Linux
Linux is an alternative OS (Operating System) for
PC's. Alternative, that is, to Windows or anything connected with
Microsoft. This is immediately appealing to those people who, even
if they admire the achievement of Bill Gates, feel it's gone just a
bit too far and they never wanted all their personal computers to
be controlled by one vast monolithic capitalistic enterprise, whose
founder is the richest man / one of the richest men in the
universe. (Who counted last?)
For people like that, there is Linux. It's a descendant of the
UNIX family, and was invented by a young Finnish student named
Linus Torvalds. 
Thanks to the emerging Internet, he was
able to let hackers (i.e. amateur, for-fun programmers) all over
the world know what he was doing, and they contributed ideas,
suggestions, improvements. The Linux 'kernel' was revised and
updated on a daily basis, sometimes several times a day. In
contrast to the Microsoft development process, this has lead to an
extremely well-tested and stable operating system. Linux has a
reputation for not crashing several times a day like most Windows
programmes.
It's other great advantage is that it's FREE. The philosophy
behind it, adopted by Linus Torvalds and built into the licensing
system of Linux, is that it is Open Source. i.e. The original
source code is freely available to all to tinker with and improve,
on the understanding that their improved version will also be
freely available. Because Linux was developed by volunteers, who
love computing and want it to be fun, it continues to be freely
available for downloading over the Internet.
Most people, though (including me) aren't hackers of quite this order and skill, but still want to be able to be part of this computing revolution. So a number of groups or companies have put together distributions (or 'distros') of Linux, including the kernel and a wide range of suites of programs. Since this is a commercial venture, they charge for the CDs, the support, and the manuals that come with the distro. It's still VERY cheap compared with anything from Microsoft: the complete Professional edition of SUSE Linux 8.2, which I'm using at present, cost only about £59. It includes a whole range of utilities, graphics programs, games, an office suite, internet browsers and email clients, and probably lots of other stuff I haven't even discovered yet. Quite a bit of it is hacker stuff: compilers for programming languages I haven't even heard of, let alone learned how to use.
Computing can be an adventure again - like it was in the days I learned how to program my Sinclair ZX81 with machine code.
For more about Linux try these:
(If you decide to actually buy them from Amazon by clicking on
these links, I get a commission! Go on - keep me in beer money for
5 minutes!
Just For Fun is Linus Torvalds' own story of how he came to invent Linux, andwhat happened next... |
Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a series of essays on Linux and the Open Source movement. Almost a manifesto. |
SuSE Linux Professional 8.2 is the distro I am using. Some people prefer Red Hat, but SuSE is European! |
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For more Linux links, try this site. |
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