[lug] Why use a Linux desktop? Was: Re: (Virtual)

Sun Apr 12 11:13:28 MDT 2020

Practical:Linux works as well as or better than the popular proprietary OSs for everything I care about: Web and DB servers, Python, Ansible, cURL, ssh, shell and distro du jour, OpenStack and other cloud hosting systems, and a few games.Political:I believe software libre (copyleft/liberal) is better public policy than proprietary software (copyright/patent). I understand both, and would rather deal with the suck of too much liberty than too little. I am being the change I want to see in the world.Personal/Romantic:I am in love with Free Software, generally, and Linux, specifically. It's beloved art and science to me. I literally enjoy using it, even or perhaps especially, the hard parts, like choosing a distribution.Happy hacking!

-------- Original message --------
From: "Michael J. Hammel" <mjhammel at graphics-muse.org> 
Date: 4/12/20  10:38 AM  (GMT-07:00) 
To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us 
Subject: Re: [lug] Why use a Linux desktop? Was: Re:  (Virtual) 

And now a view from the other side. :-)  I get a kick out of thesetypes of discussions because they always seem to insinuate that Linuxusers need what MS and Mac users need: point and click and games. Bwahahahaha.  No, we really don't.  At least not those like me.  Note:what is about to be said is ONE mans use case.  Take it with a hugegrain of salt.On Sat, 2020-04-11 at 21:46 -0600, Maxwell Spangler wrote:> 1. I've seen a large exodus of Linux advocate-users away from Linux> desktops in favor of Mac (and perhaps some Windows?).I've seen this too.  Mostly driven by IT people who have no idea how tocoral the Linux cats.  Despite their attempts, I have successfullyavoided use of MS or Mac for 25 years.  But there's more to it thanpolitics.  No management has needed me to move to MS or Mac to supportcommunication.  It's always the IT people.  > 2. I don't see the Linux desktop market share as growing> significantly. It has no killer app on the desktop.What was the last native killer app on MS?  Or the Mac?  Most dev thesedays is focused on the cloud (because it offers better cyclical income)which pushes the front end into a browser (yuck).  The most recent"killer apps" have been web based - even phone apps are mostly justfront ends to REST APIs.  That's not particularly desktop-centric.  Ithink the concept of killer apps has come and gone as a reason behindbuying a specific OS/desktop.  And that's exactly what GNU was tryingto show all along, if you think about it.> 3. I continue to see people who have strong politics choose Linux and> continue to use Linux. This set of users is consistent, but small,> and they don't look to spend money on commercial software.It's not politics.  It's money.  I've made a healthy living for 25years using Linux as my desktop.  Why?  Because I use it to build Linuxsystems: cloud computing, grid computing, radars, embedded systems,storage.  All based on Linux.  The small but consistent set of usersyou mention aren't BUYING software, they're building software that isSOLD.  We build the infrastructure.  And we need our desktops tosupport construction of that infrastructure.  If you've ever tried todo custom Linux distribution construction on Windows or Macs you knowit's not as simple as on Linux.  And that makes some sense.  You don'tuse a wrench as a hammer.  You can.  But you don't.In 25 years I've never used an IDE (well, not outside experimenting tosee if it offered any advantages).  I use cscope, even with BASH.  AndJava.  I need a command line to do my work.  The browser is there tosupport interactions with the rest of the world who doesn't understandhow I need to do my work.I don't need 3D (who has time for games?).  I use very little drag androp (even in the browser), though that works fine (on X, not sure whatwill happen in Wayland - I've not opened that can of worms yet).  I'vewritten 4 books on GIMP using OpenOffice on Linux.  I use cut-n-pastebetween text windows.  I have multiple workspaces supported under XFce.In other words, I just don't have much need for a spinning box ofworkspaces or a constantly changing Start menu.  I need it small,simple and easily customizable for MY use case.  Why? So I can spend mypaid time working on products my employer can sell.  Not on trying totweak a OS that was not INTENDED to build other Linux systems.> I use Chrome, Firefox, Atom, VirtualBox, Slack and ZoomChrome, Firefox, VirtualBox, Slack (native) and Zoom (native) all workfine on Linux, despite reports of issues.  We used Slack and Zoom atNetApp for a couple of years.  I'm using Teams (native) now with QSC. All work fine.  FWIW: I use Fedora.  Not Ubuntu.BTW, NetApp tried to push our Linux desktops into the cloud so theycould have a single distro to manage (Ubuntu).  We were all supposed touse Macs to login to the remote VMs.  I setup my Mac to run QEMU withFedora and spun up a Fedora VM in the Ubuntu VM and ssh'd between thetwo Fedoras, just to mess with ITs mind.  But their "one-size-fits-all" didn't work because I personally needed 3x the storage available andthe network bounced like a frog in panic, keeping most of us out of theremote VMs.  Result:  we kept our Linux desktops right up till Ibounced to a more embedded job where I won't have to give up my Linuxdesktop.I understand the outside worlds view of the Linux desktop goingnowhere.  But there are many of us (not as small a number as you mightthink) who have a completely different view of what a desktop needs todo.  So the Linux desktop will never die (okay, at least not in mylifetime which admittedly may not be as long as I'd like).  We justdon't need the same desktop grandma or a chef or a graphic designerneeds.  Linux is not a Mac, and for me it shouldn't be.> So in the midst of all of us discussing having a meeting using Zoom> and whether Zoom is good or bad, I appreciate having the opportunity> to choose or decline to use it. Not having the choice just leaves me> out of participating from my comfortable Linux environment or forces> me towards the other platforms.I find the lack of choice is usually just administrative specification.Given my dithers, I'd still be using IRC.And that's one nuts opinion from the peanut gallery.  :-)-- Michael J. Hammelmjhammel at graphics-muse.orgmichaelhammel@acm.org_______________________________________________Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.usMailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lugJoin us on IRC: irc.hackingsociety.org port=6667 channel=#hackingsociety
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