Linux 24 - Linux Desktop 02

Before going forward I'd like to list some reasons for why use Linux in the first place.



* "Why?"

"My machine is slow", "this program locks the PC", "it keeps saying the driver was not found". Software has bugs. You debug more efficiently when nothing is hidden and you have access to all of your OS inns and outs. You learn very interactively when you also debug your own code.

* Batteries included.

Windows includes powershell. No doubt you can do interesting stuff with it. Linux includes a C compiler, C++, python, perl, gtk etc..  I like that it gives you the industry standard tools out of the box.

 * Documentation

"There was a command to list files in the terminal but can't remember what it was called"

$ apropos -a list contents
dir (1)              - list directory contents
git-ls-tree (1)      - List the contents of a tree object
gvfs-tree (1)        - List contents of directories in a tree-like format
ls (1)               - list directory contents
lsar (1)             - list archive file contents
ntfsls (8)           - list directory contents on an NTFS filesystem
tree (1)             - list contents of directories in a tree-like format.
vdir (1)             - list directory contents

"There it was!", you say to yourself. "ls". "But I saw once that you can list files in revse by date. How would I do that ?"

$man ls followed by / then the search item such as {date, sort, filter, find }


* Security

70% of servers run some *nix like OS. Since a server is at most times a public resource the smarter guys must have a good idea about what is a good, secure OS.

 Side-note:
 Security is not a product. Running Linux can be as insecure as any other operating system so the responsibility is with the user to secure his computer the same way you secure your house.It's a wee-bit easier when everything is transparent.

* Stable

Important in servers, don't mind on desktops to test out features. You can help by testing out features and report bugs to maintainers.

* Community

Submit a bug, discuss ideas openly, experiment, implement, optimize, break it, fix it.

If Operating Systems Ran The Airlines...

[...]

Linux Air

Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself.

When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"

Having said all of the above I still think Windows has the upper hand with ADFS. But probably that may be just a UX issue for LDAP to fix.