whos running nix on their main desktop?

[CyberNerd]

Scientific Linux is a version of RedHat Linux, similar in many ways to Centos (and binary compatible) but more usable out of the box. It's made by Cern labs, hence its name, but it's a general purpose Linux, so don't let its name put you off.

 

 

being from Cern means that its not wholly dependant upon volunteers to maintain it.

[jinnantonnixx]

I have been using PCLinuxOS for about 8 years on all our home machines including 6 test machines, NAS and my daughters laptop, windows if ever wanted is install in 'virtualBox' and my wife's tablet is powered by 'Jellybean' android.

 

I used to run PCLOS for years. I loved their KDE 3.5 desktop and ran happily for ages. The repositories were always comprehensive and bang up to date. The move to KDE 4 threw me, I just can't get on with KDE 4 no matter what.

 

I'm probably one of the lone voices who think that Unity is bang on target, especially for laptops.

[ConradJones]

i've just switched to Linux Mint on the desktop this morning (already running it on my laptop) as vmware workstation wouldn't run because it needed to compile some modules and needed the kernel headers which it couldn't find. vmware just loaded fine on Mint? I presume the neccessary modules are bundled with Mint? In the same way vmware tools come bundled with a lot of distro's now days.

 

tbh vmware workstation and chrome installed and I'm happy. oh and remmina. so i suppose all i use it for is to run windows vm's and remote control windows servers and ssh linux servers

[localzuk]

Depends what you mean by main desktop. At home, I spend more time using my laptop than my desktop. My laptop is entirely Linux Mint, with KDE4 as the desktop environment. My desktop is dual boot, but is mostly used for gaming so spends most of its life in Windows.

[unixman_again]

I used to run PCLOS for years. I loved their KDE 3.5 desktop and ran happily for ages. The repositories were always comprehensive and bang up to date. The move to KDE 4 threw me, I just can't get on with KDE 4 no matter what.

I agree with you about KDE3.5. It really was the bees knees and KDE4 is terrible. On my PC, I moved from Fedora to Mandriva in 2009, which I configured with KDE3.5, as at the time KDE4 was not ready (IMO). It was great for 2 1/2 years, solid as a rock and quick. I then decided to reinstall with 2010.2 and bite the bullet and go for KDE4. There was no real reason to upgrade and normally if something is running fine, I leave it alone. The upgrade was fine and KDE4 was OK, except for the slowness compared to KDE3.5. (OK so I'm ignoring the annoyances like the cashew, the lack of ksensors and the nonsense plasmoids, none of which I need.)

 

Sometimes, I plug my computer into my TV, so we can all sit down together and watch stuff from BBC iPlayer. It's much easier to do this than having us all huddled around the PC monitor. This is easy, just use the xorg.conf file that is configured for two monitors, and fire it up. I drag my web browser onto the TV screen, and stream away. Well I used to be able to do this with KDE3.5. With KDE4 this was impossible. When trying to drive two monitors, the video stream spluttered so badly that it was unwatchable. The only way to get this to work, was to disable the PC monitor and just use TV out. Since I was using the old hardware and it used to be fine with KDE3.5, I was not best pleased! So I moved to IceWM but with KDE4 apps; KDE and IceWM play nicely together, and I can again run the PC monitor and TV.

 

On the netbook I run Fedora 17, again with IceWM and Fedora 16 on the laptop.

 

I've been running Linux on the desktop since 1999 (Redhat 6 - Hedwig). Long may it continue! Redhat's best release, IMO was 7.1 - Seawolf. I have an IDE caddie in my PC and still have my WD Caviar 40GB from 2001 with Seawolf and I fire it up sometimes.

[jinnantonnixx]

That's interesting, I suppose with Icewm you have the best of both worlds.

 

I hadn't thought of using a WM instead of a DE then adding what I needed (e.g. Docky, if that floats your boat).

[jinnantonnixx]

Quick update for those that are interested:

 

Scientific Linux 6.4 has been quite a success so far.

 

I use Davmail [ DavMail POP/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav/Carddav/LDAP Exchange Gateway ] to interface Linux's Thunderbird mail & calendar to our Exchange servers and that seems to work very well (piece of cake to configure). Davmail is started with a simple .sh script which you can set as a Gnome startup app. It provides an IMAP interface to the Exchange protocols, you just point Thunderbid's mail and calendar at 'localhost' with the appropriate ports and you're in business.

 

For Windows stuff , I host a W7 machine using Oracle's Virtualbox (Centos/RHEL 6 rpm download) which works fine. I don't like keeping files within the virtual machine, so I use Virtualbox's mapping function to share a native Linux folder as a mapped Windows drive. Project files, code, scripts, etc are kept here, outside of the virtual machine, yet still accessible as a drive from the Windows VM. This works like a charm.

Edited May 31, 2013 by jinnantonnixx

[ChrisN-0123]

I run Fedora 18 64 bit (kde) on mine..so much better and more productive for me!

 

For any windoze tasks, I run Win7 in virtualbox full screen on the second monitor.

[ironmaidenrule]

Decided to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 8 the other week and for purposes other than gaming, I am finding that I am using Ubuntu the majority of the time. Not sure if this boredom with Windows and using something new is exciting and different, time will tell.

[rich_tech]

Dual booting Debian 7 and windows 8 now, I like gnome

[bladedanny]

Using Mint 15 here, upgraded from 14 this week.

[Squip]

Digging up an old thread here..

 

I love the idea of using something like Ubuntu as my main OS. I think Windows is too unrestrictive and not robust, OS X is solid as a rock but you are kind of forced into using Apples services, and Linux kind of fits snuggly between the two?

 

Truth be told, I have only dabbled with linux (Ubuntu) and was very impressed. The only problem I am going to have is working out the alternative methods for what I have been used to for a very long time - things like alternatives for Office (mainly just for access to Exchange emails) I'm assuming Open Office?. Also RDP to windows (a quick google looks like rdesktop is the number one choice). Am I kind of along the right lines here?

[FishCustard]

Would love to do this at work, but there'd be too many issues with incompatibility with the rest of our infrastructure. I could use a VM, but it's another layer of complexity.

 

I do however have a spare RPi on my desk that I could probably put to use...

[ConradJones]

Digging up an old thread here..

 

I love the idea of using something like Ubuntu as my main OS. I think Windows is too unrestrictive and not robust, OS X is solid as a rock but you are kind of forced into using Apples services, and Linux kind of fits snuggly between the two?

 

Truth be told, I have only dabbled with linux (Ubuntu) and was very impressed. The only problem I am going to have is working out the alternative methods for what I have been used to for a very long time - things like alternatives for Office (mainly just for access to Exchange emails) I'm assuming Open Office?. Also RDP to windows (a quick google looks like rdesktop is the number one choice). Am I kind of along the right lines here?

 

OWA for email.

 

OpenOffice for office.

 

VM's for visio and visual studio.

 

linux for browsing, writing perl scripts, running nmap, rdp'ing servers, sshing servers etc.

[JJonas]

Just switched to Mint at home, still running Ubuntu on the office desktop.

[bladedanny]

I use Libre office, Thunderbird for mail with extensions for gmail contacts and calendar and Remmina for RDP.

[Quackers]

OS X is unix based, so guessing i fall into this category. I then use a Parallels Desktop virtual machine domain joined to each site i manage.

[jinnantonnixx]

I settled on Ubuntu 12.04 after evaluating Debian 7, Ubuntu, Opensuse and Scientific Linux.

 

I use Thunderbird mail client with Davmail as an interface to the Exchange servers. I use the 'Lightning' Thunderbird calendar add-on for my Exchange calendars. (DavMail POP/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav/Carddav/LDAP Exchange Gateway - Thunderbird calendar setup)

 

I use Unity on my home latop, and it's pretty well perfect for that. However, Unity was good, but there were a few glitches with the workspace manager which i didn't like. I installed Gnome3 and Docky. Together these make an excellent environment.

 

I use krb5-auth-dialog to get Kerberos tickets so I can browse without authentication pop-ups.

 

Virtualbox for the many Windows test systems I use.

 

Remmina for RDP/remote sessions.

 

It's nice to use a native console to SSH into our Linux servers.

Edited October 17, 2013 by jinnantonnixx

[JaSauders]

I've bounced between every Linux distro known to man (or at least the top 20 most common distros you've heard of at least), along with a ton of desktop environments. I have been using Cinnamon and Gnome 3 lately depending on my mood and I enjoy them quite a lot. I do find some 'meh' factors of each one though, but I try to remind myself I'm a spoiled Linux user with endless choice. If I was on Mac or Windows, I wouldn't have any of that choice period. Lately I've been spending most of my time on elementary OS, which is Ubuntu based (big bonus for me) and easy to use yet can do all of the complex tasks I need to at work. It helps that my place of work (public school district) has been migrated from a largely Apple-centric district to a Linux-oriented district with a handful of Windows 8 systems in the mix.

 

I really enjoy my job, because I get to use iOS/Android/Chromebooks/OSX/Win7/Win8/Linux all in one environment. I can tell you one thing too... there are times on Linux where I admittedly get frustrated, and because prior to this job I spent literally all of my time on Linux, I couldn't help but to think "maybe I should just get a Mac, or get Windows, and be done with it". As time passes and as I use OSX, Windows, and Linux more and more, I can assure you one thing: No operating system is perfect, and today's Linux environments aren't as problematic (in comparison to other platforms) as some people (still) make them out to be. If it's a piece of software, it's going to have its quirks and problems.

[ConradJones]

tbh I find windows way more frustrating than linux nowadays.

[nathan]

For me i find Linux frustrating (on a desktop), i still come across driver issues and the most recent version of ubuntu that i used seemed to be pretty resource intensive. Tried Debian, but the UI doesn't seem to be very polished. The alternatives for software i've used seem to be always not quite good enough, so i ended back on windows as i couldn't be bothered with it.

 

On the server side though, debian with no UI has been brilliant.

[ConradJones]

For me i find Linux frustrating (on a desktop), i still come across driver issues and the most recent version of ubuntu that i used seemed to be pretty resource intensive. Tried Debian, but the UI doesn't seem to be very polished. The alternatives for software i've used seem to be always not quite good enough, so i ended back on windows as i couldn't be bothered with it.

 

interesting, i find the opposite nowadays. driver problems on windows, (and i have to download them before i can get on the internet etc). linux i just stick in the cd (or pxe boot actually) and install.

[nathan]

interesting, i find the opposite nowadays. driver problems on windows, (and i have to download them before i can get on the internet etc). linux i just stick in the cd (or pxe boot actually) and install.

 

either scenario will be hardware dependant to be honest. Linux or Windows both include a set amount of drivers, it's hit or miss if they include your NIC driver. Not so uncommon on ethernet devices now a days, but wireless. Lets just say it's given me a few grey hairs!

[JaSauders]

Yeah - in this day and age, working on Windows feels like a chore, whereas working on Linux feels like I'm getting crap done so I can close another project, get home, and do my thing with the family. That's not to glorify Linux into some sort of non-problematic beast and to make Windows sound like it's entirely filled with problems, I mean Linux has had its issues too, but based on personal experience of having to manage a few thousand machines on each platform, Windows absolutely takes the cake for requiring more of my time and continually pushes my level of patience. I cannot stress that enough.

 

For the last week I've been using elementary OS, which is an Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS) based distro. So far I really dig it. The degree of minimalism (yet enough features to let me do my job) is huge to me. Regardless of the distro, I love being able to fire up a LiveUSB instance and installing it, 99% of the time without having to worry about drivers (just the occasional wireless driver for those awful Broadcom chips). No licenses to worry about. No bloatware to unload. Just paste my long saved apt-get install command and presto, 10 minutes later I have 30 additional applications installed.

 

At the end of the day, the best operating system is the one that does the job best for your needs. Use what works best for you --- I do.

[unixman_again]

I've been running Linux on my desktop since 2000 and in all that time I have had a total of one driver issue, that being a Thompson Speedtouch USB broadband modem. I've lost count of the number of driver issues I've had to solve with all of the versions of Windows I've worked with; I wish I had a pound for every one - I would be very rich by now!