Re: Why Linux on a Laptop?
alec1976nyc@yahoo.com said:
> I'm wondering what everyone's motivation is for using Linux on a
> laptop instead of Cygwin + Windows.
My motivation for using GNU/Linux on a laptop:
1. GNU/Linux is free (in the sense of freedom) software. Windows is not. With
GNU/Linux I can have a system with only free software.
2. Free software gives me more continuity. With proprietary software one is
always depending on the latest fancies of M$ and co, like the bi-annual forced
upgrade to another closed data format.
3. In my experience, Cygwin is not quite the same as the real thing. I used
Scilab + GNUplot under Cygwin for a while, but the piping thing did not work
as well as under GNU/Linux, for example. Some of the ported software is less
stable under Cygwin than under GNU/Linux, Lyx for example.
4. I am an Electronics engineer. I find writing software that accesses a
serial or parallel port easier in GNU/Linux than in Windows.
5. my best machine at home is a laptop.
6. It works well - so far I have only had problems with my winmodem, but it
seems there is a kernel patch available.
7. The more people are using GNU/Linux the more chances that free software
won't be outlawed so soon. (You obviously noticed that efforts are on the way
from M$ and friends to make free software illegal, haven't you? - for example
the patenting of certain networking protocols would be a way to achive that)
- Josef
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