so what exactly can i do with linux?

Question

Ive asked this question NUMBER of times and never got a clear answer. It may be because i'm an ordinary desktop user and NOT an admin of any kind, but when i made a transition from windows to linux, i thought there would be a lot more cool things to do using the shell. however, although its been a while since i made that transition, it seems the way i use my ubuntu is no different from the way i used windows. i use it for nothing more than web surfing and it gets pretty boring after YEARS. Do i have to become an admin of some kind to actually DO something with linux?

Answer 1

I will give you a clear answer: I switched from Windows to Linux quite a while ago, and I do everything with Linux that I used to do with windows, and more. Specifically, this is what I do with Linux:



Internet browsing with Firefox (also available for Windows)

Email with Thunderbird (also available for Windows)

Instant messenger with pidgin (also available for Windows)

Develop software, specifically LAMP apps (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP), as well as c++ work. You can do this on Windows, but I find it to be more robust and easier and faster under Linux. I know this because I spent many years developing software with Linux. Now I do it exclusively with Windows. There are things I do with ssh and scp with Linux that is a serious pain to do with Windows, but very easy with Linux.

Play games - all kinds of games - Sims, Tomb Raider, all versions, with Wine or Dosbox, minecraft, Steam, Valve's lineup, Metro redux (native linux version available), The Witcher 2 (native linux version available), the list just goes on and on and on.

Office - Libre Office is awesome. I despise what Microsoft did to Office. Libre Office is what MS Office should be but isn't anymore.



It isn't what you can do, it is what you can't do. And I can't think of anything I can't do. I don't use windows anymore, I have replaced all of my Windows installs with Linux. And I don't miss it.

Answer 2

For starters, you could do an internet search for how to customize Ubuntu. :) Not sure how much Ubuntu users are into the shell, you could install Debian, which Ubuntu is based on, more shell users there I would think. If you really want to learn Linux, I would install Slackware, not as much "plug and play" as Ubuntu.



https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=customize+ubuntu

Answer 3

Use it for whatever you want.



Video and audio editing, image manipulation, 3D Animation, Programming, web design; turn it into a media center, turn it into a Valve Steam Machine.



It really depends on what it is that you want to do.