Why do you choose Ubuntu over Windows

[dvwolfman]

My experience with MS windows XP was that I felt I was dealing with an incompetent company; they never could get things secure without limiting functioning...come on that can't be denied, if you use a 'limited' account you cant do anything useful...

anyway what was worst on XP was: I used to work on retail point of sale, as a sort of network admin, MS POS Retail Management (I think it was 1.3 at the time) and after that experience I was convinced of the viability of open source in prinicple for commerce, I would help out with that, Linux POS, but am helping with other stuff I find equally important...that project is really important though, I think one idea was the Cent OS...
I digress...

Windows is great for games because MS is so greedy and paranoid they don't release the source code that would make it work better...it's an issue, last game I played on windows was Gothic 2 (had the disk, worked fine on my old XP system) but when I installed it on the new one could not fix the crashes...and there was a closed source tool to fix it, and patches...but let one genius gamer who loves a good RPG at the code, and she/he could fix it cause it seemed to be a issue of DirectX...let the community help, no we need to do our 'microsoft monolithic procedure'

Microsoft makes money for IT folks, that's true, how many friends from highschool now have cushy jobs cause they got MS certificates? lots...
but it's unethical if they know better...really my MS POS experience led me to believe that all Open Source needs to do is just kick the deck of cards over by making a project that uses the current network model with a great touchscreen front end...most of the components are there, and there are a few models/projects...

oh us poor IT folk won't be able to get blood from the stone of small business anymore, would that be sad...we would just get paid for installation training and regular mantience, not "the cashier checked his hotmail and got the register a virus"...

I give the developers Steinberg and Propellorhead great credit for making quaility software, my Reason Box and Cubase manual are on the shelf behind me...but can it run on windows XP effectively? not for me, major problems over time, and I didn't have the modular connectivity of Jack to do what I choose with the software...

I feel free for freedom, I am now 100% Linux, Ubuntu: For people, By people

Linux on a cash register would be a very powerful thing...

Thanks for reading my rant

[DDDa]

Yes, I am using it because it finally works better than the "competition" (in my opinion). That's it.

I like 1) hw support for the notebook I have; 2) unobtrusive system that allows me to get the job done.

I liked WinXP because it had that at the time, and Linux was horrible to my laptops (heat and all). Security prompts were easily deactivated under "services.msc", and deactivating one thing wouldn't break another. Then I bought a new notebook and was forced to pay the MS tax (read: upgrade to 7). And how horrible an experience it was... clean boot would take 900MB of RAM, even after taking out all the bloatware. And to top that, Windows is now so obtrusive that is impossible to work with. Even basic settings are not only deep inside, but also dispersed. Take network settings, for example (wifi, IP addresses, delete Network places... all that under different points, accessed through different ways and levels).

So I finally tried (yet again) Ubuntu. And what a surprise... the power management is so much better, almost "there" It surpassed Windows on my "curve of preference", so here I am with Ubuntu on my new notebook.

[dvwolfman]

Yes, I am using it because it finally works better than the "competition" (in my opinion). That's it.

I like 1) hw support for the notebook I have; 2) unobtrusive system that allows me to get the job done.

I liked WinXP because it had that at the time, and Linux was horrible to my laptops (heat and all). Security prompts were easily deactivated under "services.msc", and deactivating one thing wouldn't break another. Then I bought a new notebook and was forced to pay the MS tax (read: upgrade to 7). And how horrible an experience it was... clean boot would take 900MB of RAM, even after taking out all the bloatware. And to top that, Windows is now so obtrusive that is impossible to work with. Even basic settings are not only deep inside, but also dispersed. Take network settings, for example (wifi, IP addresses, delete Network places... all that under different points, accessed through different ways and levels).

So I finally tried (yet again) Ubuntu. And what a surprise... the power management is so much better, almost "there" It surpassed Windows on my "curve of preference", so here I am with Ubuntu on my new notebook.

Good points

[claralea]

i just switched a couple weeks ago. I am not a computer-smart person at all, although I guess I'm better with computers than some. My secondhand laptop got infected while using XP. And even before that, it was lagging all the time and just generally acting its age. It looked like I was needing to rewrite and reinstall but I wasn't sure I still had an install disc for Windows. My friend suggested using Ubuntu instead, so I made the disc and tried it out. I liked the process of that, learning as I went, and when I tested it...WOW. So much sleeker, so much more intuitive, so much fun! So I got rid of Windows entirely when I did the Ubuntu install. Sure, every time I want to do anything for the first time involving proprietary data (like play a DVD) I have to go find some driver or whatnot to make it happen, but like I said, I'm learning by doing and learning is fun. Finally, I'm very into the idea of free and collaborative anything over an ownership-based model (which brings hierarchy), and I also like Ubuntu's commitment to accessibility on a variety of fronts (like income, disability, language, etc).

[Nick_Jinn]

You can design and sell proprietary software for Linux and Ubuntu.....In fact, if the software is better than whats available for free there might be a good market for it.

Having fewer users will be made up for by having less competition.


If somebody wrote some games that play natively on Ubuntu, the game would probably sell better on windows if there was no publicity, because Linux would do all the advertising for them and users would flock to it.

[Nick_Jinn]

i just switched a couple weeks ago. I am not a computer-smart person at all, although I guess I'm better with computers than some. My secondhand laptop got infected while using XP. And even before that, it was lagging all the time and just generally acting its age. It looked like I was needing to rewrite and reinstall but I wasn't sure I still had an install disc for Windows. My friend suggested using Ubuntu instead, so I made the disc and tried it out. I liked the process of that, learning as I went, and when I tested it...WOW. So much sleeker, so much more intuitive, so much fun! So I got rid of Windows entirely when I did the Ubuntu install. Sure, every time I want to do anything for the first time involving proprietary data (like play a DVD) I have to go find some driver or whatnot to make it happen, but like I said, I'm learning by doing and learning is fun. Finally, I'm very into the idea of free and collaborative anything over an ownership-based model (which brings hierarchy), and I also like Ubuntu's commitment to accessibility on a variety of fronts (like income, disability, language, etc).

In Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, you dont have to do any of that. Its all built into the OS out of the box.

I have both on my desktop, Ubuntu Studio and Linux Mint, and some others.

[Ozymandias_117]

You can design and sell proprietary software for Linux and Ubuntu.....In fact, if the software is better than whats available for free there might be a good market for it.

Having fewer users will be made up for by having less competition.


If somebody wrote some games that play natively on Ubuntu, the game would probably sell better on windows if there was no publicity, because Linux would do all the advertising for them and users would flock to it.

While, not quite to the extent you're saying, the Humble Indie Bundle proved part of that.

Most places seem to place Linux users at < 1% but of the people that bought the humble indie bundle, (I'm rounding slightly, they weren't EXACT but they were close) 50% Windows 25% Mac 25% Linux

[rocknrollmouse]

Work with Windows;
Relax with Linux

[Chame_Wizard]

No need to install a driver for a new Logitech G500 gaming mouse and a Linksys WRT320N Gigabit WLAN router atm.

[Denis Krajnc]

Because I enjoy it better, it's more stable, I'm more productive with it.
For everyone else: Try different things, then use what works the best for you.