Is Ubuntu your Tool or your Toy

[Omnios]

Yesterday I was talking to my sister on the phone about her Photo Studio and Photo tools, We talked a bit about Linux and I told her there may be some photo stuff that she could use but. She replied she realy didn't have the time to play with it or find the sorfware, though she has had a Linux sever before she definalty doesn't have the time being buisy managing buisiness and family. That made me wonder what are people using there linux for, is there serios professional use being done and what tools do they use.

Anyways this post may introduce people to new hobbies and toys and even help hook some poeple up with some usefull tools.

Is your Linux a Tool or a Toy and whats in your toolbelt or toybox?

[Zelut]

Well I use it for both I guess. I use it as my toy (XMMS, Gaim, firefox, etc) and my tool (GIMP for my photography processing, OpenOffice for school papers and Apache for my home web-server).

Great post, I had never thought of it that way before.

[dataw0lf]

My tool. Development, hax0ry, etc.

[poofyhairguy]

Honestly mostly a toy (playing with eye candy and weird programs), but it does get some use as a tool.

Black and white with shades of grey.

[Skel]

I use it for Gaim,Web surfing, Music, movie,Downlaoding... :) So Toy but i dotn use windows so its my only tool

[Jivicin]

I think it's a bit of both. Linux is great for programmers and it's also interesting software for someone to learn who is sick of M$ BS.

[super]

voted toy

that's really the only thing i really ever do on computers except for the odd document i need to type or research. my work doesn't really involve computers

rest of the time it's gaming, music and internet for me!! :cool:

[Brunellus]

I think it's a bit of both. Linux is great for programmers and it's also interesting software for someone to learn who is sick of M$ BS.

My whole 'useful' life--e-mail, IM, photo editing, word-processing--is done under Linux.

If any OS has become my 'toy' lately, it's WinXP. My WinXP partition is a game-only zone.

Now, so far as tweaking and fiddling with my ubuntu boxes (nosferatu and funes and soon, maybe another one!), yes I do it quite a bit. But that's subordinated to their usefulness to me.

I wish I had the extra cash for a 'testing' box--AMD 64, lots of RAM, nice graphics card--and ubuntu only (or perhaps ubuntu/gentoo multiboot)...now that'd be a toy!

[bgstratt]

There are only 10 types of people who understand binary.
Those who understand it, and those who do not.

Priceless. I don't care who y'are, that's funny right there.

I like the fact that it allows you to vote for both, for me ubuntu, and GNU/Linux in general is a tool and a toy, then again, I consider all my tools as toys...

[maruchan]

Tool: 3D Illustration and rendering (Windows' memory management sucks for this stuff), and web design. Both done for work, as in "I get paid money to do this on an every-day basis."

Toy: Not a toy in an eye-candyish way, but a toy in a "holy cow it's practically alive" sort of way.

[N'Jal]

Both really i develop on it, i also use it for internet etc. Though my desktop is almost alive, and rather tempermental, to the point of thinking about renaming it tardis the amount of times it's almost got it it right, but not quite.

[sapo]

Where is the option BOTH?

I used it to work, code php and html.. and to play UT2k4 and watch my anime stuff, surf internet etc etc.. :-P

My mom says that i play more than work.. but it isnt really true http://ubuntuforums.org/images/smilies/eusa_whistle.gif

[bearbigears]

tool, day to day e-mail, photo's, money market accounts, etc. it has been a great experienced. i really wanted to get away from windows and i found that OS in ubuntu

[angkor]

Both, use / play with it everyday.

[Omnios]

Linus originaly staarted out as a toy for me to play with and will be unlike Xp I can realy play around with it. You could probably play around with win but I find Linux so much eaisier to plaay with. Anyways its now turning into a toy as I learn Linux skills and find I can do more and more with it. Getting used to gimp so playing aaround with that a bit and looking for a few other toys to play with on my tool.

[Ubunted]

Both.

[agger]

Both.
Me too:
Internet, email, web development, download movies, see movies, everyday computer use: Tool&Toy, depending on what I'm doing right now.

I still have windows installed for my kids' webcam and stuff, but I never really use it myself.

[23meg]

tool: i do all the daily computing on Ubuntu.

toy: i mess with the internals of development releases to the best of my knowledge to help smash a few bugs.

[nocturn]

Ubuntu is my only OS (at home and in our store).

It is running on my home server as well as 2 laptops at home.
I use it for what most people use their primary/single OS for, work and play.
I surf the web, read my mail, do graphical design work and webdesign, system management etc.

[dcast]

both

[TravisNewman]

"Is ubuntu your tool or your toy?"

Yes it is.

[Malphas]

Still mostly a toy for me.

[basketcase]

More so a toy on my notebook. Though I do have a linux box up and running php/mysql/apache. My windows XP box has all my Studio MX stuff as well as SQL 2000 Server, so it is just as much a tool. Though I do play more on my windows box.

[xequence]

Tool - Download music, listen to it, go on the internet and stuff

Toy - Mess around with different window managers and customize ubuntu as much as possible

[majikstreet]

both.

[PatrickMay16]

I do my music composing and work with Ubuntu, and all my image editing and updating of my website, too. So Ubuntu is my tool. And I play games and mess around in Ubuntu, too, so Ubuntu is also my toy.

[John.Michael.Kane]

Ubuntu is my Tool.. Windows was my toy..

[nastya]

For the most part, Ubuntu is a toy in the sense that I use it for non work related things. However, when I have papers to write or research to do, it's a tool that works fantastically.

[matthew]

Since my candidate was not listed on the ballot I will write in my vote:

Both.

[raublekick]

Both for me.

[dspp]

Is your Linux a Tool or a Toy and whats in your toolbelt or toybox?

First, thanks for starting the seemingly simple thread that has opened a good discussion.

My answer is that Ubuntu is a tool that I have the option to use as a toy. I can do my work by using my Ubuntu box: word processing, graphics manipulation, web browsing, email, instant messaging, internet telephony, file transfer, etc. I do these things without the fear of crashing systems and lost work that I had when I relied on Microsoft products. I can also do "toy" things like listen to music and watch videos.

Like many Linux enthusiasts, learning the distributions ins-and-outs (and just learning in general) is fun. In that sense, Linux provides me with the ultimate toy.

[YourSurrogateGod]

Yes.

[Omnios]

Well Ubuntu is becomming more and more my toy and tool. Must say say things are getting better

[Onyros]

It's both my tool and toy ;)

[Dinerty]

Kinda both, my lappy is used for testing out all the new stuff xgl/compiz, latest source code.

My desktop machine is used for more stable based activities

[Yossarian]

Both. I started with Linux as a toy, but now I use it for work.

Worked an 8-4 deskjob for the last 4 months, and I can't enjoy using a computer anymore.

[IYY]

It's a tool for writing (when I write poetry, I need to type quickly and make corrections on the fly. Handwriting/notepad are not nearly fast enough; I need my vi), publishing (LaTeX), web design (again, vi), SSH to my university account, coding in C (so... also vi, and gcc) some design work in Gimp and now also Xara.

But it's also a toy... Especially with all the cool XGL stuff we have nowdays.

[songo]

first it was my tool. I got in this linux world for real because my graduation project had to be (and it was) done on linux so I needed a good distro.
after it became my tool and my toy since I installed at home also.
now that I'm on vacations it is my toy. I'm playing around with edgy!

[djsroknrol]

I voted both...'cause it's the truth...

[fuscia]

toy. i have absolutely no use for a computer.

[DoktorSeven]

Ubuntu: Tool, toy, teacher, mother... secret lover...

Urge to kill... fading...
;) (http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F03.html)

[paul cooke]

Both...

one box is set up all serious and I use it to do my accounts, write my letters, manage my photos etc.

the others are set up for playing around on... one is set up for music and is hooked up as a recording "studio", one is set up purely as an entertainment centre/file server and the last one is pure playing around on (currently running Edgy)

[Omnios]

Now that I found two music sequencer programs my Ubuntu has become a mogore toy.

[xXx 0wn3d xXx]

For me it's both. I like to use it for some uses (surfing internet, music, etc) but I also like to experiment/break/destroy my system for fun. So it is both a tool and a toy.

[user1397]

ubuntu was my sole OS for a while, so it was both my tool/toy. now i am dualbooting with windows, and windows is my primary OS right now.

so basically, ubuntu is a toy for me, but i do make good use of the tovid program as a tool to make me some dvd's.

[Kateikyoushi]

It's a tool but I use it for leisure as well.

[MethodOne]

I use it as a toy. I like to experiment with some of the applications and customize my system. I really want to put Kubuntu on my whole hard drive instead of dual-booting with Windows, but my sister can't live without iTunes and the official AIM client.

[Kayne]

Unfortunately it's a toy for me.
I'm too often in need of my scanner and photoshop, since my hobby is photography. Also I'm a fan of iTunes and my iPod. I've yet to discover a perfect replacement on Ubuntu.
Though I think that Ubuntu as an OS is far better than Windows.... I'd really like to use it and ditch Windows, wasn't it for various applications I need on a daily basis :(

[got_nix]

Its the only os i use. i bought an inspiron and threw it on same time. and i didn't get a windows cd so even if i wanted to (dont want to) i coulnd't re-install windows. so ubuntu is without a doubt or choice my tool