Comments on: GNU/Linux – Pros & Cons Dissected

By: Linux pros and cons | Chinchilla Media

Linux pros and cons | Chinchilla Media — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:37:40 +0000

[...] http://linux.gauravlive.com/general/gnu-linux-pros-cons-dissected/ [...]

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:03:53 +0000

@Vipper,akf & David Hilvert – Thanks for correcting me guys. Made the necessary adjustments in the post.

@Magice – At times, WINE is not able to run programs as expected. If your program runs well under WINE it’s good. Sometimes some features of the program fail to run when installed under WINE. At these times, running the programs under windows is good. Especially games when run under WINE do not run so smoothly as under windows.

By: David Hilvert

David Hilvert — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:37:01 +0000

@Gaurav – Vipper’s comment is probably very close to what Richard Stallman would tell you, and probably very close to the GNU project’s official position on the matter. I will note that the first time that I came across the phrase ‘GNU/Linux’, when I started using Debian on my own system in the late ’90s, I had no idea what the slash-compound was intended to signify, and I would not be surprised if others feel similarly. From the technical standpoint that it can be made to occupy a point in semantic space separate from ‘GNU Linux’, such a choice can be considered apt. From the position of evaluating whether a naive listener will have any idea what the compound means, the choice is probably not optimal. But I have no better proposal, and so will yield to the position of Vipper, the only qualification to this being that pedantically re-hashing this point every time the issue arises probably serves to frustrate the development of new ideas more than encourage them, and that choice of a different moniker entirely might be preferred.

By: akf

akf — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:26:37 +0000

I second Vipper about naming it GNU/Linux.
Please read this:
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html#whyslash

By: Magice

Magice — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:17:49 +0000

Okay, the Photoshop example is unfair. My sister used Photoshop CS3 on Wine for more than half a year with no problem, until she decided to buy a new computer (with Windows on that, of course, and we are too lazy to reinstall GNU/Linux). I do know some applications cannot work on GNU/Linux, but many do.

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:31:53 +0000

@Vipper – Somewhere I read that using only ‘Linux’ is not right since it relates only to the Kernel. So the GNU Linux in the post. I will have to hunt around & see what is apt here. Thanks for correcting me.

@Silverlokk – I agree the user if dumb can wreak havoc also under a Linux system. However Linux do holds the title for security. Not being a fanboy but distros like Ubuntu does not allow to login as a root. That’s pretty good for those dumb users. I agree completely with your second point.

By: Silverlokk

Silverlokk — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:25:21 +0000

The security argument isn’t entirely accurate. A careless GNU/Linux user can still bork the system by, for example, always logging on as root. Yeah, I know, GNU/Linux distros warn against that but some users ignore the warning anyway. My own take on this is that a Windows user with a poor grasp of security will make a GNU/Linux user with a poor grasp of security.

As to viruses, the monetary cost of the anti-virus software isn’t the only factor. Virus scanning also takes away CPU cycles which would be better spent helping you get your job done.

By: VIPPER

VIPPER — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:30:37 +0000

You shouldn’t refer to GNU Linux as this implies that there is a GNU variant of Linux. The GNU variant of Linux does not exist today. More accurate terms include GNU/Linux, GNU plus Linux, GNU and Linux