This is frequently said by those who use "real" Unices, derived from AT&T UNIX or BSD code, be it FreeBSD, HP-UX, Solaris, or whatever.

I would agree somewhat, if it's say, red hat with GNOME or KDE, with xdm/gdm/kdm. But a Slackware or Debian installation with none of the comfy friendly GUI stuff installed is much less of a toy, if it is to be considered that at all.


koala: you're wrong about big business not liking free software. They use it all the time. FreeBSD. Apache.


Yes, I'm aware of The UNIX Trademark.
I tend to agree with the sentiment, tftv256. Linux is not a toy OS, though. It is a very functional and stable unix-like operating system.

I agree with the sentiment, however because having worked with Solaris now for quite some time, I've come to the conclusion that Solaris and Linux are not even in the same league (maybe "not even the same fucking sport" :). My requirement for an enterprise level operating system means linux is not even a consideration.

It's easy for IT Professionals to shitcan Linux, and you know what the funny thing is?

They do it for the same reason Linux users shitcan Windows users.

Yep, you got it. They believe that their operating sytem of choice has more of that je ne sais quoi. They pity those fools who have yet to reach OS nirvana.

Simple, pure personal preference. You wouldn't run Solaris on your PC at home (although you certainly can) unless you were being obtuse or wanted bragging rights. And yes, that's an opinion to which I am sure there are many counter-opinions.

I can't believe it's not UNIX(tm)!!!

I happen to work for a Linux company of German origin, and I was talking with one of the fellows at SlackWare a while back. We were discussing t-shirt ideas for Linux companies. He mentioned that they had been trying to talk marketing into creating t-shirts that say, "I can't believe it's not UNIX!!!" This hasn't happened yet, but I thought this was insanely humorous. I have this appended to my .signature file now.

Linux is not UNIX, and many people fail to notice this simple fact. Linux is UNIX-like, but not UNIX-based, as development of Linux began from a clean code base. I would say that Linux, in it's current state today, is a very well maintained, well developed, and well supported (through the community) operating system. It has many features today that are not found in commercial UNIX's. It is also important to note that there are literally hundreds of "flavors" of commercial UNIX existing today. Many of the different UNIX's are very well suited to do specific tasks. Some have better Logical Volume Managers, some do a better job of managed accounting systems, etc.

Linux is well liked, because it does a little bit of nearly everything, and it is free and easy to develop for. Linux is not the solution for every company or person, in every situation, but neither is IRIX, HPUX, AIX, etc. As semprini mentioned, a good deal of it comes down to personal preferences and experiences.

Thank you all for listening to my rant.

I'm not a linux advocate, nor a windows advocate; even not the devil's. But I rather like UNIX-like operating systems, and Linux is (afaik) a good one. Maybe people don't want to use it in big business because they won't trust a product that doesn't come from a company they can sue. Or maybe they do not know they can get technical support as for other OS's. Or someone above them has those ideas.

Yet I believe that Linux is suitable in some situations.

Also, I do not understand the problem people have with GUIs. Sure a stand-alone unmanned computer is better off without one, but if you've got to use the computer (hey! maybe even remotely) it can be much more confortable and even productive.


tftv256: Mmmh... I said maybe they don't like that. And using Apache is different from using Linux. Apache is the track leader in the business, so it is not such a hard decision to take; besides, I would say that choosing your web server is not always as influenced by the powers that be than choosing your OS. As for FreeBSD, well, I don't know. I just said maybe...

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