Does using Linux make you a 'geek' or just a user who is a 'notch above' the rest?

[Snowhog]

Users of Linux have/are ascribed the moniker of 'geek'. Of course, in the early days of the computer, individual users were considered to be such, even if the word did not yet exist.

Do you consider your self to be a 'geek' for using Linux, or just a PC user who is a 'notch above' the rest of the PC users? Me, I consider myself to be a 'notch above' the rest. I don't think of myself as a Linux elitist. At work, I use Windows Vista Enterprise and am very comfortable using it. But here at home it's pure Linux (Kubuntu of course), and I'm as comfortable, if not more so, using it than I am with Windows Vista Enterprise at work.

Your thoughts?

[SteveRiley]

Is there, perhaps, some risk that "notch above" could be interpreted as "elitist"? I guess I'm asking what your "notch above" compares against. Just like there are smart Linux users and stupid Windows users, there are also stupid Linux users and smart Windows users. And how does one gauge notches -- by amount of time spent at a command prompt?

[Snowhog]

hehe. Good points. A 'notch above', of course, could be interpreted as 'elitist'. I didn't consider that when I typed the post (I'll blame it on the Dow's Fine Tawny Porto). I don't consider myself a Linux 'snob' just because I use Linux. I use it because it suites me, and nothing more. I used Windows (over Mac) because, then, it suited me (and I couldn't afford a Mac).

[vw72]

Do you have a girlfriend or wife? If so, you are not a geek, even if you use linux.

Seriously though, to be a geek is more than the OS one uses.

[SteveRiley]

Do you have a girlfriend or wife? If so, you are not a geek, even if you use linux.

I am quite certain my wife would disagree with that assessment

[ardvark71]

Hi all....

It makes me a person who uses Linux as their sole OS, that's all. While there are reasons why I use Linux, it does not make me better than anyone else.

However, I do agree that for one to use Linux, they would need to have more technical knowledge or ability, computer-wise, than most people because so much is still required from the CLI.

Regards...

[Ole Juul]

Users of Linux have/are ascribed the moniker of 'geek'. . . .
Do you consider your self to be a 'geek' for using Linux, or just a PC user who is a 'notch above' the rest of the PC users? . . .

I first heard the word "geek" in some Dyllan song back in the 60's. I didn't really understand the reference though. Regardless, I dislike being called that because the way it is being used these days seems to be identified with a certain kind of consumerism. I am a rather technical person and also take a strong interest in communication and data related issues. If that qualifies me as a "geek" then I would expect to be able to have a detailed discussion with other geeks about the wet end chemistry of a fourdrinier. Personally I think it is a rather unflattering word.

As part of what I believe to be a common maturing process, I did think of myself as "a notch above" at the beginning. Having past that point, I now think of myself as being "a notch beside". Really, people know what they know, and if one has useful information that another can use and wants, then just pass it on. That said, when it comes to computers and communications, I must say that I enjoy a certain amount of independence from the industry and market place. When I look around in my local community and I see people taking their machines in to shops to get viruses removed and other things fixed I am happy that I can do that stuff myself, or more often, don't have to because of the fundamental security of my systems. Using Linux and BSD doesn't actually make me feel smug - it's more a feeling of relief.

[Snowhog]

Using Linux and BSD doesn't actually make me feel smug - it's more a feeling of relief.

Well said. Running Linux, I don't worry. As an informed computer user, when I was using Windows, I did worry, and took care to limit the possibility of getting my PC 'infected'. I was mostly successful, but I did, on occasion, get a virus. That is something, that running Linux, I simply don't have to be concerned about (but, still, I operate my system responsibly!)

[Qqmike]

Geek? Elitist? A notch "above" ["above" what for goodness sakes!]?

A renegade.
Wild & Crazy guy [Steve Martin, anyone?].
Off the beaten path.
Independent, free [of what, pray tell]?
Relaxed doing it.

That's my poem-response tonight, and I'm stickin' to it.

- - - - - - - - - -

Thinking of another Linux user. My nephew. Now 24. But I'm thinking of him when he was young, very young. High school, 16. Hell he was an English lit type, ended up getting his Master's this year. But as a young kid, he simply "did" it: used Linux, mainly Kubuntu. Was very good at it. On what? A PC. What PC? The PC he built himself (without reading any book on 'how to build your own PC.').

What the hell's a geek? or a Linux geek? How about someone who spends 80-98% of his waking hours reading and delving into the depths of literature and doesn't give one [rat's ass] second thought to "doing Linux as a geek" on "the machine I built"? He's as good as most anyone here at it--at Linux, that is ... could run circles around many here (including me). Never heard him brag about it--Linux or the PC's he's built ... but he sure is proud of his knowledge of literature.

[SteveRiley]

If one is to believe the media even Microsoft employs geeks.

And some of them move on to become Linux forum admins

[vw72]

One has to remember that the term geek is more of a personality than a skill set. It also varies based on the social context. For my friends and co-workers, I am definitely a geek. On the otherhand, if I happened to sit next to Linux Torvalds on the train, I wouldn't be the geek, he would. It's all relative.

[Qqmike]

vw72 expresses it exactly as I tried to do so in Reply #9 above. My intro poem-response describes me, my motivation for using Linux: independent, the path not taken, renegade, & all that. (It never occurred to me that I was a "geek," either before or after using Linux; or that I was "above" or "below" anyone--along any metric.) My discussion of my nephew as an example was meant to indicate the relativity of all this. If you were to bring the opening discussion of the OP to him, speaking of "geek," a notch "above," and all that, he'd look at you as if you needed to be institutionalized. Some people are not label-ers; they are doers. What's in a name? Oh, if it were only so simplistic! As vw72 has said, "... the term geek is more of a personality than a skill set."

[GreyGeek]

There was a time when being a geek was a prerequisite for successfully using Linux.

Now, it is not.

The watershed moment came, I believe, when Shuttlesworth released Ubuntu and shipped out free to anyone who asked for it a CD with a tested LiveCD burn of Ubuntu on it. People saw for the first time that checking out Linux via a LiveCD was no more difficult than watching a movie on DVD, and installing it was no more difficult that setting up a preinstalled Windows system ... enter the user name, password and timezone. They also learned that they could install that copy of Ubuntu on as many of their computers and friends computers as they wanted to, no questions asked.

By Feb of 2009 Ballmer gave a speech in which he showed a graphic which indicated that Linux had more than a 10% desktop market share and was a bigger threat than Apple. That's because HE did to iPad what he did to Linux: dismissed it as a toy. Ballmer followed that graphic up by releasing VISTA, which was like advertising for Linux. Every since then, IMO, Microsoft has been in decline, and in the smartphone market has fallen off the cliff. Win7 had a drogue chute, to be sure, but Win8 is about to power MS into ground.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
I, personally, think that neither term applies if one uses, not the new Unity, but a previous iteration of Ubuntu that is pre-installed on a computer and that is fully tricked out in terms of codecs to play music and videos.

The MS "critics", point to "installing" it. Well, they evidently have never had to install a Windblows OS.
As to "updates" etc. Well, evidently they have never, in their whole blogosphere careers had a system with Adobe or Java on it, because both of them want to "update" every single day.
As to "installing games" etc. Well, yes.....there might be a problem in that they will have to get WELL OUT of their comfort zone of getting in a car, or riding the politically correct bus or train, going to a store and purchasing a game, or something, then reversing the process, walk into the house, apartment, whatever and then sit through the install of the cd and then....

THE ONLINE UPDATE.....and obligatory ONLINE wanna install this tracking software also?

I mean....clicking a game in MUON.....now that is REALLY HARD!!!

Oh.....and the INTRICACIES of the file system.....sheesh, give me a break!.....Windblows puts an icon on the desktop for the browser, "my documents" and "computer"......hmmmmm I think that EXACTLY the same icons could be put on a Linux desktop.....by golly............there are even OSs that actually DO THAT...hmmmm who would have thunk it......the intricacies of the Linux file system.

I guess these guys have NEVER actually had the two pane "my computer" view of their computer open.... that file system is kinda....welll complicated in a DIFFERENT way....

Now....would the average user want to install Arch or Arch! or DSL or maybe...don't know....any of those "less than middle of the road" systems....probably not...

And hmmm OH NO...... APPLE has a "different file system"! I guess all those people who run Apple and write blogs have never looked at their file system, or HORRORS..... gone to and Apple store....and then had to "UPDATE"......their "silo" applications for Apple....

This all, to me, is just hogwash, IF........the original OS is pre-installed, with all the codecs and printers and the wireless is setup with a long range piece of hardware, and has bluetooth working...I mean....

What is so different between opening my Vista lappy and getting on the net wirelessly and using FF and OO than going to the dual boot on the machine and running Ubuntu....and getting on the wireless network, and using OO and FF....and printing just like with Vista...to a HP printer....

And, oh my golly............VLC is on BOTH OSs who woulda thought....

just my thoughts....

woodsmoke

[whatthefunk]

I think others view Linux users as geeks, but I dont consider myself to be a geek. When I tell my friends I use Linux, I sometimes get smirks and geek related jokes. But then when my Microsoft using friends get viruses I joke at them and when my Apple using friends spend thousands of dollars to get the latest iCrap I laugh at them. For me, Linux is great because it allows me to solve all my computer related problems on my own. Ive always liked to tinker around with things and Im overly independent so I feel the need to do things by myself. Linux is perfect for this. If there is a problem, I google, ask on forums, and 99% of the time I can fix the problem on my own. I can also set it up to exactly meet my needs. I suppose this all would make me a "notch above the rest" as far as computer skills go, but I wouldnt call myself a geek.