For a few years (2001 - 2004) I used Linux almost exclusivly. My main reason for having a computer has always been the same: to browse the Internet, to develop websites, and to write essays - that’s how it was then, and that’s how it is now. All my friends got more pocket money and handouts than I did, and therefor better computers, and I was stuck with what I could afford: a Pentium III.
I understood that Linux was more stable and performed better on slower computers so I made the switch (Redhad 8.0, btw). Then for the next however many months the concept of buying a new computer didn’t seem important. Gnome would run smoothly, I could mount all of my devices (hard drives, CD-R’s, digital cameras, printers), my desktop looked the business, and I became really comfortable with the differences between that and Windows. After a few months I began to pick up Bash, and ended up doing almost everything with the command line (including IRC, file management, text editing, and even web browsing). Then the inevitable happened.
I had an urge to play Quake III Arena, so I built this really nice computer and installed Windows XP, and seldom touched my Linux partition (which, due to lack of disk space, got formatted to NTFS). I got bored of this, then had a new bedroom built in the top of the house, and lost all my bits of computer in the chaos (Including a 17″ monitor, my P3, a SCSI equipt IBM server and a shoebox full of hard drives). The computer, being the only “gamable” PC in the house soon attracted interest from my younger brother, and then my even younger brothers - and subsequently disks started to fail, virii mysteriously appeared, and I gave up re-installing Windows 2000.
I went out and bought my Thinkpad, and I love it. There is no point trying to game on it, so no one has bothered asking for an account on it. But, as many of you will know, Thinkpads are shipped with Windows XP installed, with not even a recovery CD, and 8Gb of the 40Gb hard drive is take up by a recovery partition. Given that I don’t have a spare copy of Windows XP (one that I haven’t already got installed on one machine), a spare laptop hard disk, or the balls to re-partition it, the chances of me installing Linux on this are very slim.
But I develop a lot of PHP, and I need Apache running (along with mod_php and mySQL, either on my machine, or on my network), and it doesn’t work too well on the laptop you are working at. And now, as I have just taken on a large project for my mother, I am doing it a lot.
So I find myself where I was 3 years ago. Looking to install Linux on some cheap hardware. Scouring eBay for parts. Next week I should have my Linux server sat next to my Windows laptop. I’m saving space for a Mac.
Mine’s a similar story. I use windows only for the stupid proprietry hardware that still isn’t supported in Linux. This is not because Linux can’t but only cos the software/hardware companies sit on the Microsoft fence & don’t allow access to drivers etc.
Even when I do use Windows, I use opensource where possible (ie openoffice, Firefox, Thunderbird etc).
One thing is for sure, On the same computer, with the same software the Linux version is always so much faster on the Internet.