Why Linux?

[Christopher Murtagh]

 I've seen this question asked a number of times, and honestly, I think
that if you have to ask, then likely Linux isn't for you (at least not
full time). This is not snobery or me being a BOFH. If your OS (including
windoze) does what you need to do with your machines, then why switch?

 Here are my reasons (which might or might not apply to you):

 I switched to Linux when OS X was in public beta. MacOS was farily
unstable, and crashed often and MacOS X, while it looked promsing,
definitely wasn't ready for prime time. Since then, OS X has improved 
quite a lot, but so has Linux, and I have gotten addicted to virtual 
desktops. Without it, I find the window clutter in OS X slows down my 
productivity. Expose seems a nice 'Apple' alternative, but I would still 
prefer the real thing. I tried a couple of shareware/payware virtual 
desktops, but they didn't cut it.

 My main programming tool (for writing Perl, PHP and shell scripts) is 
GVim. I used to be a BBEdit guy, and thought that it was the one killer 
App I could never replace (even bought the 'It still doesn't suck' 
T-shirts). Well, I guess I was wrong, because after using GVim almost 
exclusively for the last three years, I find BBEdit hard to use. 
Unfortunately, GVim for OS X isn't as nicely done, but it is still my 
editor of choice when I'm using OS X.

 The other things that I find hard to deal with in OS X is the fact that 
it has standard BSD/Linux config files (like /etc/passwd, /etc/hosts... 
etc/etc), but it doesn't use them in standard ways. So, I can't write 
scripts that modify these like I can in Linux. And, NetInfo Manager is not 
my friend. It wasn't in NeXTSTEP and it isn't in OS X.

 My main reason for switching to Linux full time when I did (Champion
server 1.2) was because I wanted to be running the same software that my
servers was running (and I definitely didn't want to run OS X server). Our
Apple Rep had recommended that we go with YDL rather than LinuxPPC and I
am *so* happy that he did. Now we have mixed hardware (IBM X345s, G4s and
YDL briQs - www.mcgill.ca/secretaboutbox/) and they are all running the
same OS. When we moved our central machine from YDL to RedHat (for CPU
power reasons) it was simple - all we had to do was unplug our RAID box
which containted the web root, and plug it into the IBM hardware. I
couldn't imaging hardware migrating being any easier. All of our code
'just worked'(TM).

On Mon, 30 Jun 2003, Les Bowen wrote:
>Sounds like you are in a similar situation as i am. I am a web and print
>designer, but have recently taken an interest in programming outside of
>web development. Frankly IMHO, neither Linux or Windows will ever offer a
>better alternative to print publishing than my Mac, but my mac OS lags
>behind in programming aspects. 

 I agree with this 100%. Macs have had the print world down for the last 
10-12 years. There is nothing IMO that can do it as well (at least, 
nothing I have used and can afford). While I am constantly amazed at how 
good the GIMP is, it is not Photoshop. It has been a couple of years since 
I have written any Scheme/Lisp, and the thought of re-learning it to write 
GIMP macros is both cool and frightning. I couldn't imaging telling my 
Mom (who has a 7200 running Linux only so she can learn it) that she 
would have to learn Scheme to do batch image processing.

>although OSX has given me greater control, I still love linux, if for
>nothing else, for the fact that it makes me part of the open-source
>community, which I have grown to love and admire, and fully support.

 This I also agree with 100%. In a world where it seems freedom is being 
squashed and silenced by mega-corporations, it is wonderful to see that 
the open source community is there fighting for us. I have to admit, this 
is a *major* reason why I use and buy Linux products when ever I can.

>Aside from the print design aspects of OSX, the only other reason I keep
>it around (OSX, that is) is that it supports the modem on my iBook2,
>while linux does not. remember that hardware compatibility may be an
>issue.

 Having bought a 12" Powerbook earlier this year, I am strong considering 
getting rid of it to replace it with an iBook. Without proper sleep 
support and Airport, the Powerbook is a bummer running Linux, and OS X 
hasn't been great for me. Ever since the 10.2.6 upgrade, I've been getting 
nasty kernel panics, hardware detection failure and massive slow-downs. 
The only reason why I haven't switched is that the rare time I use OS X is 
to play WarCraft III with a couple friends I've known since kindergarden 
that are at opposite ends of the continent, and my powerbook is my most 
powerful machine (until I get my G5... *drool*).


>As far as photoshop, the GIMP tries to replace it, but it's not adequate,
>as far as my needs, forcing me to keep my machines dual-booting or use
>MOL. for office, you may find OpenOffice a refreshing alternative,
>especially if you have moral qualms about using microsoft products.

 I love OpenOffice. It means I am finally running a machine without any M$ 
software on it (including OS X), and I don't have to give my colleagues a 
rant when they send me Word docs (although I still do, but that's an 
inside/outside voice thing :-).

>Let me refer to others that you have to use the right tool for the right
>job: Mac for productivity, Linux for development, Palm for mobility, and
>windows for Solitaire.

 Hey, where have I seen that before.... oh yeah:

http://blues.mcgill.ca/~chris/me2.jpg

 (old photo... don't have that haircut any more :-)


>Simply, unless you are into programming in the open-source community, the
>only reason to use linux is stability over OS9. if you have OSX and don't
>program, the change is pointless (linux die-hards may cringe at that, but
>it's true, IMHO)

 I don't agree with this. Whereas my machines have all crashed several 
times running MacOS 9 and MacOS X (even though I use them very rarely), I 
have only had 1 hard crash on my Linux box in the last 3 years! And that 
was after I tried doing 'cat /dev/dsp > foo.out' just for fun. 1 crash in 
3 years.

 Also, speed is a big issue for me. My G4/450 crawls running OS X but runs
Linux beautifully. And because most of what I do these days involves a
browser, having *no* good/stable browsers for OS X is a major pain. Is it
just me or was Safari 1.0 *worse* than the previous beta? This has been
one of the biggest things that has stopped me from using OS X.

Cheers,

Chris

-- 

Christopher Murtagh
Webmaster / Sysadmin
Web Communications Group
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec
Canada

Tel.: (514) 398-3122
Fax:  (514) 398-2017