Steam coming to Linux

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would someone be willing to explain what makes Linux different from/superior to windows?

[Avvatar]

Windows sucks. Linux has less suck.

Also, elitism.

[scobywhru]

It can be completely open source and free, no licensing no bullshit. It is also by nature more secure by default then windows, a multi user muliple workspace server style OS vs a single user workstation OS, and if you really want to lock it down it's basically fort knox of an OS. There are hundred of thousand, if not millions, of tools that run on the linux kernel many of them controlled by a repository, think app market, again free. It can be faster then windows, since the kernel and apps are open source you can compile them yourself for your exact hardware and features you want.

That isn't to say it is all around better then Windows, Microsoft supports developers very well both in documentation and access to features. Some features are well documented and some are not, so it can be a crap shoot on finding the exact info you need to complete a job on linux if you don't plan it out ahead of time, though there are generally more then 1 way to do it in linux.

For an average desktop user Ubuntu or similar works almost as well as windows, just the lack of the native apps the user prefers really deters it.

It all boils down to Free vs Ease of Use

[Haymakers9th]

would someone be willing to explain what makes Linux different from/superior to windows?

first off, even though I'm a Linux fan I'd like to acknowledge that no OS is objectively better than the other, and it all boils down to personal preferences and how exactly you want to use your computer.

That said, I guess I can list a few things from my POV if you're honestly curious. I'm gonna hide the text though cause it's tl;dr and it'll clog up the board.

VIEW CONTENT:

> The kind of Linux I use has a really nice update/software system that lets me basically subscribe my OS to an internet repository of (free) software and if I want to install something I can literally go down a list or if I just know the package name type "sudo apt-get install firefox" , it works pretty much like a more flexible app market but everything is free (and it has existed since the 90s). This package manager handles updates for every piece of software installed through it, as well as your actual OS itself, so when you run an update it's for everything from little things like Pidgin to the actual meat of your OS. I'm sure you're familiar with how Windows updates work: by default it forces you to reboot, and takes its time when installing updates. It's frustrating. The system I described updates everything in its own little window and you rarely have to reboot at all.

> You have a big choice of window managers available to you, like how in Windows you have "explorer" that is the framework for all of your windows, start menu, start bar, stuff like that. In Linux you get a choice between a lot of different window managers, like I use Cinnamon, GNOME Shell, Unity, MATE, and some more obscure ones or tiling WMs that are meant for people who actually work when they're on their system.

> I'm sure it's commonly accepted that Linux is more secure than Windows. Windows 7 is pretty good, and on pretty much any OS as long as you're not a n00byp4nt5 that downloads porn?.zip from a link on 4chan, you shouldn't have to worry about viruses that much. But Linux is still considered architecturally more secure than Windows, here is an article for further reading

> This probably applies less to people here, but the Free Software movement attracts a lot of devotion to Linux. The idea that a piece of software is open for anyone to change and modify how they like, and a vendor can't tell you how to use it, etc. Look at any complaint against Apple and their closed platforms, having to shell out so much money to let Apple abuse their power over their market and the users can't do much about it without leaving entirely. The culture around Linux is pretty much opposite of that. I mentioned the MATE desktop environment up there? That's actually a fork of the previous version of GNOME because everyone liked the old one and the new one (Shell) isn't very popular. When Windows 8 comes out and everyone is stuck with that shitty tablet-like interface, they won't have a lot of power to change it because Microsoft said so. The Win8 bullshit is apparently what is fueling Gabe Newell on the Linux version of Steam right now.

Also, elitism.

Any questions, let me know, I want to try to sound educational and not fanboyish and shit like that.

[bh :)]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... inux&num=1

Well at least they finally got it right.

[NightFantom]

imo linux > windows in general, but windows has the largest share of the market (or had?, recently apple google and linux have been rising afaik, but regardless windows has a large "noob" market, and a lot of people use windows because their local computer store only has 2 computers: affordable windows and overpriced mac) and thus more people make stuff for (primarily) windows to get maximum exposure to potential buyers, thus making windows have a larger market share and so on and so forth

also windows is noob-friendly

[bh :)]

the problem was never about market share or anything like that, it's that linux drivers suck absolute balls

[Haymakers9th]

the problem was never about market share or anything like that, it's that linux drivers suck absolute balls

yes but a lot of the lack of attention to driver issues (I assume you just mean video stuff, everything else works pretty well nowadays) stems from the low desktop market share in the first place.

Same thing with games: ignoring any driver difficulties you have games that won't go on Linux cause no one uses Linux, and people who won't use Linux cause no one makes games for it.


I just hope Valve will do for Linux's video driver situation what it did for OSX's openGL situation.

[bh :)]

the problem was never about market share or anything like that, it's that linux drivers suck absolute balls

yes but a lot of the lack of attention to driver issues (I assume you just mean video stuff, everything else works pretty well nowadays) stems from the low desktop market share in the first place.

Same thing with games: ignoring any driver difficulties you have games that won't go on Linux cause no one uses Linux, and people who won't use Linux cause no one makes games for it.


I just hope Valve will do for Linux's video driver situation what it did for OSX's openGL situation.

i mostly mean video stuff, but i remember a few years back sound drivers were just as horrid.

what did valve do with osx opengl?

[scobywhru]

not all drivers suck on linux, some are quite a bit better though enterprise specific, or as good as windows like Intel does, just Nvidia and AMD graphics are the big downers.

[Haymakers9th]

what did valve do with osx opengl?

openGL was supposedly broken as shit on OSX and Apple never did anything about it until they kinda had to when Steam came over, I'm not sure if Valve specifically talked to them or it just kinda forced their hand due to the increased attention it was suddenly getting.

They did something like this before with Starcraft I think, the game being actually mentioned in the patch notes for whatever was fixed as the cause of the fix.

I don't usually keep up with things in the OSXiverse so excuse my "supposedly's" and "I think's"