Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Why I should use Llinux?

Because it is challenging, and...you want to learn. You are also patient and curious about how an operating system works.

Because there are plenty opportunities as a system administration and is fun.

By virtue of solving problems makes you happy, and you love the sensation after being dealing with a problem for hours getting finally the results you was looking for. You are aware that this kind of experiences makes you a better programmer and a good problem solver.

Because it is open so you can take a look of the code and have the marvellous possibility to try to understand the engine of a system developed for dozens and dozens of brilliant people.

If you are developer, well. Linux was created for developers to developers. If you are Java, Php, C++, Ruby, Haskell, Pearl, Python or Javascript developer there are a huge amount of nice tools waiting for you to being configured. Because you like the experience of configure your own workstation. Because you are a question mark and love technology.

Yes, you can make all this in Windows or Mac, I love both also. But Linux is challenging. My first distro was Ubuntu Studio. I started when Ubuntu was not so friendly as today. In this days you can easily run an Ubuntu distribution and in fact, you can run the installation from Windows with something called Wubi.

 If you want to get a try to this amazing operative system, there are several solutions. You can install in your Windows a free virtual machine program like Virtual Box or VM Ware Player and try it without installing the whole system in your computer. If you do not want to deal with partition processes is a good idea start with a virtual machine or a live cd.

But I encourage you to backup your system and try to partition your disk. Is a sensitive process but it is important to know how to plan a good partition map on your hard disk and you can understand better your computer. I made music in a Mac but also in a PC laptop(grooveniƱo). In this laptop I have a dual booting with Window 7, Fedora 17, Ubuntu 12.04, and Mint 13.

This three Linux distributions are great to start. Mint is extremely friendly. Meanwhile I write this lines, Linux Mint is the most used Linux operating system in our world. And I can understand that. Linux Mint is so friendly and beautiful. I love the interfaces. That is why I am so excited about Linux, Windows and Mac.

But still Linux is my favourite. Because is free and if you are in a development environment there is no limitations regarding programming requirements. In this concern I still think that Fedora is a great distribution. They always have the last packages. But the Long Terms edition of Ubuntu is solid as a rock and you still can install new software by your own.

If you are Computer Science student you should give it a chance. Because you want to learn. And it feels so cool to deal with the computer by a nice command line application. I encourage you try Terminator.

In Ubuntu or Linux Mint:

sudo apt-get install terminator

In Fedora:

sudo yum install terminator

The graphical user interface is placed on the top of the abstraction level, whereas in Windows the GUI runs on Kernel level. This allows you to install KDE, Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon or many others up to Linux. I was not so happy with Unity, but GNOME 3 and Unity seems to be pretty closed in now days. So generally I use Cinnamon or KDE on Fedora. On the other hand, after several months, now I feel more comfortable on Unity and Ubuntu 12.04.

If you are ready, this are my recommendations:

http://www.linuxmint.com
http://spins.fedoraproject.org/kde/ (with KDE!)
http://www.ubuntu.com 

Namaste.

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