Linus Torvalds
Fired up Sandbox (my Linux computer) which has been silent for a few months. Checked out the OS (operating system) and did some software updates. Sandbox wasn’t asking for them but since they were available, I brought sandbox up to the now-current status.
Windows 10 OS is still a PITA when doing updates. It’s like a bully who picks on me to have its way. It will run one over to get an update done. Not user friendly in any sense. MAC-OS (Apple) is much friendlier with updates, but they do show up every few months.
Linux is really the “rock” of user friendly computing. It doesn’t try to be my social calender and run my life for me. It just does what I want when I want to do it. That’s a well behaved machine.
The drawback as it has always been, is the lack of professional name brand applications which can run on the Linux OS. There are substitutions and many of them are quite good. But I can not do what I want all the time with just the Linux OS.
I am currently using a very comfortable version of Linux called “Linux Mint Debian Edition” aka LMDE. I won’t go into detail but here is a link for anyone wanting more information. Linux Mint and LMDE. All the MINT flavors are good but I am partial to LMDE.
The LMDE on sandbox has primarily been my 3D printing computer. It runs a 3D slicer program called Simplify 3D (S3D) perfectly well . Another 3D slicer called Cura also has a Linux version that works very well. I work primarily in S3D as it is hard and usually unnecessary to be master of both system.
I also use Linux OS to run two of my CNC machine tools in my workshop.
So, these are a few examples of MY useful applications that can run in any of the popular operating systems. There are of course hundreds more. Those for three dimensional printing are good examples. This web site is running a Linux OS server. Actually many Linux servers.
I gave some thought to the hardware I use to run Linux LMDE. All my Linux machines are “older” hardware. This is not so bad. Most if not all Linux free hobbyist programs are not super demanding for SOTA (State Of The Art) hardware. This was originally the attraction of a “free” operating system that could run on low cost (or free) hardware.
That is not so much the case for Linux today. It has become a very high profile OS for many types of professional applications. The reason being it’s original (and continuing) design as open architecture. It can be freely modified to suit any needed application. Many variations are now in existence. There is no one single version.
This little post says nothing I haven’t said before. It’s a good OS that does what it is supposed to do for me. It’s definitely here to stay in my office and workshop.
Thank you Linus Torvalds for the world class tool you created and kept open source.
Krd (photo)Von Sprat (crop/extraction) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)