Linux or not to Linux?

[Daryl Fletcher]

[Leland]

I'd have some variant of Linux installed if I wanted to fiddle with tweaking code, but I'm not really interested in spending the time.

One AOL programmer I know around keeps a few Macs at home and, besides the usual home-oriented stuff, does coding in Linux on them.

[Daryl Fletcher]

Whatever happened to that highly questionable port of Linux that came on the infamous Wal*Mart computers? It was called Lindows (a law suit just waiting to happen, in my opinion).

It's now known as Linspire.

[Chuck(G)]

Linux on the front end mail server and firewall; whatever does the job (Win2K mostly) everywhere else.

Linux is great for servers--just set it up and forget it. I've got the server to reboot automatically at about 4:00 AM. Ths is the same system that uses RealPlayer and Xine to take netcasts and re-broadcast them as conventional FM around the house. (It's set to start with BBC World Service, so that's what I hear when getting up in the morning.) Other than installing the radio broadcast thing, I haven't done a thing to the system in over a year.

But there's no way I'd use Linux as my desktop OS--much of Linux productivity software is just too unstable for everyday use. I suppose I could run a system with Wine and use Windows software, but what's the point?

Oh yeah, the DSL modem also uses Linux.

Like someone said, each OS for its purpose.

[cjk]

Sure. Why not?

I used Linux-only from 1996->1999. I still use it occasionally. If I had to buy my own new computer, I'd purchase a Macintosh laptop (but probably one off of Ebay).

Right now, I mostly use a PC laptop provided by my employer running windows or a dual XEON "workstation" PC made by Compaq. I have business needs that can't be met by Linux at this time.

Linux has gotten easier to install over the last seven years or so. Now all your hardware works a lot of the time.

[SplatterTone]

Keep in mind that there is Solaris. Sun seems to be trying to become the Microsoft of the Unix world with less emphasis on hardware and a LOT more on software. They have made a lot of their stuff available for download. I must admit I haven't played with any of their latest stuff; the last Solaris I downloaded and installed was 2.5 and ran it on a 386DX/40 with 8 Mb RAM (which I still have -- NEVER throw anything away; just buy a bigger house with a bigger garage).

[cjk]

Okie dokie, well maybe "toy" was a strong word.

I am aware of the various Linux based (and AIX based and Tru64 based) loosely coupled "clusters" of individual machines referred to as supercomputers. Workloads that can be divided up into discreet bits and distributed to various separate machines work well in this environment. Linux is probably the best tool for this job since Intel/AMD CPUs are very cheap and the OS is some folks' idea of "free". The views of academia and the world outside are often largely divergent.

I also just built a quad AMD opteron box with 8 GB of RAM (which I intent to upgrade to 32 GB) that I run Fedora Core 3 on to use as a database server (primarily MySQL). We are quite pleased with the performance/price ratio.

Yup. Nifty small server. Best tool for the job? I dunno.

[ThomasDodd]

Linux is neat, a neat toy. Makes an OK workstation or a nifty small server. Linux on peecees certainly lacks the polish, integration, and scalability of real commercial UNIX (except SCO which is crap IMHO).

That "toy" is being used to do a lot a real work these days. Check out the semiconductor industry. Many shops are replacing the expensive/slow Sun/Solaris workstations with x86/Linux systems. And thanks to AMD's x86-64 the larges designs can be simulated and error checked now.

I'm talking about 180nm processes, full design cycles from product definition to tape-out. And I do a lot of test development with linux. The tester runs HP-UX, but it's to damned slow to do the development on, even though that system cost 5x the linux system I use.

Softeware like Cadence's tools are no different on Linux or Solaris. Not cost, functionality, integration, or "polish". You cn be sure the people using this don't consider it a "toy".


I've personally used linux it since the 1.2 days. There's a lot af good stuff out there, and in many cases it's better than the stuff for M$ Windows. But it's different too. Example, writyting documents. I don't mean quick letters or 2-3 page memos, but 20+ page technical documents with lots of figures and tables. I'd rather use TeX (or LaTeX) any day. I can worry about the content seperate from the structure. I can move figures and tables around and have all the references corrected. Great stuff. But it's not a GUI too, and the file you edit is not the final document. So you have to think differently with it.

Somone mentioned bitmap editing. Another place where linux shines. GIMP is a great app, with most of the power of PhotoShop. It's worth learning to use, and there's lots of documentation out there.