Do you care for free (free of charge) software?

[BrokeBody]

Do you care for free (open source) software or you use GNU/Linux because it only works better than Windows?

[it.henrik]

I do not use linux because it works better then windows (in many cases windows is easier/better then linux).

I use linux because no company is telling me how I should use my computer, and if I think the development of something is going in the wrong direction I can help develop it myself or just fork it

And of course .. I dont have to worry about spyware, viruses, and I got so darn tired of always searching for cracks for the latest update of software xyz I wanted to use.

I believe M$ relised that this is one of the things that helps migrate ppl ... because they are nowadays giving away their software for free to students, at least at my university in sweden.

[glinsvad]

I use GNU/Linux because the alternative is this!

Anyway, what the hðÅ# was that spammer thinking? "Hmm, maybe I could sell this really expensive software to people using free software..." That just makes me laugh out loud

[Gustav]

I care for free (free speach) software.

[DirtDawg]

They're not mutally exclusive at all. Yes and yes.

[graigsmith]

Anyway, what the hðÅ# was that spammer thinking? "Hmm, maybe I could sell this really expensive software to people using free software..." That just makes me laugh out loud

yeah, pretty stupid lol.

But i think i use it for both reasons. Free has many benefits, no cost, and no restrictions. I think ubuntu is in many cases better than windows, but not always.

[nuvo]

I use Linux because:
It's free and supports much of the free software I used under Windows (if you can't do it with something from sourceforge, you can't do it).
I used to use mostly free apps from sourceforge under Windows such as Firefox and SCIte and these are available for easy instalation under Ubuntu.
I do care for open source software as I kind of understand the developers as I do some programming myself and unlike big companies, they're making software for fun and which addresses users requirements.
Sure, I could spend hundreds on Phtoshop and use about 5 of it's features, but I could also go and download Inkscape and GIMP (and Pixia if I wanted to boot XP) and get many of the same capabilities without my wallet being held hostage.

I also prefer the customisation capabilities of the whole system.
If you don't like GNOME, you can install XFCE or KDE or anything else you can get running without majorly hacking anything (in XP, you had to hack DLL's just to get custom themes unless you forked out for a tool that did exactly the same, but with a GUI for theme changing) and the desktop environments themselves are customisable far beyond a bare bones Windows install (I use a pretty much default GNOME layout at the moment, but I've had it function in a more OS X manner just using panels and a bit of poking about).

Linux uses Unix style permissions and such, which I prefer as it lets me lock people out of places they shouldn't be and it adds to the whole Linux security attraction (I never had a virus with XP, but I had a billion and one things running to keep them out while Linux doesn't need a ton of virus scanners and such).

Basically, I prefer Linux because it's better for me and because I want to support free software by learning how they work so that I can help others and spread the word.

[fluffington]

Why isn't there an "all of the above" option?

Reasons I use GNU/Linux/Ubuntu:

• It has a shell that works.
• It supports my hardware.
• It's free (in both senses of the word).
• It's secure (and doesn't get viruses just by sitting there).
• Apt.

EDIT: forgot one

[vialick]

I use linux largely for the free software side of things. I love to tinker around the computer (though my tinkering tends to resemble a sledgehammer rather than a set of tools) and see how it can operate...and it's a lot more fun breaking a linux install than a windows one.

as for being better than windows, well in my experiance, anything is better than windows. I'd prefer to use MS Dos these days, I just see no need to cling to windows, not even a particular software package (I am somewhat reliant at the moment on macintosh software at the moment) which I haven't seen a better version on annother OS.

[Fred Doolie]

Do you care for free software

No. I'd rather pay $100 to rent a very buggy OS.

I use Ubuntu because it's better then Windows in every way except one: My games require Winblows. The day somebody makes a 100% compatible Windows emulator* that runs at native speed and directly uses my 3D card and stuff I will reformat my Winblow partition and frisbee my Win Install CD out the window.
----------
* VMWare is only like 90% compatible. It's quite slow and the simulated graphics and sound cards are garbage.