[Discuss] Why use Linux?

[mbr at arlsoft.com (MBR)]

A few years back, I wrote an article for O'Reilly about something I'd 
noticed starting in the 1980s.  Unix (and later Linux) had grown in the 
direction of readable (i.e. ASCII) file formats, where MS-DOS had grown 
in the direction of unreadable formats.  I think this is related to what 
you're talking about.

And, based on my experiences working at DEC, I attribute some of this 
tendency to an accident of hardware design that was cause such pain for 
us software developers that we avoided more efficient hardware-oriented 
data formats, and that pushed us toward using ASCII.

If you're interested, my article's "How an Accident of Hardware Design 
Encouraged Open Source 
<http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/02/22/open-formats-open-source.html>".

    Mark Rosenthal


On 2/11/2014 6:44 AM, John Abreau wrote:
> Not sure whether this would mean anything for a new user, but from the
> perspective of someone who started using UNIX (Linux's ancestor) long
> before Windows existed, I find that on Linux systems, I'm free to work with
> my data directly, whereas on Windows and MacOS it feels more like my data
> is locked up in file formats that I can only access through the
> straitjacket of the application that created the file.
>
> In other words, the Linux environment provides me with a rich toolkit for
> handling my data, and it's very easy to build simple scripts for tasks that
> I'll be repeating often, such as processing photos into my photo album or
> post-production editing of videos to prepare them for uploading to youtube.
> Whereas on Windows, and to a lesser extent on MacOS, I have to depend on
> various applications to handle my data for me, and if the application
> doesn't do what I need it to do, I have to wait for the application's
> developers to add my needs as a new feature in some future release.
>
> Either that, or change what I want to accomplish in order to accommodate
> the limitations of the application.
>
> Of course, like any toolkit with powerful capabilities, there's a learning
> curve that comes with developing the expertise that leads to mastering
> those capabilities.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 9:21 PM, Micky Metts <micky at drupalconnection.com>wrote:
>
>> I have a request for the group -
>>
>> I am speaking at the GLADcamp Drupal conference in Los Angeles next month
>> and wish to have part of my talk cover the benefits of Linux. I have
>> started a riseup.net pad here:
>> https://pad.riseup.net/p/linux
>>
>> I would love it if anyone has some things to add that I may have
>> overlooked.
>> So far I plan to mention fsf.org and the groups on meetup. If you have
>> any wisdom to add, please do share!
>>
>> Thanks for all of your help with this and with inspiring me to teach
>> others how to install Linux locally.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Michele Metts
>> DrupalConnection.com - Social Networks - Websites for Entrepreneurs
>> 617-877-1658
>>
>>
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>
>