48 new of 79 responses total.
My suspicion is that a lot of people are probably still running GNU/Linux (and yeah, I messed up saying that the entire system was written by Torvalds; I should have proofed better before publishing).
Well, to answer whether or not people use GNL/Linux, in the scope of free software it has the largest market share. As for folks around here, I'm guessing that more advanced users have opted for a BSD variant? I know a guy who is very interested in unix systems and he recomended DragonflyBSD as his personal favorite. I actually have a USB stick with an installation image from 2011, but as a new user I don't feel ready to venture there yet, as ubuntu has a ton of community support for people like me who are still learning.
Re. #33: I run NetBSD on some production servers.
Interestingly enough, I also use the Xubuntu distribution of Linux primarily, as with post #31. This is probably related to the unusual choice by Canonical to ship Ubuntu main version with an unconventional Desktop Environment. One of my recent hobby projects is to get an SGI O2 machine up and running, able to compile software. An experienced Unix admin suggested I get NetBSD onto it, rather then try to compile with the proprietary OS that it came with (IRIX) which is obsolete. It will be my chance to become more familiar with NetBSD. My current level of knowledge is such that it doesn't make much of a difference which OS I am working on, whether it be Linux or BSD variant. Bash scripting should be the same for simple scripts. I have a plan to check out the three oldest Linux distributions, in order of increasing difficulty: Ubuntu, then CentOS(RedHat) and finally Slackware. What I will be able to practically do with that knowledge is not determined, but I have little planning in my life and a person has to start somewhere. And finally, I suppose I will rise up to the level of knowing the importance of differences between the OSes, and I can check out OpenBSD here, NetBSD on my O2 (if I ever get it running) and FreeBSD somehow. FreeBSD seems to be the OS of choice for many free shell accounts out there, so it shouldn't be a problem to find one for tinkering with, though for me right now I'm only starting with bash scripts, so it doesn't matter which OS I am working with right now... as long as I can script without fear of erasing my important files with some silly mistake.
YOu can get a free NetBSD shell account at http://sdf.org. Very reliable and a good internet connection but sometimes things get a bit clogged. I often have to wait 20-30 sec while writing emails. $1 or so to get verified gives you the use of a lot more programs (one time fee). There are a lot of linux live CDs.
Grex's span of life on OpenBSD is coming to an end: the new hardware will run (indeed, is already running) FreeBSD.
Can you explain why the change?
Yes.
Cool. I look forward to the changeover.
(And I assume there will be a more detailed and prominent announcement in Agora or Coop. I've been curious for a while about what's up with the new hardware and the changeover to FreeBSD.)
Yes. In a nutshell: the new hardware is at Tony's. There was (is?) a hardware problem in the new M-Net, and I'm trying to set up both Grex and M-Net to be as nearly identical as possible. Most of the work now is configuration and documentation. Almost everything is actually installed, however.
Nice!
I think FreeBSD is a good choice, especially given the history of Grex on OpenBSD and SunOS.
Yeah. OpenBSD was a huge mistake, and the two who pushed it so hard are MIA.
Do any of you think Linux use (not counting devices with embedded systems) is on the decline with OS X and iOS everywhere?
Desktops? Yes. Servers? No.
PCs as desktop computers in general are on the decline, so yeah; I agree with Nate.
In the server space, I can tell you that I have seen directly in both industry and Gov't it is growing and is a major platform for new roll- outs, replacing mainstays like Solaris and HP-UX (and even AIX in some places). In the desktop space, it has a moderate share of a decreasing platform, so it is slowly shrinking with the rest of the desktop space.
Desktop space. Server space. Hey, what about the MOBILE space? In the mobile space, Linux is growing by leaps and bounds. Any of the bazillion folks with a smartphone running Android is carrying (a heavily Googlefied version of) Ubuntu Linux in their pocket or purse.
Android has almost nothing to do with ubuntu.
Resp:51 AFAIK, Android is a modified Linux kernel, which bootstraps a JVM and a custom java-based user-space in-lieu of init. It is only nominally Linux-based, and has little or nothing to do with Linux, other than pedigree.
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Ah, I appear to have been mistaken about the Ubuntu part. Was looking at this: http://elinux.org/Android_Architecture.
I've never heard of that site.
Resp:55 Interesting. I'd not seen that, though it clarifies what I understood of the Android architecture.
Here's a capsule summary of the role of the Linux kernel in Android, written by Google software engineer Robert Love. Linux kernel with minimal changes, heavily redesigned user space. http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/05/13/what-are-the-major-changes- that-android-made-to-the-linux-kernel/ (http://goo.gl/Tr9nvy)
Robert sits a couple of desks down from me; really nice guy. Anything in particular you'd like me to ask him?
Please ask him if Chromecast is going to support Amazon streaming. Oh wait, that's probably not his department. Never mind. Anyway, the main point of my original response was that in gauging the extent of OS usage, nowadays you should consider mobile devices as well as PCs and servers, especially since smartphones and tablets are being used for many of the same purposes as PCs. And if you're willing to consider Android as a flavor of Linux, then Linux deployment is really quite extensive and growing.
I guess I've been thinking that for the last half a decade or so, so it comes as a surprise to me that that's something people are only recently starting to consider.
Not too surprising. People are often slow to shift mental gears in the face of rapid technological change.
Mobile devices have been starting to hit the business world more and more in the past couple years. Before that, using personal devices for work may have been disallowed (e.g. keeping company files and information on them, not cellphone usage which has been around for a long time). Now, it seems businesses are starting to acknowledge that personal smartphones and tablets may have a place at work (maybe even to reduce the cost of company-supplied devices). So, that would be why, for people who do not work at more liberal companies, it seems more recent. And by the way, no, I can't use my own devices for doing work, even today. That may change; however, for regulated industries, the need to control company files would argue against it (absent any security measures to ensure those files don't end up in the wrong hands or change inappropriately when on personal devices). So, this does not surprise me.
resp:62 The iPhone runs a modified Mach/BSD kernel as well (that is, iOS uses some variant of the XNU kernel). resp:63 Please tell me you aren't using a motorola flip phone still. :-) Put another way, I think it has less to do with what's going on in businesses; this is about consumer consciousness. Linux shows up in a lot of seemingly surprising places in the consumer space, in addition to industrial and business uses, but its use is often unseen, either by design or just because it's not something people stop to think about. Wireless "routers", switches, firewalls, etc; many of the consumer boxes you buy at Best-Buy run some variant of Linux. Same (I believe) with some set-top boxes and the like. What OS does your fridge run? Would anyone even think to wonder that (I doubt I would). And apparently, Linux can even make coffee: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Coffee/#s2
No I don't use a flip phone. I have an Android smartphone. I just can't use it at all for any work-related activities.
But you know it boots a Linux kernel, right? :-)
Sure. And having businesses provide or allow such devices just fuels the demand. So, that's why I mentioned it. Sometimes I want to go back to my flip phone, though :-)
My LG Optimus has given me several years of good service but the battery life has declined to the point where if I'm not near a charger it will turn itself off before lunch time. It's also short of RAM and the processor's slow by today's smartphone standards which hampers performance with modern apps. I have a company-issue smartphone that does my work-related things (email, calendar, iperf, ssh etc.) so I have been thinking of moving back to a simple flip-phone for my personal use.
Cell phone batteries can be very cheap on ebay.
And they are cheap batteries, too.
Mine for $2.50 works fine.
Re. 69: It has been years since I bought anything via eBay, mostly because of past disappointments there. I considered a new battery but the phone has a some other issues that reflect its age. I'm not complaining. It has given me good service over the years. I'm quite tempted by the flip phone. My main reservation is that I wouldn't be able to use it as a WiFi hotspot on the days when my cable Internet connection isn't working.
I just bought Jim a nearly new (returned in package) Virgin Mobile Kyocera Rise for $20.50 including shipping. It is very similar to what I paid $50 for last year but a year newer with Android 4 instead of 2.3.4. For $12 I could have had the same thing without the physical keyboard. Wifi, GPS, voice to text. I am hoping he can use it to compose texts via voice. It even has a camera and speaker. I have had very few problems with ebay, the most notable being a Chinese American computer screen company that keeps listing the wrong type of screen for our laptop. They replaced it with another of the same and show a photo of the wrong one and wasted their own money on shipping both ways twice. The $2.50 battery works fine.
The flip phone I'm looking at is US$ 12 brand new. I'm going to miss being able to use the Internet while I'm standing in the middle of a cornfield but it will suffice for voice and text messages.
I found the phone (a Samsung Entro) for $8 new in Walgreens and was able to port my existing smartphone account to it. I get 300 minutes of talk and unlimited texts for US$ 25/month. I've been pleasantly surprised by the reception and audio quality and I charge it once or twice per week.
PagePlus gives you 250 minutes/month for $12, or 1200 for $30 with some data as well. Any Verizon phone. But the support people at Verizon were unable to help a friend 'program' a VN250 LG Cosmos that is known to work with Page Plus - claimed it had no 'MIN' number to change. $10/100 min (120 days). How did your garden do this summer? No frosts here yet.
If I change jobs and have to buy another smart phone for personal use, I may be able to move my existing plan to it. It has unlimited text and more-or-less unmetered data (throttled after 2 Gbytes but not cut off). I'm hoping to hang onto this plan.
haha, cell phone discussion. Not that far removed from topicality, given that Android uses the Linux kernel, at least.
If XNU counts as a BSD, then iOS is on-topic too.
You have several choices: