[quote=“RJMcKenzie, post:1, topic:12572”]Just wondering why everyone else uses Linux and Ubuntu MATE?[/quote]Why Linux:
- It offers me more control over the exact components in play.
Kernel
Windows does not allow you any change here. There is the Windows kernel and that’s it. No customization, no control.
Graphics Stack
Closed Source vs Open Source
Filesystem
Honestly, NTFS should be buried. It served its purpose but it has not aged well. It is slow, prone to fragmentation and just not up to spec anymore. - For the hardware I am currently using, Linux actually is considerably faster than Windows. And not just the kernel itself but also third party software, userspace tools and so forth and so on.
- Security and privacy. For a great example, see WannaCrypt. For years now, governments and intelligence agencies worldwide have shifted towards the assumption that everyone has something to hide. Well, if they’re going to be that paranoid about me, I am definitely responding in kind with great aprehension. And since Windows apparently is as porous as Swiss Cheese (again, WannaCrypt), I’ll avoid it for now. Until the world has come to its senses. Which it won’t.
- Hardware support. And that is an odd one, I know. But, for me, hardware support is actually better in Linux than it is in Windows. Windows 7 will not recognize half the hardware in this PC I am using right now. And the hardware is not that new. I built this box in 2013 but if I install Windows 7 on it, almost nothing works out of the box. Which brings me to possibly the most important point…
- Windows is commercial. And to me that actually is a problem. Even though I am a gamer and probably would be better off with Windows, I am also poor. And I simply cannot afford to keep purchasing new versions of Windows whenever Microsoft feels like releasing a new one. If Microsoft were to release a rolling release Windows, which you could, say, update by simply downloading the latest point release, I’d be interested in setting up a dualboot between Linux and Windows. But they won’t do that because of DRM issues and piracy concerns so Linux-only here.
Why Ubuntu:
Simple – Most mature community. Not as far as behaviour is concerned, mind you. What I mean is, there simply is the most stuff available for Ubuntu and Ubuntu is almost always a given supported Linux distribution if a given software supports Linux at all, that is. You’ll rarely run into something that does run on Arch but will not run on Ubuntu.
Why MATE:
An almost perfect match between performance and aesthetics. It looks solid enough. Sure, not too many bells and whistles but MATE looks polished. Like actual care was given to its appearance. While remaining very performant.
Edit: Just had to respond to this:
[quote=“marfig, post:18, topic:12572”]I’m a ticking bomb on the edge of a volcano on a dying planet being engulfed by a nova star of a collapsing galaxy.[/quote]Oh, so you’re that bomb that sits on that little hill on that mudball next to that hot globe of plasma burning away inside the raging galaxy that is me? high5, obviously. I empathize so much with what you’re going through, albeit for different reasons.