What do you use linux for?

[phool]

Just curiuos out there to what people use there linux machines for.
Just a workstation to do everyday tasks? Web servers? File? Voice?

I have two machines running right now, one for a PBX and one for web developement, apache,ruby, mysql, etc etc

Im constantly building new ones and redoing them.

Next on my list is a media one with mythTv, as soon as I can get a decent machine together!

[jdhore]

Just curiuos out there to what people use there linux machines for.
Just a workstation to do everyday tasks? Web servers? File? Voice?

I have two machines running right now, one for a PBX and one for web developement, apache,ruby, mysql, etc etc

Im constantly building new ones and redoing them.

Next on my list is a media one with mythTv, as soon as I can get a decent machine together!

Right now, i have like 5 machines running Linux at home...3 running it as a regular Desktop OS (2 Debian, 1 Ubuntu), and i have:

a FreeBSD all-in-one home file/media/everything server and

a MythTV box (triple SD tuners)...it is teh sex...and you don't need a really nice machine for a MythTV box...a friend of mine is running his, with 2 HD tuners, sometimes recording in 1080p on a 800MhZ AMD Duron with 192MB of RAM and a 400GB HD

[bird603568]

Right now, i have like 5 machines running Linux at home...3 running it as a regular Desktop OS (2 Debian, 1 Ubuntu), and i have:

a FreeBSD all-in-one home file/media/everything server and

a MythTV box (triple SD tuners)...it is teh sex...and you don't need a really nice machine for a MythTV box...a friend of mine is running his, with 2 HD tuners, sometimes recording in 1080p on a 800MhZ AMD Duron with 192MB of RAM and a 400GB HD

well if you knew anything about HD it is already digital so it doesnt need to be converted from analog. but i use slackware for everthing

[phool]

yeah i just have the cash for a good card right now.

[jdhore]

yeah i just have the cash for a good card right now.

the hardest part of building a MythTV box is finding good, Linux-compatible TV Tuner/Capture cards

[phool]

yeah I have my eye on a few right now. Like the V4L I think it is (video for linux)
and I have seen a couple other ones that are capatible as well

[michael0010]

To get back to the original question.

I mostly use Linux for day-to-day tasks. Web browsing, Email, VOIP, IRC, eMedia, et cetera... I feel that I might as well use Linux rather than Windows for these tasks because at least I have peace of mind knowing that I'm less prone to any sort of malware or security threats. My Windows box is only ever used for games -- I'm not much of a gamer; but I do enjoy the odd game of Quake, UT or Wolfenstein every now and again.

[masherscf]

Linux is an OS like any other. You can use it for all the tasks that you used Windows and OSX for. The main advatange is the most of the software for can be obtained for free. The disadvantage is that most of linux is maintained on a volunteer basis. Support for new hardware usually lags behind the other two major OSs.

The nice thing about Linux is that about half a dozen complete programming langauge and program development packages are avaible for free. If script writing is your thing, Linux is the OS for you. Basically, everthing you need to start developing your own software is included with every good Linux distro.

[michael0010]

masherscf, I couldn't have said it any better. I'm impressed with your open mindedness. You hit the nail on the head with the whole development thing. Even though I'm not really into application development anymore; I can still write and compile C using GCC whenever I need to. Web dev is probably my stronger area of interest. Which is great because with GNU/Linux I have PHP5, Python and a few decent editors for writing static code -- vi for the win :-)

[phool]

this was more of a what is your setup, I use and love linux. Just curious to see what others on here use there setups for

[volcanomike]

slackware for my everyday needs.

[kunduz]

I run PCLinuxOS exclusively on my desktop and laptop ...so an answer for this question will be "everything" ..i also play with win2000, winxp, ubuntu,solaris10 on vmware server

[ishkur88]

i am running a Dell XPS M1710 with Ubuntu 6.10 , Kubuntu 6.10 , and Xubuntu 6.10. I just got the new Linux Mint release and am getting used to it...

[bcmodder]

I love linux and would really like to get another PC slapped together for my gaming so I can turn this one into a pure linux box, so in other words for me I use it on the desktop end. I also run a Lamp server for web dev & e-mail aswell.

[astralsin]

i use linux for everything. its my main desktop OS, i dont even own windows. my main OS is gentoo linux but i play with pclinuxos, slackware, and anything else that catches my fancy. i run slackware on my home server and my router is an old p3 box running smoothwall firewall.

[vahnx]

I installed Fedora in a virtual machine but hated it because I could barely do anything. I use the live CD's when my computer stops working just to like mess around or back up files. But overall, Linux is confusing and I like a nice GUI, not a K or a brown/penguin default background.

To do anything you need to use the terminal and google up commands and stuff. Then in a live CD you can't write to the hard drive and it just frustrates me. I also find Live CD or a clean install of Linux slow. If most Windows apps worked directly on Linux such as .exe's then maybe I'd run it.

[bcmodder]

try Kubuntu or Ubuntu, an actually you don't need to use cli for everything there are graphical interfaces for everything you need on the desktop end. But yea the redhat linux series also fedora core included aren't the greatest, especially as a desktop OS.

[spacelobsters]

using fedora, for everything that can be done on a pc

[massif]

I'm currently running Fedora Core 6 with MythTV hooked up to my new Sharp Aquos HDTV. It does a mighty fine job recording and playing back both standard and high def content and DVDs.

I also have a desktop and laptop running Windows. I might switch to Linux on the laptop, but the desktop is strictly for gaming.

[black_magic]

I try, I just can't :/

There is no reason for me too, I've had a few distros installed, and I currently have Ubuntu, but I just can't get into it, I'm high tech enough to not get viruses/spyware and such on windows, so that isn't something that will pull me, just about everything made for linux that is free, is also made for windows for free... I couldn't give a crap about a ton of eye candy, there is plenty in windows. Just no reason for me to be on any other operating system besides windows... if I wasn't a gamer, I might eventually switch when XP starts dying off, but besides being way off, I'll probably want to upgrade to vista to play some newer games anyway.


Errr, wow, what I meant to say there was "Nothing" ... I don't use linux for anything.

Besides occasionally going into linux to play around so I know the OSes a bit... Which is more of a chore than anything :/

[chousho]

I'm currently running Fedora 7 on my IBM T43. I use it mainly for IRC and Web browsing, but I also have Eclipse on there to work on my site.

Aside from the laptop, I have an old Gateway from 2000 that I also installed F7 on, and am soon going to see about putting MythTV on it. As of now it's sitting around mainly to tunnel to if I take the laptop out in the public, but I'd love to hook up my 300GB hdd and use it as a file server when I get the time.

While not Linux, I'm also somewhat interested in BSD, so maybe I'll have to find the time to play around with that.

If I could play all of my games on Linux, I don't see too much of a reason to stick around. I have Win MCE, but if I could get the same level of support with MythTV, the only thing holding me back are the games. Hopefully when Wine is able to play SC and Steam games in the future, I won't have a reason to have a Windows partition.

[_sorrow_]

PORN!!!


errm.. ::cough:: Sorry, what was i saying? Oh, linux. I use linux as a dual boot that i keep telling myself that i'm going to get around to making work, but never do.

I've had a clean install of openSuse installed on it for about 5 months (but i was overseas for 3.5 of those!) and haven't set much up yet. My main problem with linux is that my wireless card isn't supported without ndiswrapper, which for some reason i can't seem to get properly set up. I had it working once (on Fedora 4) a couple years ago, but haven't had enough time to really work on it since - even though i somehow have managed to go through no less than 5 distro's, and probably more like 8!

I think the biggest de-motivator for me is that any time i want to fiddle with it, i have to boot into it, muck around, and then when i want to look up information on the problem i've run into... i have to reboot into windoze. :cool: Just the rebooting problem alone is such a pain in the as$ that i normally can't be bothered to do anything about it.. but hopefully someday :rolleyes:

If / when i ever get it working properly i'll probably use it for everything other than gaming. The only problems i foresee with apps can probably be solved with open source alternatives and / or wine.

[itsmillertime529]

Web browsing, IRC, and MSN/AIM.

Everything I need.

[obviouslyinsane]

What don't I use Linux for?

[nzbeach]

To do anything you need to use the terminal and google up commands and stuff. Then in a live CD you can't write to the hard drive and it just frustrates me. I also find Live CD or a clean install of Linux slow. If most Windows apps worked directly on Linux such as .exe's then maybe I'd run it.

Don't mean to preach but the terminal is a very powerful ally. A few commands can save tons of time spent clicking and selecting and all that nonsense. As far as the live cd and hard drive writing goes open a terminal and mount the harddrive.

mount -t FSTYPE /dev/hdXX /path/to/mount/to
Where FSTYPE is the file system type of the drive, and hdXX or sdXX is the drive and partition number and /path/to/mount/to is the directory to mount the drive in.

Also if its running Windows apps youre looking for Wine (http://www.winehq.org/) is what you want.


Back to the thread topic though. I use linux for just about everything. Switched over about a year ago and have not looked back.

Right now as far as servers are concerned I run a LAMP server, Asterisk PBX server, IPCOP firewall box, MythTV box (backend, desktop and laptop are the frontends), DNS box.

For desktop I'm running two desktops on my desk each running Ubuntu 7.04. The desktops are linked with Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) so that I can share the same mouse and keyboard.

I have two laptops, an older IBM Thinkpad i1300 thats running Gentoo (which is becoming my favorite distro) and my school laptop (a much newer and beefier machine) thats running Kubuntu 7.04.

Although I use linux for everything, most of my time spent on my computers is spent Programming, which linux provides a very nice platform for (vi and gcc FTW).

[sniperzero]

Mainly for all my web design/coding platform. I have all webservers (apache etc) installed and pretty much every scripting language. I also use it for day to day stuff sending email/chatting/music.

[scienceking]

Compiling Linux. Which I then use to compile another Linux...

[metatr0n]

Currently, Myth TV box (Ubuntu), Asterisk PBX (CentOS), Test Web Server (Fedora), Terminal Server (Debian), Work Laptop (Gentoo), Entertainment Laptop (Ubuntu) and Picture Frames (CRUX). The few HP thin clients I have run Debian, everything else is running OpenBSD, Solaris, HP-UX, IRIX, AIX or OS X.

[simon27]

At university I use Fedora and I can boot into Ubuntu or Windows using VMware. At home I have a ubuntu server in the cupboard. The rest of my computers are windows for gaming.

[adt41287]

everything :)
its free

[absolution]

I use linux for foolish things like bit torrent, web surfing and the fact that it simply doesn't get viruses that easily like XP although I love XP it's just troublesome to reformat every 6 months..

[kopp]

I use it as a back-up desktop in case my laptop craps out (xp came with the laptop, so I left it there in fear of driver hell). Plus, they have really shitty internet out here in the middle east. Half the time it's config issues with the local ISP's and the linux box seems to survive these sporadic outages.

A few months before I got sent to the desert I removed the hard drive from the family computer and slapped Knoppix in. After some questions and a while of grumbling the wife got used to it. So, now that I'm over here, if she has any computer issues I tell her to reboot. Saved me a lot of headaches trying to troubleshoot by the normal means. If she needs to save anything, I told her to send it to her gmail account.

I've been playing with the openWRT for a friend over here. Worked out pretty well.
Got pretty heavy into robotics while stationed here, so I bought a gumstix and will be putting together a busybox'd distro. Also building my own cell phone. The features that I have the ability to add are too vast. I keep going over the things I want in it(laser, taser, small o-scope), drawing out the dimensions of the parts, and after realizing the monster I'd be carrying around with me end up starting all over again.

I also worked on a project using a lamp sever to host the back end of a restaurant POS system.

I've made a bunch of boxes into desktops and recycled some pretty old stuff. I love linux for that. It runs great on old crap. I incorporated an old machine into a sound system we had mounted in a van. We used this giant van full to the brim with overkill sound equipment for ground-breaking ceremonies, retirements, parades, all kinds of stupid shit, and they had this shitty ass 5 disc CD player feeding into it. So I threw this old workstation we had left over from an uninstall into the back of the van. Loaded Slax on it, then dumped said ceremonial music onto it. From then on we had frozen bubble and stuff to keep us company.

So yeah, that's about it. The list of stuff I'd like to be able to do with it is another story.

[asmegin01]

I use linux for foolish things like bit torrent, web surfing and the fact that it simply doesn't get viruses that easily like XP although I love XP it's just troublesome to reformat every 6 months..

I do the same thing, and a little samba networking for experimentation

[alaskalonewolf]

I keep the XP platform on its own circuit: That was one of the things I actually liked about the Windows platform, was trying to figure out, how what always started as a bad dog, ended up being a sick puppy. Trying to discover how it got infected, which IP sent the packet, and where the code originated from, was rather fun? I do love open source though, and unlike Windows platforms, I much rather enjoy having a computer that does WHAT I want it to do. Y'know. I love the fact that it all fits on a thumbdrive. It's especially cool, considering most out of the box PC's I've come across lately have the boot order rolling through the USB ports: and at this point that's saved my ass more than once.

[alaskalonewolf]

http://www.freespaces.com/alaskalonewolf/ninjakit2.jpg
http://www.freespaces.com/alaskalonewolf/ninjakit3.jpg
They would fight on and on over
how Windows was this and that...
http://www.freespaces.com/alaskalonewolf/ninjakit4.jpg

But as you all know, the alter ego for open source
with a real OS is always a big bad doggie...
...because it actually does what YOU tell it to do.
(Instead of what someone else thinks you want.)
http://www.freespaces.com/alaskalonewolf/ninjakat1.jpg

Merry Christmas people, remember the new eye-Fi WiFi SD/MMC card.
It's an excellent stocking stuffer. The new Lexar SD's are dirt cheap too.
Wanna' see how small I can pack the executables onto one of them and
hack some of my older gear through the SD slot.

[computoman]

I use linux for everything, but doing taxes. Even then I plan to have that set up in a rarely to be used licensed virtual xp machine soon. I own both intel/amd and ppc based boxes. Except for a few specialty projects, they all run some form of linux or bsd.

[alaskalonewolf]

I use linux for everything, but doing taxes. Even then I plan to have that set up in a rarely to be used licensed virtual xp machine soon. I own both intel/amd and ppc based boxes. Except for a few specialty projects, they all run some form of linux or bsd.

...yeah, taxes, argh! Don't get me started with that one. That's a hot button for me at this point. I have always hated giving up money to support other people's ideas, but, oh well, it's the price we all have to pay... all Caesar's things to Caesar and what not.

Speaking of Linux, I got the new free disc with the mag. Barne's and Noble. Can't wait to see how it rolls. Keep ya' posted.

How about this for a video game idea::

M*A*S*H Iraqii Freedom
First-Person-Surgery
[Video game that shows how to do field medicine]
Kinda' 'ER' meets 'China Beach' sorta thing.
Player racks up points for NOT killing people.

[vahnx]

I use it for compiz, pretty much the only reason I can find to use Linux. Apps crash lots tho, especially web browsers. I find Firefox slow and very unreliable on Ubuntu, so I switched to Opera.

[slonkak]

I find this to be a very odd thread. I liken it to asking someone, "What do you use air for?" Ummm.... everything... to live. Maybe I feel this way because I'm a linux-only person, but asking me what I "use linux" for just makes me laugh.

But maybe I'm interpreting your question incorrectly, so I'll answer it the other way. Office applications (OOo), web browsing (Firefox), instant messaging (pidgin), database server (mysql), web server (apache), webcam broadcasting (camstream), image editing (gimp), music recording (audacity), image scanning (xsane), programming (perl, sh, etc.), web application design (php), OS evaluation (vmware).

That's all I got off the top of my head...

[computoman]

I use my desktop boxes for about everything as most people do. My latest hobby is to take obselete machines and convert them into robotics toys, security systems, and the such.