How ideological are you about Linux?

[mamamia88]

Ubuntu is better than anything else out at the moment
fast
reliable(ish)
has workspaces (catch on Microsoft)
open source
open sauce
neat
and stuff

wow such compelling arguments and workspaces are really only relevant if they fit your work flow. If a desktop environment is setup properly they are almost pointless. And really faster? Unity and windows 7 are about the same for performance maybe windows 7 is even slightly faster.

[Tibuda]

"I don't really care about OSS, just what tool is best"

[qamelian]

wow such compelling arguments and workspaces are really only relevant if they fit your work flow. If a desktop environment is setup properly they are almost pointless. And really faster? Unity and windows 7 are about the same for performance maybe windows 7 is even slightly faster.

What you say is mostly a matter of opinion and personal taste. We differ in that I don't consider a desktop environment to be setup properly unless it does allow workspaces.

And my netbook, which shipped with Windows 7 by default, is so slow as to be almost unusable in Windows 7, but it flies right along in Ubuntu. It is measurably faster.

[jerome1232]

workspaces are really only relevant if they fit your work flow.

They are the best thing since butter meet bread.

And really faster? Unity and windows 7 are about the same for performance maybe windows 7 is even slightly faster.

Sure, Unity and Gnome-Shell are a bit heavy, but you know what, Unity runs better than Win 7 Starter Edition somehow on my resource tight netbook. Flash video's stutter a lot more on win 7, barely at all on Ubuntu. That's just my experience in a resource tight arena.

Now, let's put it [Windows 7] up against say, XFCE, IceWM, Openbox, LXDE, or KDE shall we?

There there's that, look at all of those options you have for various environments, you aren't stuck with what apple or microsoft deemed to be your UI (hello tile... thingies... win8... never mind)

[kurt18947]

I'm a programmer and I think a programmer should have a right to chose his/her own business model depending on what works best for him. If you need to put bread on the table and opening your software up may prevent that then by all means keep it closed. If you think you can make money by selling support then feel free to open it up, but don't be surprised if someone forks it and takes away your business.

OSS is a good thing, especially for users, but not everyone should be expected to give away their code.

This analogy may be flawed but here's how I view it. I think of the operating system as a highway system and applications as vehicles using that highway. How would the highway system work if its documentation/maps were incomplete or contain purposeful errors? And vehicles not 'paying tribute' to the highway's owner would become lost, intermittently break down or catch fire for reasons known only to the highway's owner? That wouldn't be a very viable system.

[mamamia88]

They are the best thing since butter meet bread.



Sure, Unity and Gnome-Shell are a bit heavy, but you know what, Unity runs better than Win 7 Starter Edition somehow on my resource tight netbook. Flash video's stutter a lot more on win 7, barely at all on Ubuntu. That's just my experience in a resource tight arena.

Now, let's put it [Windows 7] up against say, XFCE, IceWM, Openbox, LXDE, or KDE shall we?

There there's that, look at all of those options you have for various environments, you aren't stuck with what apple or microsoft deemed to be your UI (hello tile... thingies... win8... never mind)

oh i agree completely. i was just pointing out how it's neat and stuff is a horrible argument. workspaces are cool but once you get 2 monitors i can take em or leave em. I just basically use them as an alternative to the show desktop button in most cases.

[QIII]

Nor would the highway system or the vehicles work well if the civil and mechanical engineers, for want of a few crusts of bread, expired.

Idealism is easy when it is someone else's kids who go hungry.

[kurt18947]

Nor would the highway system or the vehicles work well if the civil and mechanical engineers, for want of a few crusts of bread, expired.

No question about that. For sake of this thread pretend that most or all U.S. highways are owned by G.M. Vehicles produced by G.M. perform really well and are mechanically superior on those highways. In-car navigations systems are perfect, all turns and lane changes are correct, everything is rosy.

Cars manufactured by Ford, Toyota, Nissan etc. fare less well due to engineering and navigation data and documentation supplied by G.M. being incomplete or flawed. When asked about this, G.M. first denies it but when subpenaed says "oh gosh, we may have missed a few things. We're not perfect." In fact the omissions were purposeful intended to give G.M.s automotive division a competitive advantage over it's automotive rivals. If all highway information were equally available to all auto manufacturer's (open source) this situation would be far less likely.

Were those decisions made by the civil and mechanical engineers in the highway division? Probably not. To paraphrase Dilbert , "engineers are genetically incapable of lying". Pointy haired bosses wanting to become millionaires on the other hand .... .

[QIII]

I can imagine a great many things. Many of them are fanciful enough to make any hypothetical argument I choose.

It remains true, however, that flights of fancy make thin soup.

I deal in reality. To the extent that I can indulge in ideology and remain rooted in reality, I will.

Thus, I support FOSS. However, I am pragmatic enough to realize that the world's ills will find no sure cure in FOSS.

Staying the hand of the PHB without reservation and without careful circumspection effects others who, as the babies, will be thrown out with the bath water. PHBs may be without honor, but they may be a necessary evil.

But that is not to say they should move unfettered.

Neither should I be asked to visit a local haberdashery to buy new buttons for my hair shirt.

[HansKisaragi]

I use what works.. OSS is nice but i haven no preferences.. I get very annoyed with the everything must be free mentality some people have but that can be ignored.