JazzyJay]

Yes yes ) And since we're pro open source, we won't charge!

[Redddraggon]

I'm having another crack at linux. I've tried a few times in the past and it's always ended in failure. But this time I'll try and follow through and get used to it - I have another Laptop and Desktop with Vista (which incidentally works perfectly and straight forwardly )

I'm running into a few issues though (see my linux laptop thread).

[IXL]

Just worth a read...

http://www.itpro.co.uk/611455/linux-and ... r-netbooks