Do college students use Linux?

[SZF2001]

In this day and age, a lot of people are going to end up on one computer or another, I suppose. Rather it be a laptop or desktop, kids need to study.

Here is my question - are there a bunch of college kids running Linux, or is the general average Joe still going to be using Windows? No offense to them, of course, they are just sticking to what they know.

I was just curious about the subject - it would be neat to meet other people using Ubuntu or Mandrake, maybe Fedora, you know. I bet there are some classes I could take, too...

[reckless2k2]

there was a post recently out about this. it seems only IT related schools are using and or supporting linux. most schools across the country are not supporting it and therefore the students are not using it.

[SZF2001]

Eh, I kind of expected that. One thing I'm worried about is certain college's expect you to use MS, like getting onto servers and whatnot, things like encrypted .doc files... Is this true? I'd really hate having to dual boot again.

[dizee]

I'm a college student ;) Still need windows for certain college things though unfortunately.

[maniacmusician]

At my college (Hampshire College in Amherst, MA), the school recommends Macs over everything else, so that's what's most prevalent here. Some people still use Windows, and I've actually met more than 5 which use Linux (this is a very small school, so that was surprising). Our IT department actually does support Linux for people that want to use it, and I hear about people wanting to try it all the time, so I think it's getting good exposure on college campuses.

[ThinkBuntu]

At my University nearly everyone runs Mac or Windows, and people are very tech illiterate, since it's a Liberal Arts school and not an Ivy League one. I have yet to encounter a Linux user or hear anyone mention Linux. If I weren't a web designer, I would have sold my Macbook and would be running Zenwalk on my old ThinkPad...

[FuturePilot]

The college I was going to go to only supported Windows and Mac OS X. I would have used Linux anyway. But I ended up not going there.:p

[JNowka]

I am a college student. I have helped to open the doors to Linux in my community college. They are about the implement their first linux server, and are going to start introducing students to linux over a two week period in a software certification class. Not only that but I am currently pushing for a full fledged linux class, and though the ground ahead is shaky, it also looks promising.

So my advice to other college students is to be vocal to the staff and faculty of your college. They are likly to listen when their students request new material.

[dizee]

I don't know of any other linux users in my college, I've only ever seen one mac as well (but they're not very popular in this country in general anyway). But I'm not doing a computer science degree, I'm sure there are others using linux there.

[PmDematagoda]

I've still got to go to college but I'm very sure I won't be going there without Ubuntu or somesort of Linux on my laptop along with Windows.:)

[reckless2k2]

if the college supports networking with a mac, you can more than likely do linux then but it'll be unsupported. "choice" is typically restricted because of the support factor mostly. the IT world is dominated by microsoft certifications. the schools need supported software and look to what the industry points to. all in all it leads back to a microsoft dominated world in general. i'm sure most not just about everything you might need could be done with linux but you'll get no support on it. it'll be a good learning experience though bugging around with it. i had something similar in a work environment. the only tough thing was VPN from home to the workplace.

[happy-and-lost]

Eh, I kind of expected that. One thing I'm worried about is certain college's expect you to use MS, like getting onto servers and whatnot, things like encrypted .doc files... Is this true? I'd really hate having to dual boot again.

Mine needs certificate authentication to access the network, which wpasupplicant just can't do. It means I have to convert all of my work from .odt to .doc, and then open that .doc in Word '07 (in a "Compatibility mode"), which loses any inserted images and screws up the formatting. [/end rant]

I have moaned to the IT department, but it's a school with 500 students and only 1 member of IT support staff. He's a bit busy to overhaul the entire system just for me...

[Kingsley]

I use Linux for all my college classes except Calculus and English. Calculus homework is done through an online program called MyMathLab. It only works in Internet Explorer ;@. My English papers require nothing less than Microsoft Office. I do type up my rough drafts on OOo though.

[amazingtaters]

I = kollege stoodent, and I'm using Linux. Question answered?

[argie]

I use Linux and I'm in college. What I've noticed about people here is lots use it in college because it's required but nearly no one uses it on the desktop. However, the better the college, the higher the chance that someone will be using Linux or a Mac.

In fact, there's this really good place for Math here called CMI, and AFAIK, there is not one windows computer on the whole campus.

[ryno519]

My programming course required you dual boot between XP and GNU/Linux. I have seen non-IT students use GNU/Linux though. I even helped one build a computer and install Ubuntu on it. He's a GNU/Linux evangelist now. :)

[monsieurdozier]

At my University, the only setback is that many of my professors require Microsoft Powerpoint Apps and Word Documents. I still have my XP Machine, but I do run my Xubuntu machine often. And with Open Office, it's really not that big of a deal.

I know of one other guy that uses Ubuntu, because XP crapped out on him, and one of our IT majors used BSD.

All the computer labs have Windows Vista on them...

...So I bring my Ubuntu Live CD in tow.


Monsieur Dozier

[WarholsGhost]

At my school (cal state east bay) we have a few sun system computers in the library that everyone shuns and even the people who work there tell people not to use them. they won't even set up the computers to work with the printers!

There is a LUG on my campus but it is very inactive on a campus wide level. My school seems to use more macs in the art department but windows is everywhere else, linux is only found on the 12 computers mentioned above.

[p_quarles]

I'm a grad student, and live off-campus, so I don't have a lot of experience connecting with my university's (U of Chicago) network, other than for e-mail and library services.

That said, they the IT department does a good job of being flexible about OSes. The main servers all run *nix (with e-mail via SSH and Pine, or via IMAP), they actively distribute Firefox/Thunderbird as part of the "connectivity package", and they have Cisco's VPN client available for Windows, Mac and Linux. They don't offer tech support for Linux users, but they do a great job of making the entire network available to them.

In stark contrast is another local university at which I took a temp job earlier this year. The web servers were running on *nix, but that was about it. Staff and faculty had the option of using Mac desktops, but the Exchange server prevented them from getting much connectivity (they had to use the web interface to communicate with the server).

Just as I was wrapping up my assignment, they started porting all multimedia materials (lecture recordings, etc.) onto a localized iTunes store. In other words, materials that had previously been available in widely accessible formats could now only be downloaded using the iTunes client. I still can't figure out why they would do this.

[amazingtaters]

I'm a grad student, and live off-campus, so I don't have a lot of experience connecting with my university's (U of Chicago) network, other than for e-mail and library services.

That said, they the IT department does a good job of being flexible about OSes. The main servers all run *nix (with e-mail via SSH and Pine, or via IMAP), they actively distribute Firefox/Thunderbird as part of the "connectivity package", and they have Cisco's VPN client available for Windows, Mac and Linux. They don't offer tech support for Linux users, but they do a great job of making the entire network available to them.

In stark contrast is another local university at which I took a temp job earlier this year. The web servers were running on *nix, but that was about it. Staff and faculty had the option of using Mac desktops, but the Exchange server prevented them from getting much connectivity (they had to use the web interface to communicate with the server).

Just as I was wrapping up my assignment, they started porting all multimedia materials (lecture recordings, etc.) onto a localized iTunes store. In other words, materials that had previously been available in widely accessible formats could now only be downloaded using the iTunes client. I still can't figure out why they would do this.

You know, I have that problem with email here. I can recieve email, but the server doesn't like my using Evolution I guess because I have to get online and use the web based mailbox to send mail. It's a pain. Overall, we have pretty much zero *nix on campus (Butler University) and the only thing you see other than WinXP is the occasional student/professor who has a Mac.

[fifth_rune]

Business/Psych Major, proud Ubuntu user

[demosdemon]

My school's network is based off a solaris system

all the computers for student use are windows xp pro or solaris systems, with the exception of the computer science building which are dual-boot CentOS/Windows XP pro

[armorm2]

3rd year comp. science major over here - FSU....i started using linux (ubuntu dapper) my first year and have been building it up ever since. Installing stuff is sometimes complicated (as anyone would say i guess), but for the most part i use it more than windows. When you can get stuff like beryl why not??

by the way if anyone can help me w/ this problem I'm having installing beryl I'd greatly appreciate it....thanks in advance. Check my other post to see what I'm talking about. Lol, i only have 1 other post.

[Rupertronco]

University - Pitt
Primary - OS : Slackware/Ubuntu

M$ is required for a couple of p-chem apps I must use if I want any chance of getting something right. Also, Linux has no acceptable substitute for AutoCAD (my opinion) so I'm in need of windows for that as well.

[LowSky]

SUNY (state university of new york --- a network of a bunch of colleges thoughout NY) supports linux/unix with many schools teaching both. I got to DCC where IBM (#1 employer in poughkeepsie) just lets us use it server space for compiler projects

[vexorian]

I am a college student, I have not booted windows for necessity in ages, and although I have windows in virtual box I am yet to find a college situation in which I am forced to use windows.

[hessiess]

i am doing a computer graphics course, haven't used windows on my computer for ages, but haft to there(3dsmax, photo shop) still profur blender and gimp tho :)

[p_quarles]

You know, I have that problem with email here. I can recieve email, but the server doesn't like my using Evolution I guess because I have to get online and use the web based mailbox to send mail. It's a pain. Overall, we have pretty much zero *nix on campus (Butler University) and the only thing you see other than WinXP is the occasional student/professor who has a Mac.
It's really weird that some colleges do this. Exchange is a good choice for businesses, but it is absolutely the worst possible choice for an academic environment.

[jgrabham]

It's really weird that some colleges do this. Exchange is a good choice for businesses, but it is absolutely the worst possible choice for an academic environment.

Use liferay :]

[Reshuken]

Well I'm at college here in Guatemala, and know some other people that uses Linux, although I don't know if they use it as their primary OS (I can't either, I'm still learning Ubuntu and need AutoCAD). But almost all the computers in my college dual boot Fedora and WinXP and as far as I know, my IT department supports Linux all the way.

[Depressed Man]

I'm a college student, and both my desktop and laptop run Linux (well specifically Ubuntu). And I spend alot of time in Ubuntu vs Windows.

But judging by looking at people's laptop screens the majority are OSX or Window users. And from going into dorm rooms to meet people they tend to run Windows.

Network wise, the majority of PCs here are Windows, though we do have Macs. Even the servers are Windows based. Though the lab I work in is all Macs (the professor and the graduate students love Macs).

This is at the University of Maryland, College Park.

[matt_man22]

My business school only supports Windows XP and forced everyone to upgrade to Office 2007. However, I run linux anyway, but have no access to the internal network. I am forced to use webmail and virtual machines with XP.

Whenever I bring up linux to anyone here, they really have no idea what it is. The IT Dept runs a linux back-end, but all of the front help desk only uses Windows. I hope it's not like that this at other colleges.

[macogw]

I'd say probably 20-25% of kids here use Macs, and most of the rest use Windows. About 1/4 of kids in my CS classes raised their hands for Linux when the professor asked what OS we use, but outside CS, there are few Linux users here. One is a girl who was in my Japanese class. Her boyfriend saw me using Ubuntu and then installed it on both his computer and hers, so she's still using it.

The Physics department uses CentOS. The Computer Science department has a lot of XP/Fedora Core 4 dual-boots (I think they upgraded to Fedora 7 on some of them recently), a few XP/Fedora dual boots that are hooked up to Macs with KVMs, and at least one Mac lab.

We're told that it is "impossible" to get wireless here with Linux or BSD. I know it's BS. I made an instruction sheet and gave 10 copies to Student Technology Services. Apparently the guy I handed them to gave them to the guy in charge of STS, and he was impressed with it (neither of them knew how to do it even though both use Linux), so I have a job interview Wednesday morning.

[macogw]

University - Pitt
Primary - OS : Slackware/Ubuntu

M$ is required for a couple of p-chem apps I must use if I want any chance of getting something right. Also, Linux has no acceptable substitute for AutoCAD (my opinion) so I'm in need of windows for that as well.

Join WPLUG (if you haven't already)! They're cool people. One of my friends just got banned from the Pitt Linux computers in the library though. He was using the terminal to clear his Firefox cache, and the librarians freaked out and said he should be banned, so then they did. I'm not sure what he did that was banworthy, except that perhaps the librarians think that using the terminal is the equivalent of hacking is the equivalent of cracking, and is therefore illegal.

[PriceChild]

My University doesn't care what you use really...

My department runs Ubuntu servers, provide software for win/osx/linux and are generally nice :)

The uni/department even supported me taking a week out last year to attend UDS Sevilla :)

[gpilkay]

I use a lot of Open-Source stuff, including Linux. Reason being, though, I have to deal with a LOT of different file formats and it's actually easier for things like OpenOffice and GIMP to handle then the rather sparse cross-compatibility platforms you can get under Windows. I also use Linux extensively on the on-line classes as it's much less crash-prone when dealing with the campus servers.

Given that they SELL OpenSuse in the bookstore at UNCP and give classes ON Linux, I'm not surprised it has its uses here.

[markp1989]

I was a college student till the start of summer and i use Ubuntu, and i have spoke to my class about it, and only 2 other people out of 20 used Linux,(this is an ICT class, most used windows becaue they needed it for compatability with windows computers at college) one used Ubuntu and the other didn't specify what distribution they used.

So out of 20 students 3 used Linux so thats 15% which inst bad considering that every computer had windows installed when it was brought.

[markp1989]

Join WPLUG (if you haven't already)! They're cool people. One of my friends just got banned from the Pitt Linux computers in the library though. He was using the terminal to clear his Firefox cache, and the librarians freaked out and said he should be banned, so then they did. I'm not sure what he did that was banworthy, except that perhaps the librarians think that using the terminal is the equivalent of hacking is the equivalent of cracking, and is therefore illegal.

i hate people like that, who see something they dont understand an assume its something bad, i spose it human nature, but it is still annoying that your friend got punished for no reason

[forcesofhabit]

I go to a decent sized community college in Minnesota. I've never seen anyone else using Linux but myself. There is a LUG that doesn't seem to be too active. The majority of people seem to use Windows, and I've seen a few Mac books around. All of the school's computers use Windows XP.

[DarkOx]

I'm pretty much the only student I've seen using Linux as their personal desktop. However, both our Computer Science and Engineering computer labs have some version of linux running on them. But I haven't had much experience with them since that's not my program.

For my major, business, no one cares what OS you run just what office suite. Obviously, Microsoft Office is what's taught and what's expected, seeing as how it's the tool of choice for the vast majority of businesses. Open Office can more or less substitute for Word, but Calc doesn't quite match up with the features we're being exposed to in Excel. But, if you wanted to run Linux, and could either virtualize or use Crossover Office or whatever, it'd certainly be accepted.

[pluviosity]

I'm a college student using Linux!

I go to Cornell, and they officially do not support Linux (boo!). I did get my email and wired/wireless Internet to work. The only issues I have so far is the fact that all the profs use Excel and crew when they post stuff online, and some of them don't render properly. However, they do have one computer lab that dual-boots Windows and Linux (either Red Hat or Ubuntu, or maybe something else, don't remember). Oh, and we have to use Windows, or possibly Macs, to enroll in courses >.<

As a side note, I keep noticing more and more Macs around, possibly due to the coupling of iPods to new Macs for students.

[areteichi]

Here at UC Berkeley, out of everyone I know, I'm the only one using Linux. However, I was able to use ethernet at my dorm last year, and I can do all the administrative/academic stuff on Ubuntu which might put me in a better environment than others from what have been said so far. The only time I had a problem was when I had to take this lame online alcohol education session, and Flash, Java, or both did not function properly. So I ended up having to skip all of the contents to go directly to take the test. Well fortunately enough, I still passed (who needs them anyways).

[cmat]

I use linux purely now in college now. People that sit beside me are quite amazed by it. I'm the only guy not going "ahh, it's not working", "word just crashed", or "vista sucked up my battery".

[p_quarles]

Here at UC Berkeley, out of everyone I know, I'm the only one using Linux. However, I was able to use ethernet at my dorm last year, and I can do all the administrative/academic stuff on Ubuntu which might put me in a better environment than others from what have been said so far. The only time I had a problem was when I had to take this lame online alcohol education session, and Flash, Java, or both did not function properly. So I ended up having to skip all of the contents to go directly to take the test. Well fortunately enough, I still passed (who needs them anyways).
That's kinda sad, given the huge role that school played in the development of modern operating systems. The least they could do is hire decent developers to write their alcohol education exam.

[nike984]

In my univ., Window & Mac OS is offically supported.
Linux is also supported but only Redhat.
Class Homepage is working under Web App. named
'BlackBoard' which works in both IE & firefox
but in firefox, there are several things that don't work.

So, MS & OSX is the main OS in my campus.

[areteichi]

That's kinda sad, given the huge role that school played in the development of modern operating systems. The least they could do is hire decent developers to write their alcohol education exam.

Yeah, but then to clarify, I think our school simply made a contract with a private firm to offer our school with something that does this nonsense. In other words, it is not solely our school to blame, but also the well-known problem of how these other private firms are constructing their online services. Nevertheless, our school should have checked for system requirements before signing the contract, and that certainly is something for which it is to be blamed.

[sloggerkhan]

I use linux only on my computer at the University of Arizona.
IT is fairly decentralized here, so different groupsof people have different setups. The CS department has mostly windows with some Fedora desktops and also at least one *nix server. Engineering has a number of *nix servers and different labs have mac and windows. So far as the CS department goes, I don't get the sense that they have a major open source bent, but I don't think they are opposed to it or anything.

I can't think of a university service that I can't access with linux. (Thought there are some that will only work with Firefox/Explorer/Safari/Opera browsers, so no niche browsers for some stuff.) I guess there is some experimental support of the iTunes music store for lecture podcasts, but I've never had a class with that.

I know at least 4 or 5 other Ubuntu/Linux users. Different majors, some math, some cs, some engineering. In my CS classes so far, it seems like a few people use linux and a bit more dabble with it.

Our campus wide secure wireless network doesn't work very well for me, but the problems with it aren't linux related... a lot of people on mac and windows have issues, too.
OSCR, the people that offer computer support have a forum with a linux section and make a go at offering support. http://forum.oscr.arizona.edu/forumdisplay.php?f=39 Supposedly they have some linux people who will also try to help if you come in.

Most of the users I meet who don't use linux either have antagonistic stereotypes about it, or are afraid to try it. That said, there seems to be an increasing use of open source software on windows and mac.

[phrostbyte]

I use Linux! I'm a student!!

[pluviosity]

'BlackBoard' which works in both IE & firefox
We have Blackboard, too. I wonder if it's the same thing...

Also, I'm not the only Linux user, as I know others who use it. Linux is still the minority though. It's also highly likely that your random Linux user is an engineer or CS major...except that I'm a bio major... :popcorn:

[aktiwers]

I use Linux and I'm a college student.

[sloggerkhan]

We have Blackboard, too. I wonder if it's the same thing...

Also, I'm not the only Linux user, as I know others who use it. Linux is still the minority though. It's also highly likely that your random Linux user is an engineer or CS major...except that I'm a bio major... :popcorn:

Blackboard is used here (UA) in the Business college. It's a fairly standard e-learning/courseware system. (Our business college wastes a lot of effort worrying about using the same systems as other business schools, be it MS office, or something else dumb.) One of the discussions our campus has been having is whether to standardize the courseware tools...

[Tomosaur]

In this day and age, a lot of people are going to end up on one computer or another, I suppose. Rather it be a laptop or desktop, kids need to study.

Here is my question - are there a bunch of college kids running Linux, or is the general average Joe still going to be using Windows? No offense to them, of course, they are just sticking to what they know.

I was just curious about the subject - it would be neat to meet other people using Ubuntu or Mandrake, maybe Fedora, you know. I bet there are some classes I could take, too...

Well, I'm in University, I'm taking a Software Development course. While the instructors mostly do everything on Windows - I personally use Linux for all of my work - since we don't do any Windows specific stuff. It is annoying, however, when lecturers send out course notes in MS .doc format - I can open them, but they should use an open format as a matter of principle.

The 'ordinary' computers in the libraries all run Windows. In the computer labs (which is where I go if I need to use a computer while I'm actually at the university), you log in through Windows, then you can connect to a Linux session using something called 'Hummingbird'. There are various different distros in use, but they're all set up to have the same software and such-like. It's fairly random which distro you get logged into. The most common to get is Fedora, but I've logged into Knoppix a few times. I don't THINK Ubuntu is one of the available distros, but I could be wrong.

The sys admins seem to be fairly schizophrenic regarding Linux / Windows. All of the machines default to Windows, but they seem to reccommend that you use Linux for everything.

Ironically, using Linux via a remote session is still faster than using Windows on that machine. First thing I do when I log on (if I'm going to be there for more than 5 minutes) is just sign in to Linux - everything loads so much faster. Loading anything on Windows seems to take forever - I can log in to Linux and fire up everything I need in the time it takes for Internet Explorer to load on Windows :/

[macogw]

We have Blackboard, too. I wonder if it's the same thing...
I'm sure it is. Blackboard is pretty standard. Moodle is the FOSS equivalent.

[DjBones]

i would figure that since college kids are alot more likely to be tech-savvy there would be a higher percentage of college kids that used linux than normal..
considering i'm almost one myself haha

[isaacj87]

I'm a sophomore in college and I switched over from XP to Ubuntu. The switch was easy for me because I had no particular allegiance to any OS (even though I was pretty comfortable with XP at the time). My girlfriend's Dad had put Ubuntu on her laptop and she suggested I try it. I did...and I was hooked! I was a computer science major (recently turned biology major) but my major nor the classes I was taking had any influence on my decision to move to Linux. I've been a software and tech junkie every since I could remember and could be considered myself a Windows fanboy (seeing how I've used windows since 3.0). So, I just wanted to see how good Ubuntu/Linux really was and if it was more secure, more stable and more beautiful than XP.

It is. :)

[Atreus12]

I am working on my senior design project in Mechanical Engineering, and all three members of group use linux. 2 Ubuntu users, and one Debian user.

Of course, that might be a bit misleading. Most kids do not use linux. Myself and another member of the group have used Linux for a while, the third started using Ubuntu after his hard drive failed.

Our IT department unofficially supports Linux. Meaning that if you go in and ask, they will help you but officially they do not support linux.

Edit: Engineering server is a *nix server, so it makes ssh-ing convenient.

[yatt]

Our school's main computer lab has Dells running Windows XP and Intel iMacs. The CS computer lab has Suns running Solaris 10, Dell's running Red Hat 4, Ubuntu, XP and Vista.

[ant2ne]

I'm a CNET major. Very few in my area even "dabble" in linux. A couple have installed and toyed with it. I'm probably the only hard core linux fan.

[p_quarles]

I'm a CNET major.
???

CNET as in this?: http://www.cnet.com/

[ant2ne]

???

CNET as in this?: http://www.cnet.com/CNET Computer NETworking

[rzrgenesys187]

There a few linux computer labs around my school, a linux club that supports linux, they offer free red hat enterprise 5, but i have yet to find another person who runs linux as their main os (club members excluded). I have to say it seems like i see just as many macs as pcs here

also the first topic in my general engineering class was on using our school accounts in unix. we only learned basic commands like cp, cd, mv, etc. but our teacher was very pro unix/anti-microsoft so it was an especially fun topic even though i already knew the basics

[alwiap]

lol @ cnet confusion

I just stopped going to college and I used ubuntu throughout my second year of college and it was easier to notetake on the laptop, less problems throughout the entire year. I wrote papers and did everything the all-american college student does on it, and spread the word of Ubuntu to some other people. :)


Macs seem to be the coolio thing to do though, they really have the cool factor now lol.

[zetsumei]

I'm a college student and I use Linux. There's only one thing that require me to use windows and that's my stupid Book on CD -_-. So I just run a v. machine and do homework then cut it off. Of course, they have Windows in my lab room, but I don't use those LOL.

[MCrittenden]

I'm at a small (about 3000 students) school in Greenville, SC (college is called Furman). I switched to Ubuntu a few months ago and deleted the windows partition. So far, not having windows hasn't caused any problems. Although I haven't met anyone at the school who runs Linux. Most have never heard of it.

[bmannering]

I just started college at sac state, and although I havent recieved my new darter ultra system 76 machine my school seems to support linux. I just saw something about it on their website but i will learn the truth in the coming months.
But I havent seen anyone running linux it seems most of the freshman have macs which i think come from the ipod promotion.

[RageOfOrder]

I'm a third year Computer Science student at University of Manitoba.
I use Sabayon, Gentoo and Windows XP on my desktop, and Slackware on my laptop.

It makes things so much easier for me, with linux really being the optimal coding environment

A Vista user asked me for the notes he missed last week in class, so I copied mine to his USB stick and gave it back to him. A minute later he turns around again "You must have an old version of Word. Mine won't open this .odt file"

Idiots :)

[p_quarles]

I'm a third year Computer Science student at University of Manitoba.
I use Sabayon, Gentoo and Windows XP on my desktop, and Slackware on my laptop.

It makes things so much easier for me, with linux really being the optimal coding environment

A Vista user asked me for the notes he missed last week in class, so I copied mine to his USB stick and gave it back to him. A minute later he turns around again "You must have an old version of Word. Mine won't open this .odt file"

Idiots :)
Please tell me this guy isn't a fellow CS major.

Still, I hope you pointed him to Sun's ODF plugins for MS Office. It's the least we can do for those who have yet to realize that it's actually bad for formats to become obsolete every four years.

[RageOfOrder]

Please tell me this guy isn't a fellow CS major.

Still, I hope you pointed him to Sun's ODF plugins for MS Office. It's the least we can do for those who have yet to realize that it's actually bad for formats to become obsolete every four years.

Sadly he was. Although to be fair he was a first year. Lots to learn.

I pointed him at openoffice.org and mentioned that it was free.

Now if only microsoft would take a similar approach with their filesystems.
They need to realize that using the same Case-insensitive ASCII-only filesystem for 10 years isn't a good thing.

[kodoku]

Yes I do (dualboot vista and linux mint)

Also, here at Cornell University, all the computer lab systems that I saw are dual-boots. The default boot is Windows, but anything saved there when used will be wiped after a reboot. If you want to save the file permanetly, you have to send it to the linux partition.

[Sayers]

I've been using Linux since 7th grade, in 9th now.

[Thug Nasty]

I'm a junior in college using Linux as my main OS.

[bobbybobington]

I'm in college and I use linux! One of these days I should ask the tech dept. how many linux users there are (have to register machine when connecting to network)if any lol. I'm just crossing my fingers that I wont have to use some crap proprietary software that requires windows, as I want my ubuntu preinstalled dell to stay an ubuntu machine. I'll probably use lab computers if need be.

[Andrewie]

I'm in college right now and their are 3 people in my classroom using Linux right now, more then half the class is also using openoffice instead of Microsoft Office.

[pluviosity]

Also, here at Cornell University, all the computer lab systems that I saw are dual-boots. The default boot is Windows, but anything saved there when used will be wiped after a reboot. If you want to save the file permanetly, you have to send it to the linux partition.

Woot! Woot! Cornell!!

Are you sure that they are dual boots? I thought the only one like that was the ACCEL Lab...

[devilmyarse]

W00t first post

I'm at Huddersfield Uni going Music Technology. Macs are used exclusively across the music dept. Almost everyone has a Mac and the people that don't, wish they had! I have to say i'm the only person who uses Macs and Linux almost exclusively. The only time I use windows is for gaming because I don't want to pay a subscription to use something like Crossover Mac or Cadega when i can play games via Boot Camp.

We use the blackboard system here and i've never had any problems logging into it. The only issue with compatibility we had was when they were introducing the wireless network in the Library and Windows was the only OS supported at the time. This then expanded to OS X but i don't think they have any intentions to support linux.

All the lecturers use macs and release presentations and lecture notes in MS Office format. Which is highly annoying, they assume that the majority of people use MS Office, but I dont wanna pay MS any cash for something that works worse than Open Office. I DEFINATELY don't wanna pay even more for the inferior mac version! I just get my girlfriend to convert anything i can't open in Oo and convert to PDF.

[hardyn]

this one does... but he also uses windows from time to time because of collaborative projects and locally developed or course specific software

i dual boot the machine

[MasterRoshi]

im at UNF, and ive only met ONE tech literate person. who uses open office, so im assuming hes using Ubuntu or some form of linux....


and im pretty sure anything students do on MS and MAC, i can do on linux. or better. ha! take that MS! =D

[aroth87]

I go to the University of Missouri-Rolla and use Ubuntu primarily. I still dual boot since my scanner won't work with Ubuntu, but I just booted XP last night for the first time in 3 months, so I'm almost exclusively using Linux.
A couple of the guys I work with on campus also use Ubuntu and I see people in a lot of my classes with different distros running on their laptops. We're primarily an engineering school so there are plenty of competent people here.
Our IT dept is pretty lacking on Linux support though.

Adam

[steveneddy]

So far I am using WINE to run programs that I need to have for course work, but I use my Ubuntu lappie all the time.

I don't own any Windows machines and rely totally on Linux for daily computing chores.

:popcorn:

[bashveank]

I'm at Cedarville University and, while I haven't seen anyone using Linux, it is supported.

[voided3]

I am and do, but my school (Berklee College of Music) is entirely on Macs; I have a Macbook Pro and my home brewed, dual booting Ubuntu/XP desktop with me. I also run Ubuntu, XP, FreeDOS, and Puppy LInux in Virtualbox on my mac from an eSATA external drive. There were actually a few guys I met that had used Linux before, but obviously everyone here is sold on Macs. The tech guys here know of Linux but don't support anything but what we got form the school, so that means only Powerbooks and Macbook Pros, and the Mac Pros, iMacs, and eMacs in classrooms.

[Incense]

This student does. I have a couple windows apps I need, and thanks to the new Virtual box release, they run right beside my linux apps and life is so much easier. I don't know why, but this new seamless mode or whatever they call it, is so amusing to me. OpenOffice, Basket Notes v-box and Amarok. Everything a student needs! :guitar:

[Luther786]

I thought that the primary user of linux was the college student. The kind that likes to spend a little more time than normal on his or her computer. I'm in college and know a few people who run linux (well that's 3-4 out of 40,000, but I don't know all 40,000) but it's a computer science major thing....

[dasunst3r]

I'm a college student, and I use Linux on a day-in, day-out basis. It even works with the WPA Enterprise network we have here. Whenever people have trouble configuring their Vista computers, I show them NetworkManager and they were impressed.

[regomodo]

at my uni there are no Linux machines. There is a unix cluster for running F.E simulations.

There is a physics lab full of Macs donated by an ex-student. Other than that it's all Windows and commercial software. No FOSS afaik

There are approximately 10,000 students at my uni (undergrads)

[CheeseEatingBulldog]

I was an IT prof and went back to college, it was then I actually started with ubuntu, and will never go back....never you hear!?!

[johnb820]

Here at the University at Buffalo, servers are running both solaris unix and linux. There is a complete lab full of over 60 computers just running linux to use for those in the computer science and engineering department. Also, UB has its own version of linux called UBLinux complete with appropriate customizations for students here. It really is quite amazing how much linux is supported here.

[eljoeb]

I kind of assumed most Linux users were either college students or people with some technical background. College students are ideal Linux users - A ton of free time, and the ideal amount of angst to fit in with the community. Its a perfect fit!

[drFUNK]

I am also a college student (George Mason Univ.) who uses linux. A couple years ago my friend humored me with the idea that linux was free and easy to use. I was a hard sell, but I eventually came around. Since then I've spread the word and converted a few people. At my school I see about 50/50 Windows XP/Vista & OS X usage. There are a few linux users here and there though.

[Vadi]

Only ubuntu on my laptop here. IT management, York U in Toronto.

[kdub432]

Absolutely, I couldnt live without it.

[Cyvros]

I'm fourth year and have been using Linux since last year (but been wanting to for longer). I have a couple of friends running Linux and two of the PhD students use Fedora and are big into the Linux/FOSS movement.

Mind you - space science-y people generally are geeks, aren't they? :D

[Radicc]

I do all my work on linux. Originally slackware but then I got lazy and changed to ubuntu. I have firefox, openoffice, and eclipse so I'm set for whatever assignments I get.

I don't know any one else that uses linux though. I think the common case for college students is they bought a dell for cheap or got a mac if they had enough cash. Which only confirms my thoughts that people only really use windows because it is what comes on the cheapo computers. As far as college students go for the majority of them the only stuff they do is internet, email, music(usually itunes for the iPuds), write papers, and maybe play games. Linux can do all this stuff, I don't think college students would complain if their laptop came preloaded with linux instead.

This is my third year on ubuntu and haven't had any issues yet. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the next version with LTS. Perhaps I'll upgrade my parents to ubuntu.

On a side note, I hate using the campus computers, I can't find anything in office 2007. What was MS thinking?
*note do not forget laptop at home.

[kteagan84]

I would consider myself an "average Joe user" and I use Ubuntu for all of my classwork. But I'm just an English major :) I don't do anything with IT. I just use Ubuntu because I like it, and Windows bothers me. I haven't had any problems, and considering most of my work can be done in OpenOffice, I'm not too worried about switching. However, I have a few tech friends and None of them use Linux, surprisingly. And my campus is trapped beneath the talons of the M$ Dragon, so all of the "free" software we get is in the form of starter MS Office CD's sent to you at the beginning of the semester. Blah. (Although, we did just open an Apple store on campus)

[amazingtaters]

We have Blackboard, too. I wonder if it's the same thing...

Also, I'm not the only Linux user, as I know others who use it. Linux is still the minority though. It's also highly likely that your random Linux user is an engineer or CS major...except that I'm a bio major... :popcorn:

Well I'm a poly sci major and I use linux... It is probably true though that CS and engineering students are more likely to use linux. Not too many of those at a mostly liberal arts college though.

[Skye]

Here at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) we have a pretty diverse computing network. I've seen tons of people running macs, as well as tons of people running vista and XP. There's more than a few people running some form of linux in my dorm, and they aren't even all CS majors- I'm in engineering, and I run linux.

There's no reason not to run linux here, as far as I can tell. All of the software we use in courses are on lab computers, and cost 6 or 7 thousand dollars a pop anyway (though they are windows-only programs, AFAIK.) Campus e-mail is availible online through a web access page, through an exchange server, or through a pop server, so that's effectively platform independent. Most of our classwork/assignments/grades are posted online using something called "MyCourses" which works on anything that can run IE/Firefox.

Of course, this is a pretty tech-oriented college, so the average knowledge about computers is probably higher here than it is at, say, a liberal arts college.

[bukwirm]

At my school (Purdue University, IN), most of the science and engineering servers run some variant of Unix (most of the Student Services servers run MS stuff, unfortunately), and I know several students who use it on their desktop. There's also a LUG - i don't know how active it is though.

[mister_doctor]

This caught my eye so I thought I'd drop in my story. There's a bit of background so please bear with, I'll try to keep it low on rant-fat.

My school is called Durham College, in Oshawa Ontario. It's become a pretty high-tech campus over the past couple of years, with the introduction of the provinces newest university, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (stupid name I know).

Anyway, I'm a 3rd year in a program called Computer Systems Technology. Part of our tuition includes a lease on a laptop (IBM R60s this year) containing all of the software we need for the program. Unfortunately, its a Windows image and not a very good one. It includes all of IBM's bloatware, and a pig of an AntiVirus (F-Secure). One of the guys took it upon himself to make his own image, with all the software we need and none of the crap we don't. I, on the otherhand, had other ideas.

I wanted to see if it was possible to run a linux install that was just as functional as the Windows image. So far I've been doing well, and Ubuntu has been the most laptop-friendly image so far. I still have some work to do, so for now I have to dual-boot with a barebones XP install.

[NiklasV]

I'm a CS student at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The mainstay of our desktops are Solaris terminals, with a few Windows and Mac computers. I think most other departments are mostly Windows based though, but I know for a fact that some have Linux desktops.
I think the servers are mostly Solaris, not sure though.

So far, (I'm in my second year) all the software we have used has been cross-platform. BlueJ and Eclipse for Java programming, (Eclipse was recommended in the introductory CS course in the first year, though not required), Matlab for numerical analysis and Hugs for Haskell programming. Written assignments that are turned in in electronic form are generally required to be in PDF, and we're encouraged, though not required, to write it in LaTeX. (Word processors don't even come close to the power of LaTeX, and the output always looks much better with LaTeX)

I would estimate about a third to half of CS students are running Linux on their laptops. Some that don't still run Linux on their desktop and/or server though.

[RedStar1916]

Well I start my college experience in October (studying law), and I will be running Xubuntu on my laptop, purely because my lapop isn't that impressive and Xfce seems to work well with it, as well as the inherent superiority of Linux over Windows of course. Unfortunately though most universities, mine included, offer no support whatsoever for Linux outside of IT or CS courses. I think they allow me access to their wireless broadband, but I have to figure out how to get it to work on the laptop myself. So I guess you guys can be expecting that thread sometime soon ;)

[euler_fan]

I use Linux . . . but the only place on my campus you can come close to a supported Linux box as a student are the Solaris boxes owned by the graduate computer science department.

[krazikamikaze]

I do EECS at Berkeley and as you might expect there's a lot of OSS here including linux (well unix actually, but close enough).

We have a windows network and a Solaris network. Almost every EE/CS class gives you an account on one of the networks. CS classes are almost always unix accounts and EE classes are usually windows accounts with some exceptions.

At the very least we use our unix accounts to submit assignments and check our grades. In the introductory CS class they teach us how to use emacs (though I'm a vi person myself) and the basics of navigating the command line. Most classes use command line programs like gcc, make, scheme, ns, LaTeX, etc. or GUIs that run in unix like eclipse or ethereal. There are usually windows equivalents of these programs or they can be run under cygwin but it's not recommended because when stuff is graded it's always run on the solaris machines.

Almost all of the computer labs (http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~inst/iesglabs.html) in our CS building (Soda) are Solaris machines or we can always SSH into the network.

I'm running Ubuntu exclusively now, but I've run Windows while here in the past and I find it significantly easier to do the work in the classes when I'm running linux at home.

[mj-barton]

Hey all,

I over at Seattle University. Being to such close vicinity of the Redmond giant we're predominantly Windows based. However, out IT depart does not restrict user access to per windows OS. Most of the students run XP, Vista, and OS X.

As for myself, I have a truck load of engineering software that is windows based only that refuses to emulate. Unless MatLab, SolidWorks, and Adobe are released for linux, I'm stuck. There are alternatives but I'm afraid they can't hold a light to Windows based products.

[GSF1200S]

I have two questions on this:

1) Does Texas State University (where im gonna go) support Linux in terms of internet access etc...

-and-

2) If Im running windows on a virtual machine, will I still be able to do all the college crap necessary? Obviously I could run MS Office and whatever else- i just dont know if Ill be able to access there wireless/wired networks...

im not going for a computer science degree, instead a masters in philosophy.. if that helps at all.

I would think that any college would be ok to use Linux in, because a network is a network (linux does wep, wpa, etc...)

[NiklasV]

Hey all,
As for myself, I have a truck load of engineering software that is windows based only that refuses to emulate. Unless MatLab, SolidWorks, and Adobe are released for linux, I'm stuck. There are alternatives but I'm afraid they can't hold a light to Windows based products.

Matlab is available for Linux, MacOSX, Windows and Solaris.

[%hMa@?b<C]

My brother's school (School of Management at Boston University) said they _require_ you to use Windows (the specifically said "no macs")

when I go to college, I hope to be able to use Linux.

[samjh]

At high school, all our computers were DOS and then Windows.

At university, there was a combination of Windows 2000/XP and Sun Solaris workstations. I'd be surprised if colleges/universities did not introduce some kind of Unix in their IT or Compsys/Software Engineering courses.

As an aside, my first taste of Linux was at university, when I picked up a free (in a computer magazine) installation CD for Red Hat 3. Unfortunately the installer couldn't recognise my hard drive, so I concluded Linux wasn't quite ready for mainstream use!

[saxuntu]

I was ignorant of Linux when i went to College but i don't remeber them talking about Linux. My sister goes to Bowling Green and said they only support Macs and Windows, specifically saying no Linux. Punks.

[dpj23]

I'm running Ubuntu and trying to start a users group at Ohio State, but it is an uphill battle that's for sure...

[Vadi]

I have a friend who's at University of Toronto.

They specifically don't allow you to connect to the wireless network unless you have Windows Update turned on, and Linux is pretty much outright banned (from what I understand).

But I go to University of York (one of the three uni's in toronto) and have no probs accessing wireless. It just directs you to a page where you login with your student id and such (similar to those hotspot wifi networks).

Edit: Actually, Google tells me that *one* of the campuses, in *one* lab, use linux exclusively (clicky (http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/4351.0.html)).

[hellmet]

I'm a student, and ubuntu satisfies all of my needs except Voice and Webcam communication. I'm using Vista ( Dell PC) for that purpose. :(

[Allysan]

I'm the only one I know currently running Linux exclusively. I've got both a desktop and a laptop, and the desktop serves as my "leisure" computer as well as a sort of small file server, while the laptop is my schoolwork computer. I've got a shared partition on the desktop and the only things I have left to do are to get 3d acceleration and remote desktop working (it never seems to want to load for some odd reason).

[aroch1]

My school (UMBC) is very science oriented with a big computer science program. A lot of people run linux...it's even required for several of the computer science classes.

[mdsmedia]

At my college (Hampshire College in Amherst, MA),.....
MA? Is that like ...Mass Anarchy?

Sorry, i know, or at least I guess that's Massachusetts (sp) but a lot of us aren't from the US, so MA could mean "middle Australia", although, being from Australia, I know it doesn't.

edit: Hey, it could mean "Melbourne, Australia" too....I might use it ;)

[mdsmedia]

I am a college student. I have helped to open the doors to Linux in my community college. They are about the implement their first linux server, and are going to start introducing students to linux over a two week period in a software certification class. Not only that but I am currently pushing for a full fledged linux class, and though the ground ahead is shaky, it also looks promising.

So my advice to other college students is to be vocal to the staff and faculty of your college. They are likly to listen when their students request new material.That is sooo kewl :) It's great to hear of ANY move towards openness, and by that I mean... "hey there are other things out there....why do I have to use Windows?"

[mdsmedia]

I'm a third year Computer Science student at University of Manitoba.
I use Sabayon, Gentoo and Windows XP on my desktop, and Slackware on my laptop.

It makes things so much easier for me, with linux really being the optimal coding environment

A Vista user asked me for the notes he missed last week in class, so I copied mine to his USB stick and gave it back to him. A minute later he turns around again "You must have an old version of Word. Mine won't open this .odt file"

Idiots :)LOL

[hardyn]

Well I'm a poly sci major and I use linux... It is probably true though that CS and engineering students are more likely to use linux. Not too many of those at a mostly liberal arts college though.

Actually, you would be really surprised. A few do... the enthusiasts, but that is definitely not typical. I graduated as a robotics engineer (looking at doing computer engineering graduate studies) and i was the only person in the dept. using linux.
there were a couple in CS and Comp Eng. but not majority for sure.

I found it made software development very easy, no downloading, all the tools, compliers editors were already there and the unix environment is much more logical for command line software development, feels much more natural.

[yman]

in my course there are 7 students. 2 use macintosh 1 (me) uses linux, the rest use windows. this may change by the end of the semester, as 2 students seem interested.

[Mr. T]

I'm a post-grad Uni (sorry, "college") student. I use Linux for LyX and some programming, and Windows for most else. I know LyX is available for Windows but I find it better integrated with Linux, due to all the extra programs necessary to run it.

[macogw]

I'm a student, and ubuntu satisfies all of my needs except Voice and Webcam communication. I'm using Vista ( Dell PC) for that purpose. :(

Wengophone or Ekiga can do SIP/H232 (i think it's 232...whatever that standard is) so you can use them to video/voice chat with MSN Live (or whatever they call it now) users and anything else that uses the standards (iChat is one, I think). aMSN and Kopete also do video chat, I think.

[ziofil]

In my faculty (physics, university of padua, italy) we use almost only linux (redhat)
We have something like 60 cpus, and only 8 have windows.
I have a macbook pro, but I dualboot with Feisty Fawn, and at home also my parents use Ubuntu (I made them use it!)
Also a lot of professors use linux, I think that in the scientific/academic world it's much more spread than in other places.

[Depressed Man]

I'm a psychology major but I have a few comp sci friends and recently went to a comp sci event. Surprisingly there was a Linux install fest there and several people using Linux. One person joked about making it a Vista install fest and she was booed lol.

Then when I was visiting UMBC (my sister may go there) I saw posters (well paper posters) for a Linux install fest. Thought that was pretty cool.

[iamBevan]

Unfortunately, my college is exclusively Windows, and the loading time of the lecturers computers is a joke. It's a shame, as it seems this is the case in 99% of UK colleges / Universities.

[TheMono]

XP alone on all my uni computers. However, I use Ubuntu at home (obviously) and all my lecturers have let me submit as PDF from OOo rather than .doc, so I can handle it. Having said that, I haven't used a PC on campus in years.

[metroplex]

I'm at university (in Sweden) studying for a masters degree in computer science. Almost all computers at school are running Solaris or Red Hat Linux. Among the students, MS Windows is the most common OS of choice, but Ubuntu and FreeBSD are also widely spread.

[SZF2001]

This has turned into quiet the interesting thread.

I've noticed a lot of business types stick with Windows and most techies stick with Linux.

Interesting indeed.

[p.i.m.p]

There is a linux computer lab at our college here in India but that's about it sadly. When you mention Linux to most of the folks at my college, they react as if I've mentioned the name of some kind of exotic bird. And btw, I'm majoring in Computer Science

[stim]

I'm a senior a the University of Delaware , majoring in Computer Science.
I have a Dell xps that boots ubuntu and vista (xp blue screens on install....) , I also have a notebook that books ubuntu and xp.
All of my hardware on both systems is fully functional with Feisty.
Even the dreaded bcm43xx driver worked right away with fw-cutter. :)
If you want fancy-pants graphical effects like a mac, get beryl. Runs a 3d desktop and all sorts of cool effects, even on my 1.4ghz\1gig laptop, with 32meg integrated video. :shock:
I also have my desktop running an ssh daemon so that I can use it as a server for group work and remote programming.

I am no genius, but I have definitely learned alot from tinkering, and have been able to apply of what I learn in class to what I want to do at home.

Except for the fact that Day of Defeat: Source , Red Orchestra and Company of Heroes only run in windows....Id only use linux.
note:my HP deskjet 6122 printer works with linux but not with vista!! :lolflag:

Basically, I love it.

[James.Dedon]

I'm a college student and a linux user. I know others who use linux too. It's out there. My school only supports Windows and Macs, but I get by just fine carrying around a pen drive loaded with Portable Apps, with OOo. Works for me.

[GavinZac]

Eh, I kind of expected that. One thing I'm worried about is certain college's expect you to use MS, like getting onto servers and whatnot, things like encrypted .doc files... Is this true? I'd really hate having to dual boot again.

The University course I have been doing is sponsored by MS - that is, MS provides it with free software and sends guest speakers every now and again. Because of this, people are doing Web Applications as a subject and never discussion PHP, only C# and ASP.NET

[Rabindranath]

I am college student in India and majority of those do not use linux. Many do not know how linux looks like. They think that linux is like 'DOS prompt' without any graphical interface. I showed them kubuntu and the "ubuntu beryl vs vista aero" on youtube and they couldn't simply believe it and instantly dual booted windows with kubuntu...In my college, about 150 systems use linux( but mostly red hat), 1500-1800 systems use windows(XP) and about 50 use mac. But I should say that linux userbase is on the rise.... If I rank the the OSs depending upon the userbase in my college, it would be
1. Windows 92%
2. Linux 7.8%
3. Mac 0.2%

[WedgeHG]

I go to Cal Poly Pomona and have Ubuntu on my laptop. My desktop dual-boots XP and Fiesty. I am a CIS major and don't know of a single other student who uses linux regularly. Windows is predominant among students but seeing a Mac laptop or 2 is fairly common.

I'm also a student assistant in the I&IT Systems department (that department is basically in charge of the network infrastructure). Despite the fact that we don't officially support linux, all but one of the staff members of the I&IT systems department use linux, though they prefer Gentoo. The other student assistants I work with use Windows.

I'd say that a majority of the school's servers are Solaris with Windows coming in a close second. Some Gentoo servers as well. For the record we have an Exchange server and I didn't have any trouble getting Thunderbird to work with it.

I still do need windows from time to time for certain things. Had to do some projects with an online version of Quickbooks that only works on IE, some Excel plugin that didn't have an Open Office equivalent, and my database class is using SQL Server 2005. Also have had some minor difficulties with our Blackboard system, namely submitting files but I've found a workaround to that (PM me if you have this issue).

So the only thing that i haven't been able to get working with Ubuntu is the LEAP authenticated wireless. This is in spite of reading the how-to's on this forum and the fact that I share a room with the IIT people who run the thing (I sorta am one of them)! :lolflag:

[wolfen69]

when i was in college between 89-93, most of my community college used macs. windows wasnt around much. maybe that's a good thing.

[jpkotta]

The school I went to had a Unix cluster you could ssh into, and later my department (ECE) had 2 full dual boot clusters, with other Linux machines scattered around. The college's IT infrastructure (which was separate from the university's) ran mostly Linux servers. When they added wireless networking with a VPN, they offered a Linux client (which didn't work very well). Several students had Linux on at least one of their personal computers, but they were engineers.

[boast]

My campus uses windows xp on all the machines, but a LOT of students seem to have macbooks. The science teachers are recommending students to get them also.

My campus wireless said they don't support linux, and they inforce installing mcafee and have all the updates or else you can not connect. Luckly I was able to login fine with xubuntu on my laptop.

Apart from some kids running *nix in virtualization on their vista OS (they are doing it backwards :o) I don't know of any users or LUG's in my uni.

[maybeway36]

A lot of colleges have local Ubuntu APT mirrors:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors?action=show&redirect=Archive

[Zipster90]

I'm about to go to college in the next year, and I think I'll go just fine by using Linux. If all else fails, I have XP Pro on VirtualBox.

As for college's acceptance of Linux, that's probably a different story. The college I'm considering, Texas A&M at Commerce, offers UNIX server administration courses in their computer science department (FYI: The first ever Comp. Sci. department in the state!), so I expect them to be tolerant.

[jrharvey]

I may be one of 3 others that use Linux at UNCC. The other 2 are my roommate and girlfriend.

[daynah]

In my psych class, we were required to buy a book that had a new edition out, so we couldn't get it used. It came bundled with software that would be used in the class. This software could ONLY run under Windows 2000 and XP.

No Linux (obiously).
No Macs (an annoyance).
But this was the kicker... it didn't work in Vista.

Now, as much as Vista sucks, I don't know how I can expect my campus to support Mac and Linux if they aren't even continuing their support of Windows. They've made an announcement stating that their wireless doesn't support Vista (even though it does, if someone lets you know the settings).

I mean... what are they supporting? Paper?

Back to this class... we HAD to pay for this program. We couldn't get our textbooks without it. I would have been fine going to the library to use the program (though I shouldn't have to). But now, I have the program anyway, I should be able to use it on my Vista? No. Since I already paid for the program, I Was thinking about installing XP but... I think I'm just going to keep the program in it's packaging and sell it.

[gladstone]

My last college were half way there, running Firefox & OpenOffice on XP. It was still a happy surprise! making my USB pen Drive, loaded with the "essential" portable apps redundant

[Depressed Man]

They've made an announcement stating that their wireless doesn't support Vista (even though it does, if someone lets you know the settings).


Haha the umd-secure wireless network at the University of Maryland is like that too. they only have support for XP and certain chipsets under XP (though they give you directions on how to set it up if you don't have their requirements..since it just seems to be a certificate and certain settings).

But it doesn't work in Vista (they realize that) or OSX or Linux (they also realize it doesn't work so well for these two either). So we just have to use the regular umd (which requires you to logon with your university ID and password. Kinda annoying when your going from class to class.

Class A: *logs onto wireless* Uses it for session
Walks to Class B (in a different building)
Class B: *logs onto wireless yet again*

To bad they can't set it up so the wireless networks all work together. They're all called umd and they all link into the same Maryland server and what not. But it doesn't seem to recognize you (despite them saying they give you two hour sessions) when you change wireless routers.

[xtacocorex]

Since I was an Aerospace Engineering major at Iowa State, we had to learn Unix commands to compile our codes; this has since changed a bit since I left.

I did run Linux in college, one of my classes was all FORTRAN programming on Red Hat Enterprise workstations and I installed RH9 on my laptop about halfway through the semester the semester before I took that class.

The only thing I use Windows at home is my flight simulators and getting panoramas stitched because the program is for an older version of OS X which I have switched to; slightly odd for an Engineer, but it's still Unix based and I do a lot of stuff in it's terminal. I do play to triple boot when I can get a large enough hard drive for my macbook.

[glosman15]

I go to University of Buffalo, and while most of the campus is Windows, the computer science labs run "UBlinux." It's based off of Fedora, and they run really really nice, and I hope that as the school grows there will be more demand for the Linux based computer labs since they tend to run quite a bit smoother and have less problems.

[vvlist]

I'm a college student at Washington State University. I'm getting a degree in Digital Media. I work on Macs all day in my classes, but when I come home it's Ubuntu all the way. I recently used Ubuntu, osx and windows to create this video project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fleZJigmxxQ) (Jokosher/Final Cut/FL Studio). I started using GAIM and Open Office in windows early on, but then ditched windows completely three years ago when I found Ubuntu. Last year, I had a class that was entirely about using Photoshop. I used GIMP the whole time, and aced the class. For all the GIMP nay-sayers out there, it's a high quality program and it made the cut in fast-paced, "meet the deadline or else" environment. I'm still looking into LiVES for video editing, but Ubuntu/Linux does the job just fine for my line of work (web/programming/audio/graphic design work) Flash works in Wine or under a virtual windows install, so I pretty much have everything I need under Ubuntu.

[Colro]

Yes.

Whenever there's something that I need windows for, I've got XP installed in virtualbox and standing by.

[lars-5]

Well I'm a poly sci major and I use linux... It is probably true though that CS and engineering students are more likely to use linux. Not too many of those at a mostly liberal arts college though.

omg another poli sci major using linux! i'm not alone!

but at my school, computer labs are windows, except for the arts department, they use mac... but then the campus computer store mostly sells macs and mac software... with the occasional dell or lenovo thinkpad.

so the school uses windows, students use mac, and i'm left having to deal with people who save their files as docx...

[sixstorm]

Most students at my university get $800-$1200 laptops and bring them to class, mostly HPs and Acers with XP or Vista. When I first started going to this particular university, I was running with Macs and saw less than 5 other people using Macs. Although my school is mainly Windows, there are a handful of Linux servers for all programming and databasing classes. Funny thing is that I just got a new laptop and put 7.10 x64 on it, started using it in place of my iBook. During a group meeting yesterday morning, the Wobbly Windows caught some attention and I got to spread the word about Ubuntu and Linux in general.

Just in case anyone didn't know, there are some school websites that REQUIRE you to have IE just to log in/view the page. That's the only reason my fiancee is still running Windows.

[Vaan]

Installing IE on Ubuntu is not too much of a hassle with IEs4Linux (http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page). I got it working just fine. I do web development stuff and sadly things look different between firefox and IE so I gotta make sure everthing runs Identical between the 2 browsers.

The only other reason I boot into my windows is to use the Adobe products (photoshop, dreamweaver, flash) and that's seriously about it. I only wish Adobe would port their products to Linux. That would be a happy day indeed.

[sixstorm]

Installing IE on Ubuntu is not too much of a hassle with IEs4Linux (http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page). I got it working just fine. I do web development stuff and sadly things look different between firefox and IE so I gotta make sure everthing runs Identical between the 2 browse.

I tried that earlier this summer and the school's website would not go through. It would only give the same "You must use IE6 or IE7 to login/access this page". What a heap of BS huh?

[Metaleks]

I have a friend who's at University of Toronto.

They specifically don't allow you to connect to the wireless network unless you have Windows Update turned on, and Linux is pretty much outright banned (from what I understand).

But I go to University of York (one of the three uni's in toronto) and have no probs accessing wireless. It just directs you to a page where you login with your student id and such (similar to those hotspot wifi networks).

Edit: Actually, Google tells me that *one* of the campuses, in *one* lab, use linux exclusively (clicky (http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/4351.0.html)).
I am the University of Toronto. Currently an Information Security undergrad. And I am at that campus. In that *one* lab we have RedHat, and it's true, it's the only place where you can find Linux. However, a bunch of people I know have Ubuntu on their laptops (along with me, of course!). But generally, unless you're not in computer science, you wouldn't have even heard of Linux.

And I would like to dispel the myth about not being able to connect without using a laptop that has windows. Like I said, I have Ubuntu on my laptop, and I can connect just fine. What you said is completely false, I have no idea who told you that, but it's simply not true. You DON'T need Windows Updates turned on to connect to the University of Toronto network AND Linux is NOT banned. Just wanted to clear this up:)

[Zackariah]

I'm in College and use Linux :p

[Selcal]

i work for the Feds and i use Linux. Our accountability system may soon get an upgrade from MS servers to Suze.

DON'T PANIC!
Feds=military

[cellerit]

I'm in a computer science and engineering school in France and most of the school computers have linux install. I'd say 30% linux (fedora, redhat ... ) 30% dual boot with win xp and the rest winxp only. Well its mainly a computer science and electronics school so seems logical.

[jayaramk]

yuo me too in college and i use ubuntu

[dward526]

I am a student who has returned to college after 7 years. I used Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse) before, but I have noticed a (about 40%) of students in my program (IT and Networking Tech) use Linux. It runs clean and fast, and you can run the XP environment required for half the course in Virtualbox or VMWare.

[FurryNemesis]

Although my university is a MS place, the CS students do have a "non-windows" room running Linux and BSD - apart from that, all campus computers run off an XP network, which is sort of a necessary evil because of all the subject specific software the campus runs (about 50 different programs, most of which are Windows-Specific.).

I can't even get onto the university wifi with my ubuntu laptop, as they use MS certificates for login and so far I've not found a way around it. Also, their brand new just-installed-this-year machines take a full five minutes from power on to usable desktop. The old ones take ten. This is a pain in the **** when you need notes in a hurry.

Granted, I can see why we need all the MS stuff, but if only they'd use more open standards it would be much better. I have to carry around the OO.org portableapp - we don't even have that on the campus machines.

[macogw]

Haha the umd-secure wireless network at the University of Maryland is like that too. they only have support for XP and certain chipsets under XP (though they give you directions on how to set it up if you don't have their requirements..since it just seems to be a certificate and certain settings).

But it doesn't work in Vista (they realize that) or OSX or Linux (they also realize it doesn't work so well for these two either). So we just have to use the regular umd (which requires you to logon with your university ID and password. Kinda annoying when your going from class to class.

Class A: *logs onto wireless* Uses it for session
Walks to Class B (in a different building)
Class B: *logs onto wireless yet again*

To bad they can't set it up so the wireless networks all work together. They're all called umd and they all link into the same Maryland server and what not. But it doesn't seem to recognize you (despite them saying they give you two hour sessions) when you change wireless routers.
We have the routers that hand-off the signal in the library at GWU, and they're >$1000 a piece, which is probably why you guys don't have them. I'm just wondering who goes jogging around the library using their laptop :/ Why wouldn't you have to re-log-on anyway, though? Don't you shut down between classes? I used to try keeping my laptop on and just shoving it in the bag, but there's no air and it overheats.

[TheTruth34]

i use linux on my computer but i type all my big reports in the university computer labs(which use XP exclusively) so i don't have to buy so much ink and paper =P

[macogw]

i use linux on my computer but i type all my big reports in the university computer labs(which use XP exclusively) so i don't have to buy so much ink and paper =P

Don't you have to pay for printing at school? You could still do them in LaTeX on your computer to get really nice equations on the science and math ones, then have LaTeX output a pdf which you can print on the Windows boxes. I use pdf for anything going between platforms.

[TheTruth34]

Don't you have to pay for printing at school? You could still do them in LaTeX on your computer to get really nice equations on the science and math ones, then have LaTeX output a pdf which you can print on the Windows boxes. I use pdf for anything going between platforms.

i didnt even kno there was such a thing lol, ill have to try that out, off to learn about latex =) thanks

[macogw]

i didnt even kno there was such a thing lol, ill have to try that out, off to learn about latex =) thanks

LaTeX is how the math-book companies get all the nice-looking equations into the books. While other kids are typing funny-looking one-liner craziness with tons of parentheses or leaving gaps and drawing them in, you can actually type that stuff in.

[Snargledorf]

I currently run a dual boot environment of Gutsy Gibbon and XP. For the most part I am in Gibbon but for some of my courses I need XP to run the applications required. I also use XP for games but for any word processing, internet browsing, etc. i use Gibbon.

[gn2]

My son is fourteen and at Secondary School.
He does all his school work on a laptop running PCLinuxOS.
It dual-boots XP, but since installing Linux it hasn't been booted into Windows once.

[treris]

I'm a student at a dutch university and I get by quite well using nothing but linux, over the last 2,5 year I have occasionally run into slight problems with .doc files not opening properly in OOo and websites being designed purely for IE and not working properly in firefox, but on the whole things have been great.

There are not a lot of other linux users at my university and there are some MacOS users, but I think the vast majority is still using windows XP, which is also what is on the university computers.

To prevent file format problems between MS Office and OOo I usually save my files as pdf files before using them at university or sharing them with other students, which seems to work out fine.

[TeaSwigger]

Around here they seem to be too busy taking their rich folks' money, drugs and binge drinkin'. Not sure they know what an Operating System is; heck their systems are barely operating :p

( ...yes I'm exaggerating to poke fun...it's only true of some... )

But seriously, I don't know of any using Linux 'round here, all MicroSofties.

[stoodleysnow]

My college has a very deeply entrenched IT department, convinced that their expensive and Fort Knox - like web filtering and antivirus programs running on WinXP are the only way. They must be losing thousands of pounds each year to completely unnecessary costs. I bring in a laptop running Ubuntu for my own work, but they won't let me connect it to the internet, as they claim that Linux (and even Mozilla Firefox) are security risks. As a result I am stuck (for internet) with a terrible web browser from some bygone era running on a five year old, mostly locked down operating system.
:???::-({|=
How the heck am I to convince these fools to try Ubuntu?
I'm on a BTEC National Diploma for IT Practitioners (Systems Support) at Calderdale College in Halifax, UK.

Ideas most appreciated.

[stoodleysnow]

Not sure if this is legal this soon, but bump?8-[

[stoodleysnow]

OK, more seriously, BUMP.

[bluedragon436]

I am a college student, as well as a military member and I love using Linux, causes issues some times depending on what your school has setup I guess...but thus far I have had no problems in this department...

[venator260]

I use Linux for all my college classes except Calculus and English. Calculus homework is done through an online program called MyMathLab. It only works in Internet Explorer ;@. My English papers require nothing less than Microsoft Office. I do type up my rough drafts on OOo though.


As for the MyMathLab... my stats class uses that, and I've been able to get ies4Linux to work with it. I just kept clicking OK and Next through the player installation process, and it worked. Haven't had to boot into Xp for about a month now. Everything else (mainly writing papers and email) can be done for me with Linux. Just gotta make sure if I'm sharing to save in .doc format in Ooo. But mostly I have to print them and hand in a hard copy.

As for others using Linux, I gave a Dapper CD away last semester. Recently, I had a guy tell me that Linux was awesome. He then proceeded to tell me that Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Fedora were different names for the same thing. We did share a dislike for Vista though.

[Tux.Ice]

You know im not in college yet but whatever college im gunna go to it better freaking use linux how can anybody use microsoft. Windows sucks including vista. I love ubuntu. Go linus trovalds (and for u n00bs he created the linux kernel)

Tux
:lolflag::popcorn:

[Sorivenul]

I'm in the middle of nowhere South Dakota and a large portion of our college student body uses some Linux distro or another. In addition, many of our administrative offices are making the switch. :) Exciting.

[stoodleysnow]

So how can I persuade my draconian institution to change its spots?:confused:

[Sorivenul]

So how can I persuade my draconian institution to change its spots?:confused:

Best bet would be starting a student group to support the switch, even in a single lab for 'Test Purposes". That's how it got started on our campus. A few of the tech-fellows were really behind it initially. Once presented with the idea that a Linux system is not impossible to learn or is a kickback to pre-Windows 3.x technology the administration was really receptive. Good luck!

[Jiganto]

I am a college student, I use linux on my laptop and Vista on my desktop. However, I would consider myself a nerd, and using Linux is fun for me. The campus also has computer labs with linux machines running RedHat and we used to have Solaris labs too, now they run linux also. However, I think majority of students use either OSX or XP, mostly because I don't think any of them care or would want to deal with inevitable hickups when using Linux.

[Folk Theory]

im in freaking Maryland right next to our capital, washington DC and nobody in my university uses linux!! maybe someone but ive never seen anyone. we have unix labs but that doesnt comapre...and our office of IT laughed at my face when i mentioned i use linux.

[rundee_f]

im a college student and currently running both linux and xp.. primarily i use my ubuntu,, i use my xp only for its office and photoshop...

[GeneticFlea]

double major senior here: history and digital media.

Im also a proud Ubuntu user(as of 2 weeks ago). I only keep windows around for the creative suite, which we need for class and for my future employment. Still though the only time im in windows is to use these programs and this its straight back to Ubuntu.

As to others using it? Hah, not likely, I dont even think my school would enable my laptop which is only ubuntu to get online, if i didnt just fake my mac address to mimic my other computers. ive never seen anyone here on campus using Ubuntu, and when they send me power points and i have to tell them i dont have the exact same design formats, they look at me like im an alien. ah well i love it nonetheless.

[anandanbu]

I am an undergraduate student in Information Technology and i dumped the ******* completely last month as in my final semester i have taken up an FOSS project :)

[de_valentin]

I am a student in geoinformatics where IT is quite important but there is only one classmate (out of 20) who tried linux a couple of times, but always found it to be too troublesome. I have tried to tell him things have changed for the better with linux in the last year or so. I use linux with a virtualbox xp to use some windows apps I need for my classes. Most of them run even better in the virtualbox than in normal xp.
I only use the dualboot for games. It,s practically an empty windows install, just a firewall, av, firefox, magicdisc and the games I play.

[tubasoldier]

there was a post recently out about this. it seems only IT related schools are using and or supporting linux. most schools across the country are not supporting it and therefore the students are not using it.

Boise State University has a Linux install fest every semester. Fedora Linux is supported and used. But anyone is free to install whatever they want.

[SomeGuyDude]

One thing stopping me from using Linux was that the University of Pittsburgh did not support the OS, so there was no easy way to get the thing online. You had to use xsupplicant and that was just torture.

For the 2007/2008 year, the school scrapped the old company that they used for network authentication and went with one that made it remarkably easy to login using Linux. Presto Change-o, now I'm using it here at the university.

There's a (very) small Facebook group of Linux users here, although there is an enormous Ubuntu global group.

[Atomic Dog]

As an ASU student and IT professional I choose to use linux on my laptop. I am the only person that I know of that uses linux. I perpetually encourage others to try the live CD, but nobody wants to. Why? No school support at all. Microsoft owns the school. They hand out student versions of a lot of software to the CIS students, papers done in Word, DB stuff in Access and SQL server, CSE classes use .NET platform. It makes it hard to use linux when every damn thing is Windows based.

To circumvent this I have to run a Windows VM. Not the most elegant solution, but it makes me feel better knowing I'm running XP over Linux :)

Funny that I got an email begging me to consider taking a "Unix" class being offered. My first thought was why not use linux instead? Anyway, they aren't getting a lot of interest I imagine...probably because they do not support the platform at all so why would students want to learn it?

[SomeGuyDude]

As an ASU student and IT professional I choose to use linux on my laptop. I am the only person that I know of that uses linux. I perpetually encourage others to try the live CD, but nobody wants to. Why? No school support at all. Microsoft owns the school. They hand out student versions of a lot of software to the CIS students, papers done in Word, DB stuff in Access and SQL server, CSE classes use .NET platform. It makes it hard to use linux when every damn thing is Windows based.

So true. The schools give away Windows and Office discs, and everyone's trained in Windows. Even here the way to get OSX or Linux on is, basically, a workaround.

I took some CS courses some time ago and you're definitely right about it being MS all the way. Ironic since the programming classes always made us use some ancient Unix machines that were so slow I wanted to pull my hair out.

[tripp-fan]

Actually i am a college student here in America and as far as i know i am the only student at my school that runs and uses linux. everyone i know runs Ms or Mac. I prefer not to use MS unless i have to. So i guess i am one that does.

[NightCrawler03X]

I'm a college student and I use Linux.
So do a lot of people I talk to.
(Computing)

[Griff]

I go to University of Florida and I use linux as do a lot of people (by a lot I mean a few in computer science/ computer engineering). We have a few labs that run only linux (suse) and others that run SunOS. And of course there are mac and windows labs everywhere.

[geoff07]

Apple are doing a lot to encourage the use of Windows, by not producing an iTunes for Linux. That and MSN are probably the most used apps by my 'kids' (15, 18, 22) anyway.

Apple know what they need to do, so get to it guys and gals! Even if bits would be proprietary (gasp).

[SomeGuyDude]

Why would Apple want someone to go to Linux? They make no extra money if I use iTunes on Windows or Ubuntu.

However, it would wreck their own efforts if they put iTunes on Linux. Remember Apple's whole thing is "get away from PC's", meaning Windows. It's entirely in their best interest to keep it a "two party race" and make people think the only legitimate options are Windows and OSX, and that if you're smart you'll pick up OSX.

If they put their software on Linux, they'd be supporting a way to get away from Windows that gives them (Apple) zero money. Remember, the only way to get OSX is to buy a Mac. You can't buy it and put it on your Dell Latitude. So what would Apple gain by encouraging people to pick up a free OS that doesn't require a new machine?

[Luggy]

When I was in post-secondary I used Linux but it did have it's issues.

The biggest is that all the computers at our school ran Windows and thus it was annoying to install OpenOffice on the school computers whenever I wanted to work on a document between home and school.

Ubuntu also wasn't as polished back then, so it made things like audio and video codecs and flash much more annoying to setup. :p

[HotShotDJ]

I'm a graduate student and I use Linux. No Windows partition.

[gnp421]

I'm in my final year of college, I'm getting a degree in Electronics Engineering with a concentration in Computer/Digital Systems. I also just got hired to maintin the Solaris machines at my campus. The campus is Mostly windows based and almost everyone uses it. There are the occassional linux users but mostly windows. Mac users has increased and the school recently upgraded the cisco clean access program. I can connect to my schools WPA2 encrypted wireless simply using my login name and password. Everything is done with Domain user accounts so no biggie.I also talked to alot of people and most companies in teh field use windows but make you ssh and launch an xterm window from a linux server.

[Macintosh Sauce]

I used Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X when it first came out for almost all my programming courses. The others I used Windows in VirtualPC.

[Zyphrexi]

I'm in college. I use linux. Mostly self taught. Actually completely self taught.

It's annoying but there isn't much linux activity at my school. While there are a couple classes, I can't think of them as useful in any way, since they teach using red hat, which I abhor. The general access computer labs all run windows, I always spend about five minutes hunting for a terminal before realizing I'm using windows. I have on occasion booted damnsmall from a usb drive, but apparently I'm not supposed to do that either. Really annoying when you have a paper due and the only access you have cannot convert filetypes.

I've done papers in abiword, openoffice, imported sketches via Kseg or Dr. Geo (both excellent programs for geometry students). For math, it usually involves a lot of hunting and pecking for symbols, since I really have no desire to learn LaTeX. For tables and charts, I've used gnumeric, which was difficult to find exactly what the professor wanted in the exact format he wanted it, but I managed.

For the student, linux and free software is superior when you do not have thousands of dollars with which to purchase the annoying software required by the collegiate powers that be. (and have no desire to pirate such software, even though that is what most college students do)

However, teachers or professors who do not accept open standards are probably the greatest difficulty in using linux and free software in an educational institution, since a great amount of file conversion is necessary. I would like to see classes not simply teaching use of linux, but the use of programs within linux, since that would really have been an aid to me in those times where time was running out.

[perce]

For math, it usually involves a lot of hunting and pecking for symbols, since I really have no desire to learn LaTeX.


You should give it a try: after you've learnt the basics, it's much more productive than hunting and pecking for symbols, and the result is gorgeous. It's also portable on pretty much all systems you can think of. There's a reason why all professional mathematicians use it.
And trust me: it's not hard to learn.

[ericesque]

I've been writing my final two college papers in Ubuntu for the last two weeks :)

I saw a thread earlier that had a poll for what age linux users are out there. The largest range was 18-24 or something like that. Prime college years there.

[tchotchke]

There's a large-ish linux following in my college, probably because it is a tech school. but windows is still the norm of course.

[tettayes]

for my school too, they have pretty large UNIX support center as well! which is free of charge for students.

[hangman_jdf]

Yeah, I use Ubuntu as well. I am a grad student in the sciences. I still dual-boot because one of my classes requires the use of Minitab. As for the school, I am able to connect wirelessly to their network just fine; although they "require" anti-virus, which I do have on windows but rarely use it unless I have to.

[Xavieran]

I'll be heading off to school (not college but year 9) sometime next year and I'm planning on bringing a LiveCD of ubuntu along!

Their server would most likely benefit from Linux... the Principal who is also server maintainer seriously doesn't know much about what he's doing!

[siimo]

I know that on my campus most students use i-pods. Apple advertises them as Mac+PC. You do the math! :lolflag:

Yes I know there are geeks on campus that do use linux but they are few and far between.

Yes I also know i-pods work with linux but everyone I know that has an i-pod is addicted to i-tunes. :guitar:

[bowsercake]

I use Linux as my main laptop at UC Irvine. A few others use it here but not many. I try to share the wealth

[sloggerkhan]

So how can I persuade my draconian institution to change its spots?:confused:

You can't. Ingrained IT almost never changes.
Most of the way IT is today is a result of 'technology experts' who are completely resistant to change unless it's forced on them. If they know windows XP, it's not worth the time to learn anything else. Bottom line, end of story.
All you can do is wish they die early deaths and go on with your life.

[Wazeem]

In regards to the question that the topic is asking.

I am a college student and am using ubuntu. I have windows dual booting but windows is only there for emergencies like when the internet gets cut from ubuntu.

I found out about ubuntu from a classmate but he is a vista fanatic.

[holiday]

Isn't it true, perhaps, that one of the great things about Linux is that it is *not* officially supported?

Even though it's almost certain to be true that the IT department has Unix machines as their main workhorses.

[master_kernel]

High school, middle, and elementary school kids use Linux, so why not college?

[GSF1200S]

When I become a college student in <2 years, this college student will be using Linux.

[subiet]

Here at BITS, Pilani (goa), India the majority OS like most other college campuses is Windows, but the number of people who are dual booting with windows is growing steadily. A few now use Linux just for lan games. A lot of first year students, who had never heard of linux before, are trying to dual boot, after seeing the graphics glory on their neighbor's machine.

[jd8001]

Hey,
I may not be the norm, but I'm a college student running linux. I'm a junior in electrical Engineering at the university of Alabama (roll tide!), and our department is closely tied to the computer engineers and computer scientists. In our computer lab we have about half a dozen linux machines, but as far as I know they're the only linux machines on the campus. The main library just installed about two dozen macs also.
I really see a bright future for linux/ubuntu simply because of the $$ saved, especially with college kids like myself. I've had the unfortunate experience of using office 07 and it was actually what got me to switch to ubuntu (long story). My computer just couldn't handle all the crap windows would run in the background. IT seems that most people run windows because they have to, not because they want to.


J.D Beck

[jinx099]

I go to Colorado State University and our CS lab is running almost all linux computers. Additionally, the engineering department runs mostly Solaris and we have several Sun Solaris thin clients around campus too.

Oh yeah, I'm a linux user, and a few of my CS friends are as well. I even got my girlfriend to use Ubuntu and she's about as non computer savvy as they come!

[fongjd85]

I am currently attending school at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. While it's true that most students use Windows, the computer science department is big on Linux, and has two devoted servers. We've been using both Mandrake and Ubuntu. Most of my classmates run Linux on their laptops, and just recently we hosted a LAN party using Ubuntu.

[jpittack]

I am at University of Nebraska at Omaha, and I know one other student that uses Linux, as well as my programming teacher who is a student as well (hes someone lurking in the forums, but I have yet to find him). We have an IT office in our tech and engineering building that helps those Linux folks out. My speech class requires that I have windows or mac at my expense. If I don't have it at home, I need to use the speech lab at school.

[Syco54645]

when i was still in college i did, for the entire time i was there (minus the first few months). i still run linux to this day. at work i have osx, much better than windows as it has a nice sane terminal. ;)

[siciliancasanova]

I use it myself on my machines in my place. Whenever my friends are over they are too afraid to touch it, like they will break it or something. Even just to change the song that's playing or to browse the web.

I have seen it on campus though, mostly in the dungeons area of the IT wing, in the classes that only a few students take.

[siciliancasanova]

I am at University of Nebraska at Omaha, and I know one other student that uses Linux, as well as my programming teacher who is a student as well (hes someone lurking in the forums, but I have yet to find him). We have an IT office in our tech and engineering building that helps those Linux folks out. My speech class requires that I have windows or mac at my expense. If I don't have it at home, I need to use the speech lab at school.

Hey, nice to see a fellow Nebraska Ubuntu user on here. I'm at Wayne State and know of no one else that uses it here. In Columbus I know a few people and same at UNL, just having 1 or 2 friends who you have met randomly in the world, not in a tech class or something, who use Linux is a pretty good ratio.

[siciliancasanova]

I am currently attending school at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. While it's true that most students use Windows, the computer science department is big on Linux, and has two devoted servers. We've been using both Mandrake and Ubuntu. Most of my classmates run Linux on their laptops, and just recently we hosted a LAN party using Ubuntu.

Wow, two back to back posts of people who live in Nebraska.
"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it" - steven wright

[eliasz]

Hey guys.
I was previously in CS at U of Toronto and we did a fair bit of c coding in linux, as well as Java and Python. There are a few labs on the campus' which have redhat or debain only. Mind you these are mostly CS labs, but some regular students use them to.
In my current program at Sheridan in Oakville Ontario we have been using Linux for the last 2 years for networking courses as well as OS/Unix programming courses.

I think that the trend is that in schools which have developed tech courses, have a much higher chance of using Linux. I don't think i have any course save maybe a Data Forensics course that i would need to have windows for.

[Majorix]

Our college doesn't have Linux. All comps are Windows, except for a few Mac labs. And none of the other colleges I know of uses Linux. And my friends who go to university don't either. Sad isn't it?

[Quillz]

A lot of college students on my campus use MacBooks, actually, because we get pretty good discounts on them, usually starting at $200-250 off. There are also a lot of Windows users, as Dell laptops are also quite cheap here. I've only ever seen one person using Ubuntu, although there are a few "Linux clubs" on campus.

[ghandi69_]

I am a engineering student at the university of Iowa, and I use linux.

Also, we have 3 computer labs in the engineering building, and in each of them, half of the computers(roughly 20) have Linux (OpenSuse) installed on them. Other things of note.

All the windows computers have 19 inch 4:3 flat panels.
All the linux machines have 24 inch wide screen flat panels.

The linux machines, as mentioned, come with Open Suse, but they also have almost every available free program known to man installed on there.

I'm talking every web browser (konq, opera, seamonkey, firefox etc), every media player, every little 2D game.

They also have Matlab and other engineering type software on them like Eclipse, KDevelop, Anjuta, and Cadence.

Every single Desktop Manager or WIndow manager that I know of have been installed on these machines, and you can select which one you want to use on loging.

Gnome, KDE, XFCE, fluxbox, openbox, blackbox, icewm etc...

[JpBя]

I'm a college student, and I've used linux my entire time here. There is no support for it, but I haven't had any problems. I only know one other student who was already using linux, but we've managed a few converts! With as fed up as people are with vista, it's not exactly a tough sell...

[pmgr33r]

I'm an MCDB major at CU and they seem to have decent support for linux. I have been pretty much solely Ubuntu for all class related work for about 2 months and have yet to have any compatibility issues.

[PsyWolf]

I go to Case Western Reserve University. We have a pretty big technical department, so there actually is a decently sized linux community. There are also alot of PC gamers though, and they are stuck either windows or dual booting for stuff that doesn't play with wine.

[98GreenGT]

After the first semester of computer science courses at George Mason University you have to use a linux distro to code while in class. They currently only support Fedora on the computers at school but ill stick with ubuntu ;)

[jken146]

I was surprised at first at how good the Linux support is at my uni. I can ssh into my user directory from home which is nice, and despite most of the on-campus computer rooms being windows only, there are a couple of places with Fedora 7 installed as a dual boot, and they're adding this to more rooms next term. Even when there's only XP on a machine they've been kind enough to install Putty.

The uni webserver is a LAMP stack, but sadly they changed the email to MS Exchange last year ;(

As for students using Linux, based on no real quantitative evidence, I'd say that hardly any do. Not even many computer science students, at least undergrads. Most students who fancy themselves as geeks seem to have Macs.

[Mtown]

Strangely Linux is technically "allowed" on my college campus and using it to try to connect to the internet is a violation of our Network Terms of Service policy.

They won't DO anything to you if they find out that you're using Linux; They don't really care, they just kick you off the network.

My roommate uses Linux but always has to keep it unplugged from the internet. Luckily he also has a laptop with Vista so he is able to use the internet, just not with Linux.

[Presto123]

I actually am taking classes over the internet. Their requirements are Windows and IE, so I thought I would never get to use Linux for my classes.

PFFFttt...I can do everything on it, and I DO mean everything. I love that Firefox has the ability to tab in my posts and spell checks as I go. IE just doesn't have that, so I find using Firefox much better for school anyway.

[sh1v]

Strangely Linux is technically "allowed" on my college campus and using it to try to connect to the internet is a violation of our Network Terms of Service policy.

They won't DO anything to you if they find out that you're using Linux; They don't really care, they just kick you off the network.

My roommate uses Linux but always has to keep it unplugged from the internet. Luckily he also has a laptop with Vista so he is able to use the internet, just not with Linux.

Is there a reason why they hate linux?

My school uses ubuntu for their core computer classes. For everything else, they use HP computers with XP installed.

I personally installed ubuntu 7.10 for the first time couple of weeks back. Took 14 hours and 3 installations to get everything right. So far i am liking the OS. Its too bad Creative doesnt have a good support for X-fi drivers.

[Wamoc]

I go to Colorado School of Mines and there are a lot of us here that use linux. There is even a club for it. Also, the entire physics department uses only linux and most of the computer science majors use it. There are even some campus computers open to our use that run linux.

[FuturePilot]

Yes I do. But I think I might be the only one:lolflag:
What's rather disturbing is that this is a technical college and a quick survey shows only a very small group of people prefer Firefox to IE:shock:

[sh1v]

Yes I do. But I think I might be the only one:lolflag:
What's rather disturbing is that this is a technical college and a quick survey shows only a very small group of people prefer Firefox to IE:shock:

uhh okay, i prefer IE over firefox. Does that mean i am retarded?

[macogw]

uhh okay, i prefer IE over firefox. Does that mean i am retarded?

It means you must not know any web developers within arms length, otherwise they'd have just strangled you.

[macogw]

After the first semester of computer science courses at George Mason University you have to use a linux distro to code while in class. They currently only support Fedora on the computers at school but ill stick with ubuntu ;)

You're nearby! George Washington University uses Fedora in the computer science classes too. Hmm...let's sandwich NOVA and make them switch!

[el_ricardo]

I do illustration at university so my work relies heavily on photoshop, and gimp unfortunatly just doesn't cut it (i'm getting into xara extreme in a big way though!) so we have macs in our design studios, i occasionally use my laptop in the studios with a pen for quick sketches in inkscape, but i really couldn't work without photoshop

there you have it: i'm a student who needs mac/windows based computers to work, but i still use ubuntu whenever i can!

[Existentialist]

My roommates and I use linux on a few comps, but I found some stats on my schools IT page and about 15% of students run OSX and the rest windows. Thats out of about 3000 students. I guess linux doesn't have enough of a presence to make the list here. We do have one lab in the comp sci & math building thats dual boot fedora/xp.

[the.ant]

Our college relies exclusively on Windows and it's really annoying.
Not only don't they provide any support for other systems, they discourage ppl to use them and don't give any information on how to set up wireless, vpn, etc. with their custom settings.
As far as I know, I am the only one in my year using Linux.
However, whenever I gave to give presentations etc. I bring my laptop and make them envy my nice compiz ;)

I try to encourage ppl to give it a try and by now I have seen some more around with linux-laptops. I try to give technical support whereever I can, I hope that it will pay off...

[bufsabre666]

ive been trying to get suny buffalo to install an ubuntu lab, they already have a fedora lab and a suse lab, so why not

[Afkpuz]

I use linux. It's amazing in the class room setting. I have basket notes for taking notes, sun bird for homework, open office for papers/spread sheets, Bibletime for research (I'm a Bible major) and compiz for showing off ;-)

[teh'p3nsi0n3r]

i have been using kubuntu feisty original on an old laptop for university notes using basket notes, and open office and just in general for storing work / files, i was used to comments "hey your desktop is cool but why does the start menu look different" :lolflag:.
this changed after buying a new laptop and switching over to ubuntu gutsy and liked it since and now prefer tomboy notes for quick note taking in labs over basket notes.
Compiz-fusion usually attracts some users who seem to envy the nice desktop effects, usually the cube :)

I am studying web design and find GIMP good enough for quick image edits and crops and i use gedit (i love the tabs) :) for coding, but i have another laptop with xp for the adobe suite and a few other applications i need for other uses.

i find a good mix to work well, but my main choice of os is defiantly ubuntu for university as its mostly note taking.

i also joined my universitys LUG :) seems to be a fair amount of users using linux in general at my university.

[cprofitt]

At my University nearly everyone runs Mac or Windows, and people are very tech illiterate, since it's a Liberal Arts school and not an Ivy League one. I have yet to encounter a Linux user or hear anyone mention Linux. If I weren't a web designer, I would have sold my Macbook and would be running Zenwalk on my old ThinkPad...

Ivy League schools are probably more tech illiterate.

[SkylineGT-R]

Well for my main OS I'm sticking with windows since just about everything thing is made for it. All the software I need is only made for Mac or PC and I'd rather not use Mac. If I mention the word "linux" at my school people would probably think I'm speaking a new language. This is my first taste of linux. I just loaded Ubuntu onto my external hard drive the other day. I love it. I think Ubuntu is going to be my play-time OS. You know, surfing the net and listenin to music.

[isurf]

Yes, we are college students using Ubuntu from Bangalore, India. We are studying for Information Science Engineering in City Engineering College, Bangalore. We all Love Ubuntu.

[azdavef]

My son attends a local community college and used his Ubuntu laptop last semester without incident. The school uses Blackboard and supports Firefox. He had no problem using OO, but he did post his work as M$ documents. One of my daughters is a post graduate student in Statistics and has used a Mac for the past year at two different colleges and a local internship without compatibility problems. My other daughter works for Intel and she just got a Linux box to accompany her M$ box. She does most of her stuff on the Linux box and converts when needed. I only use my M$ disk for video stuff. I think there is plenty of support for anything anyone wants to do with any OS they choose.

[Master-of-None]

I hope that if I got to any college, that I'll be able to use my linux laptop, I don't have the money to waste on a Windows XP product key.

[bigyoy]

My Uni, Oxford Brookes used Windows XP in most places but had a linux lab setup for the computing department. It wasn't ubuntu, might have been red hat but it got me tuned into linux. I spent many a late night coding away trying to write a webserver in c. ahh fun days!

[realbiga]

I hope that if I got to any college, that I'll be able to use my linux laptop, I don't have the money to waste on a Windows XP product key.

my school, OSU, gives you a a free XP lic as well as office 2003, 2007.and various others -looots of anti-virus surprise, surprise:)
I started med school in the fall and they made us buy tablets, well all of the tablets only come with vista but IT doesnt support vista (fear not my thinkpad was vista free less than a week after i got it). I have had to help more than one of my classmates whose MS crap crashed with all of their notes... vista seems particularly ill suited to tablets judging by the number of lapies i have helped with...
Our IT dept. does have limited linux support (virtual labs and whatnot) but i have never had a problem that hasnt been on the forums or google so i dont know how far it goes.
i would say def. stick w/linux. The only software i havent been able to run was pinion and believe me you DONT want that anywhere near your stuff (its DRMd powerpoints) and webslide browser- but webslide has a java client that i used (along w/the 2 macs in the class).

[Qwertyman66]

I'm at University of Essex in the UK doing Computer Engineering. Our dept has excellent support for Linux, with the departmental helpdesk handing out free Fedora CDs and assisting with setup on laptops if they have time. The uni also runs most of it's central servers on Linux, with the exception of the exchange email.

[alexei_colin]

Harvard's support for Linux is almost non-existent, but IT services do offer some licensed software (eg. Matlab) for Linux in addition to Windows. Very few students actually use Linux - but those few made a good choice :)

[cartisdm]

I attend JMU (James Madison University) and Linux isn't supported for their VPN remote connections but I've been told there's ways around that. I never use that service so it doesn't affect me.

As for classes, this fall semester I'll be taking a Linux server class within the CIS department which I'm excited for!

[zenkaon]

I'm at Queen Mary, University of London in the physics department. I would say that 90% of people (staff) use RHEL5, with ubuntu on laptops. There are a few macs around and even fewer windows machines. Oh, and one of the IT support guys is a debian enthusiast / contributer.