What does Linux mean to you?

[mo_roodi]

I've been dabbling with Linux for the past 4 or 5 years, but I've only recently (about a month ago) taken the plunge and got rid of my WinXP installation. As a side note I'm impressed how easy it was I thought it would be harder, but I guess "they" want you to think that... Anyway Ubuntu and Linux for me has always meant freedom. It's given me a choice, an alternative... I do some Java development work so porting all my existing apps accross has been a breeze (Sun deserves some credit for making that so easy) and there are alternatives for just about everything which is great.

Getting onto my question. I guess I want to ask what does Ubuntu and Linux mean to you.

[bensexson]

Basically it is a new toy for me to play with.

[meng]

Ubuntu was the umpteenth distro of Linux that I tried over a period of several years, and the first one to work near-perfectly. Sure, it's pitched at a non-geek crowd, but on the other hand it gave me the confidence to try some more hard-core distros subsequently (read Gentoo), with much greater success.

More generally, Linux to me means freedom, bragging rights, a hobby! And (at the bottom of the list) perhaps less financial expense (when one considers how many books I've bought to help, would have been more without forums like these though).

[malv83]

Freedom from capitalist oppression. Long live socialism!

[fuscia]

fun, fun, fun.

[Ted D.]

A new interesting and fun learning experience.

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by malv83
Freedom from capitalist oppression. Long live socialism!

Under Windows software oppresses software. Under Linux its just the opposite.

[ember]

With Ubuntu it become one of my most useful tools. Before it was already a nice toy and an ideologically desirable alternative.

[TheRingmaster]

to me it means choice (K/X/Edu/Ubuntu)

[Sam]

For me Linux is:
Free of charge
Free of viruses/spywares
Freedom to choosing what application to install
Freedom to customizing what you what
FOSS
Powerful and fun
No WGA/activation stuff
Less worries
A huge community
The best that suits my needs

[Ptero-4]

To me it's freedom and an extraordinary tool to do my stuff (namelly DoS the $PC's of whatever ******* luser's IP I happen to stumble across).

[mrgnash]

The ultimate environment for work and play (excluding games). I use it for all my graphic and web-design, I use it to watch movies and tv episodes, plan shopping lists, meals and formulate recipes, collect and work with digital images, -- you name it. Of course, I could do all the same things on Windows, but I simply prefer the FOSS philosophy, and the benefits of not having to worry about trial periods, license agreements, and spyware, malware, adware, etc. etc. Plus I can tailor exactly to fit my needs, from eyecandy and themes to bash scripts to automate tasks at set intervals.

[beercz]

Being productive by avoiding viruses, spyware etc ....

[argie]

Something I don't have to keep fixing all the time.

Besides I only have Win98SE and can't afford the others.

[adam.tropics]

Choice...

[ELD]

For me linux is (I am talking Ubuntu here):


A way to use my pc legally, i don't have money for windows
A good active community
A nice gaming community, with a nice selection of free Games
A way to get away from annoyances of windows
Something i can enjoy using


But it still has a way to go.

[EdThaSlayer]

Ubuntu means freedom of choice to me.
It also means stability, security, and...well...ubuntu(helping others ^_^)

[The Uniphobiac]

./less -boredom.:p

I was tired of the insert cd --> click next a few thousands times --> run program.

[Bezmotivnik]

Not much, frankly. It's just an ongoing experiment -- for me and everyone else, I guess.

I'm an insatiably curious man, grown from an insatiably curious child. I often buy things for no other reason than to take them apart to see how they work. I listen to music for no other reason than to try to mentally back-engineer the production. I eavesdrop on people for no other reason than to count how many lies and fallacies they can spout to each other (and themselves!) in ten seconds.

You get the picture. ;)

I've been watching and trying desktop Linux since the mid-'90s, entirely out of curiosity. Most of the important answers are now very obvious to me (in the negative) and I find my curiosity about the OS and the strange motivations of its strange devotees waning.

I keep trying the releases to stay on top of the level of progress toward (or regress from) the goal of a feasible and not too crippled general-purpose desktop OS for modern boxes, typical peripherals and busy, outcome-oriented users. Will desktop Linux beat the terrible odds against ever achieving that? It's worth a look and a try every few months.

I'm looking forward to October & Ubuntu 6.10...with curiosity. :-\"

[lapsey]

power

[adam.tropics]

./less -boredom.:p

I was tired of the insert cd --> click next a few thousands times --> run program.

you forgot 'You must restart you computer to complete installation'!!