March 31st, 2015 at 5:11 AM
I'll admit it. Ever since Windows failed (again) on my PC, I am now religious as a linux user. I don't even really care what I use as far as distributions are concerned (although secretly I do, but I'll pretend I don't to avoid being divisive 
). Personally, I just use Ubuntu because it's popular and well supported, and just about everything works great with it. I have found myself going back and forth between Unity and Gnome 3, but I really have found Unity to be a pleasant desktop environment to get the hang of. It's not all that well designed as far as the annoying dash is concerned, but with the exception of the dash, everything else is clean and simple. Open applications are very easy to get to as well on the side launcher, and the HUD is pretty nice to avoid going through annoying menus constantly.
I'll admit that I'm certainly not afraid of the command prompt, as I have done server maintenance that has my skills fairly sharp, but honestly, I find linux a lot easier to use as an everyday user. With windows 8, you don't know if the setting you are looking for is buried somewhere deep in the control panel, in the settings app, or in some side panel on the start screen. It's a real pain to figure out where everything is, and it lacks any consistency whatsoever. To be fair, the settings application in Ubuntu is pretty crappy, but at least everything truly is easy to find and it's in one place. It beats having to search three different areas in windows for a simple setting, or constantly having to switch between fullscreen "apps" (which are littered with ads) and the normal programs.
Then of course, no anti-virus software or system maintenance/defragmentation software is required, which is quite nice, particularly considering how often I somehow managed to get malware on my PC as a windows user. No annoying restarts are required for minor updates either, and the hard drive and RAM requirements are significantly lower. Many free programs are also available for linux, and I have yet to run into anything I need that I don't have (besides microsoft word maybe, but I found WPS office to be a decent replacement for my needs).
So yeah, I am now pretty much completely windows-independent. Anyone else here just as excessively religious about using linux?
Screenshot of my awesome linux-powered desktop
). Personally, I just use Ubuntu because it's popular and well supported, and just about everything works great with it. I have found myself going back and forth between Unity and Gnome 3, but I really have found Unity to be a pleasant desktop environment to get the hang of. It's not all that well designed as far as the annoying dash is concerned, but with the exception of the dash, everything else is clean and simple. Open applications are very easy to get to as well on the side launcher, and the HUD is pretty nice to avoid going through annoying menus constantly. I'll admit that I'm certainly not afraid of the command prompt, as I have done server maintenance that has my skills fairly sharp, but honestly, I find linux a lot easier to use as an everyday user. With windows 8, you don't know if the setting you are looking for is buried somewhere deep in the control panel, in the settings app, or in some side panel on the start screen. It's a real pain to figure out where everything is, and it lacks any consistency whatsoever. To be fair, the settings application in Ubuntu is pretty crappy, but at least everything truly is easy to find and it's in one place. It beats having to search three different areas in windows for a simple setting, or constantly having to switch between fullscreen "apps" (which are littered with ads) and the normal programs.
Then of course, no anti-virus software or system maintenance/defragmentation software is required, which is quite nice, particularly considering how often I somehow managed to get malware on my PC as a windows user. No annoying restarts are required for minor updates either, and the hard drive and RAM requirements are significantly lower. Many free programs are also available for linux, and I have yet to run into anything I need that I don't have (besides microsoft word maybe, but I found WPS office to be a decent replacement for my needs).
So yeah, I am now pretty much completely windows-independent. Anyone else here just as excessively religious about using linux?
Screenshot of my awesome linux-powered desktop
