Linux – Because I’m Poor
I use Linux as my operating system. Partly because I used to be an IT guy, and have a clue about computers (so therefore refuse to use Windows), but mostly because I’m poor and can’t afford a Mac at the moment.
As a person who was more concerned with things working exactly as I wanted them to, I installed Gentoo Linux – a distribution you download and compile specifically for your machine. Gentoo has a lot of packages in it’s online catalouge. Tens of thousands of programs. Basically, if it compiles on Linux, you can install it in Gentoo from the commandline.
Over the past year, I’ve been using Macs at school and work, and Linux at home. I like OS X. It Just works. And it’s because things just work in most computer situations for me, that I’ve become annoyed and irritated with the shear amount of time I have to spend making my Gentoo box run. I’m sick of writing conf files, having old conf files not work with newer version of programs, or caring which driver is in charge of outputting sound to my headphones. Seriously, I have more important things to do these days.
So, today I’ve decided to ditch Gentoo and give Ubuntu Linux a try. I hear it’s good, and they seem to have built the system on a good philosophy;
Ubuntu is a free, open source operating system that starts with the breadth of Debian and adds regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should “Just Work”, TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release.
So it’s built on Debian (which is hardcore), has a good professional backup crew making sure things keep ticking, and it just works. Let’s see how this works out.
Fare thee well Gentoo. You were good while I cared.
2 Responses to “Linux – Because I’m Poor”
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01
by Michael Koziarski @ 2005-10-08 2027 UTCMy first step to macdom was switching from gentoo to fedora for the same reason.
One of us. One of us. One of us.
02
by Yorrike @ 2005-10-09 0303 UTCI’ll get a Mac next year. A mac or something small and cheap (my perfect system is a Mac Mini, but we’ll see how that works out).
And just as an update, this Ubuntu distro is fantastic! I’m actually using Kubuntu, which is the KDE version (I’m sick of Gnome), and I’m very impressed. It’s all based around sudo, so there’s no root access (which is irritating to start with, but it actually makes sense), and it’s really pretty and smooth.