Hello! I just watched a video entitled, “Why Learn Linux? Teksyndicate's Intro / Why we're so enamored with Linux!” by the Tek Linux YouTube channel. In that video the man speaking talks about Linux, about how awesome it is and about the way that Linux is integrated in so many every-day devices. At the end of the video he mentions that there is a community on the Tek Syndicate website that is full of people who can help each other and talk about Linux. I was hoping I could get some feed-back/ information about Linux in general.
My computer tech experience is very low, I have only ever used Windows PC’s and I have no idea about any other system besides Windows. I would love to learn more about Linux and I was hoping that this community would be a good place to start. Also, if there is any other free online help that I could look into on this subject then that would be immensely appreciated as well. I have a few basic questions: 1. What exactly is an operating system? 2. How do operating systems such as Windows, OS X and Linux differ? 3. Where would be the best place to start if I wanted to learn more about Linux and get educated about operating systems in general? 4. Is educating myself about Linux worth the time taken to learn it?
An operating system consists of the software that manages your computer and lets you run applications on it
If you are new to Linux, chances are you have used a Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS operating system. Although Mac OS X has its roots in a free software operating system, referred to as the Berkeley Software Distribution (more on that later), operating systems from both Microsoft and Apple are considered proprietary operating systems. What that means is:
■ You cannot see the code used to create the operating system. ■ You, therefore, cannot change the operating system at its most basic levels if it doesn’t suit your needs — and you can’t use the operating system to build your own operating system from source code. ■ You cannot check the code to fi nd bugs, explore security vulnerabilities, or sim- ply learn what that code is doing. ■ You may not be able to easily plug your own software into the operating system if the creators of that system don’t want to expose the programming interfaces you need to the outside world. You might look at those statements about proprietary software and say, “What do I care? I’m not a software developer. I don’t want to see or change how my operating system is built.” That may be true. But the fact that others can take free and open source software and use it as they please has driven the explosive growth of the Internet, mobile phones (think Android), special computing devices (think Tivo), and hundreds of technology companies. Free software has driven down computing costs and allowed for an explo- sion of innovation.
There are tons of easy to read books and online documentation { many built into Linux with software } and the communitites around each Distrobution of Linux like this one.
There are tons of benefits in Learning a new operating system like Linux. Learning programming languages and functionality, Also in Server space related jobs Linux is a must in many situations. Linux is about learning, control and customization on many levels and provides many benefits.
Excerpts from my answers came from a book I have called : **Linux Bible : A comprehensive A comprehensive Tutorial Resource ** by Christopher Negus
Here is a sights that might be good to look at its mostly geared towards Ubuntu but its still pretty helpful. Also if you have a quad core processor in your computer you could always run Virtualbox to test out an os and see how it works to give you a better idea before you install it to actual hardware.
Thanks for taking the time to ask a proper question here, I appreciate it.
Just some of my comments on your questions
This is a pretty good question, Miguel's answer is really good and if you want you can get very technical. If I were to condense it; OSX and Linux are cousin operating systems that share similar properties and commands but still fundamental different in the way the OS talks to hardware etc. Window is completely different family all together.
1stly you are already use a computer, and if you want to experiment you can easily setup your computer to run both two OS's like windows (which I assume you are using) and linux. This will mean that you will alway have a working computers even if you stuff something up.
My answer to this question is Yes !. Have a good understand of Linux will give you a great understand how computing works.
There is a great misconception that Linux is hard and you have to be a "Code Wizard" in order to use it. Also the Windows is easy to install just pump you disk in and you fine.
Neither of these statement are true. You can install linux from one disk and a few clicks. I think that some people get confused with the number of options for linux. With Mac and Windows you just get their OS, but Linux has Distributions. There are hundreds of these it can be confusing. But I say don't worry about that at the start if you run into something you don't like the look to change it. Ubuntu is normally considered to be a good "Entry" Distro but there are mean out there.
The are other reasons to look at linux. You have control over everything (if you want to). Have you any wanted to modify your Windows ?. Linux has a number of Desktop Environments for you to choose.
If you want to read up on operating system you should also look at and understand Opensource and Free Software. There are lot of things dis-empowering things we take for granted. Like when you click accept to the licence agreement when you update Itunes.
The free software fundation believe in free no if the terms of cost but in the sense of freedom. A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
Linux is great..............until it goes wrong, then is about as much fun as having your testicles crushed in a vice.
If you are new to computers it may be an advantage to start with Linux, where as if you have come from a background in Windows, Linux can become a very frustrating experience. as these days Windows really does just pretty much just works out of the box and is easy to troubleshoot, where as Linux troubleshooting feels like walking in a 3 foot deep endless puddle of quick sand....Sure there is lots of help out there, but good luck understanding it...
So just be prepared for a steep learning curve when Linux goes wrong
As an answer for what is a operating system I would recommend checking out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVzRTmdd9j0 , it gives a very easy to understand explanation on what is an operating system. I hope it helps.
Yep, like one time a friend had a popup saying that a new version of the network card driver was available and in order to download and install the new one he had to uninstall the old one. Too bad that once he uninstalled the old one, windows complained that it wasn't able to download it. Derp!
If he used a bit of common sense, he would have downloaded the new on before, removing the old one...
"Um... As in this super amazing and descriptive: something went wrong And we can't find a solution deeeeerp"
Most common cause of this is usually third party software, and is usually easy to sort, if you have experience with windows.
But back on point i have used Linux a fair bit in the past (suse, ubuntu, mint), when it works its fantastic, but when suddenly your display driver (good luck even getting one to install in the first place) messes up and your GUI no longer works, good luck with getting it working again, without a computer science degree...I know some people like working in command like, but for the vast majority remembering command and switches is just a no no.
My point being Linux is just too much like hard work, when you have used windows for years and years....
To some up for me Linux = nice and flexible, a bit unpolished, no 100% unified installation methods for programs and drivers, steep learning curve.
Windows = flexible very easy to use, very polished, learning curve much easier.
That's weird because for me, windows always downloads the new stuff before removing old stuff, must have been a bug...
It's what your used to I suppose,
If you look at the hoops you have to jump through to install AMD's Linux drivers for example, then compare it to what you have to do install them on windows, it gives you an ideal what Linux needs to sort out to even be considered as an alternative for the mas market.
This was enough to put me off , I used to run crossfire, when i first installed Mint, the desktop was completely corrupt apart from the taskbar and unusable. I literally had to crash it a few times, to force it into booting with a standard display driver in order to install the correct driver.
This may have been because of crossfire, but even so its hoop I shouldn't have to go through.
There is a way to install drivers automatically with AMD cards, but they tend not to be the very latest version as far as I can tell, and to get the latest version you have to download from AMD's site, and go through the following.
This might be okay if you use terminal everyday, but for most people its just going to be a nightmare.
I like Mint a lot and I want to go back to it, but what I don't want is having to use terminal to do basic things such as install drivers and programs i have been there and done that and had enough of it back in 2005,
I also got sick of programs not working because of a missing dependency, that is really annoying and shouldn't be a thing in 2016.
The Linux community has had long enough now to settle on a standard package format to make it accessible to the masses, granted its a hell of lot better than it was back in 2001 when i started with Suse, still its not where it needs to be, In this area alone its still lacking compared to windows for ease and for me is one of the main reasons Linux won't be replacing windows and OSX in the home any time soon.
Blue Screen of death: Sorry, something went wrong. Heres an error code you wont manage to write down in the time (yes I know you can check logs but the average user will find that as hard as most debugging in linux
Game crashes: something went wrong let us check online and then tell you we couldnt figure it out
Cant connect to the interent? Time to check for solutions on the internet.
As useful as windows is, debuggin on windows is hell compared to linux.
Oh also: I ran a r9 fury. Didnt have to do shit to get it to work in linux, worked out of the box.
WIndows on the other hand, I had to put up with 800x600 till I got new drivers
Use bluescreen view on reboot, and it will tell you exact file caused the BSOD and the error code.
Game crashes i hardly ever happen to me, when they do tend to be because of an over-clock. or a bug in the game.
"Cant connect to the interent? Time to check for solutions on the internet"...........how is this different on Linux than windows? At least it makes the effort to find out if there already is a known solution for you.
oh i run a fury, but the last time i ran mint i ran 2x7970's and i did multiple installs of mint and got the same problem every time.
800x600??? You know you can just go into display properties in windows and pick a resolution. there is zero issue running a fury at 1080p in windows without an AMD driver.
Also installing new drivers on windows is a few click process everytime, the same can not be said for Linux, unless you use the built in one, God help you if you want to use a custom driver.
Like i say for someone who has been a long time Windows user, adjusting to Linux is a giant pain in the arse when it fucks up....
For someone newer to computers, its probably a lot easier to get used to the way you have to debug it.
The Bios (Basic Input Output System) is the first operating system. These were put in by hand in the caveman days. Then some genius put it on a chip. When Hardrives came along people needed a Disk Operating System or DOS. This runs ontop of the BIOS. On entry level PS/2's IBM included MS's Basic interpreter as an OS. You could write programs and run them and view the output. Then Xerox invented the GUI (graphical user interface). Xerox was making copiers so someone invited Bill Gates and Steve Jobs over and showed them what a cool idea they came up with. Bill came out with Windows, Steve came out with the Mac and the CEO of Xerox was beat to death at a shareholders meeting. Ok the last part was an exaggeration :) Hope this helps
This point of view is not inaccurate. But I is my opinion that most Windows users (not Skanky) gloss over the problem that can happen with any computer operating system. I can say moving to windows to pure linux and coming back to windows 10 hasn't been a picnic either. That is only because it is a change from what I am used too.
Skanky is right in some respects windows does work mostly out of the box. But when I doesn't your options are very limited. The normal approach is to wipe your computer and re-installed windows.
Linux also mostly out of the box, but there is the options to get to a very low level to resolve issues. Most people don't take that options. Mostly people with edit a config file or a number of config files, forget what they changed and confuse themselves even more. I refer here to "Quick sand".
Two more little pieces of advice, if you ever need to change a config file save a copy of the original.
Two here are many many people that donate their time to help users with their problem in linux. You can access their help via forums, but my preference is IRC (which is internet chat). Most distro's will have one and you can get live support.
