For everyone who has ever stared at Windows NT's "blue screen of death" in frustration, For those of us who grind our teeth as Redmond's latest and greatest crashes in the middle of another compile. There is an alternative.
An operating system that brings stability and power to the desktop. Without the high price and restrictive licensing of Microsoft's products.
Okay, enough marketing hype, what is Linux, why do I use it, and why do I think you should look at it?
Here's a couple screenshot of my desktop, carefull, they are 1600x1200 png files, and weigh in at about 450KBytes
For those who have recently returned from a decade long journey to trace the headwaters of the Amazon. Linux is a freely available UNIX like operating system kernel, which was developed by a Finnish college student named Linus Torvalds. Early on in his developement of what would become Linux, Linus decided to make the source code available to any and all who wanted it. The result of this was that instead of the code being developed by one person, many hundreds (and later thousands) of people helped with bugfixes, suggestions, code patches and general work. It was the beginning of a developement model best titled "Release early and often."
Enough background, if you want more info on how Linux started, then try these.
I use Linux because it is stable, fast, and reliable. Also because I am a bit of a rebel when it comes to OS. Sue me...
But why should you try it?
Well, if all you do (and all you are interested in doing.) is play a couple of games, and surf the web a little, maybe write a letter to mom or read e-mail, then Linux probably isn't for you.
Not that these are bad things to do. But windows is adequate (barely) to handle these tasks with less up front learning than Linux. You'll still have to deal with the crashes and misfortunes of what Microsoft has to offer, but maybe that's an acceptable trade.
lf however, you hate having to repeat an hour's work when windows crashes (again). If you are tired of being on hold with Microsoft tech support for 30 minutes, only to have someone tell you to reinstall Windows (again). Or finding out that you have to buy 5 new copies of Office 97, because the 1 copy that came with the secretaries new pc won't save in Office 95 format. Then Linux is worth looking into.
If you develope code for fun or profit, (any major language, and most minor ones). If you administer any kind of server. If you are a comp sci student. If you enjoy computers. Then Linux is worth looking into.
Linux comes in several "distributions" which include the kernel itself (the heart of any operating system). Along with an almost bewildering array of utilities, applications, games, and stuff. gigabytes of stuff. You can install as much or as little as you want. From a single floppy disk distribution,like Tom's RootBoot to the over 5.5 GB that comes with SuSE. You are in control, your choices matter.
There are a lot of distributions of Linux out there, but for those of you who are just starting out, or are just curious. you'll find links to some of them in the next paragraph. But I am going to recommend that you try Knoppix first. For a couple of reasons. One, it's hardware detection is excellent, far better than Microsoft windows, and better than most other Linux distributions, (if not better than them all.) Second, you can try it out, without affecting your existing Microsoft windows installation. It will run entirely off of the CD if you wish. Or you can make room for a swap file on the Microsoft windows harddrive. If you decide you like it, you can then install it, from the CD, onto your system, either keeping the other OS around for awhile, and dual booting, or dumping it entirely. Third, Knoppix is essentially, a well packaged Debian distribution, and that means that you can update, and do security updates with ease, Debian being one of the easiest systems to maintain there is. Even if you are a dedicated Microsoft supporter, you owe it to yourself to check out Knoppix, because this is a serious competitor to Microsoft's offerings in the OS market for the desktop users. As a side benefit, the CD can be used as a troubleshooting tool for when your Microsoft installation goes south, and you know that is going to happen sometime...
One of the most popular distros is RedHat. Another popular one is Debian. There are many others. There are distros for Alpha systems (Redhat) and for power macs and clones. In fact, Linux runs on more hardware platforms, from the palm pilot to clustered renderfarms, than any other single operating system. (Windows 95/98 for example only runs on one.)
Sure you say, but what does it cost?
nothing.
That's right, if you want to spend the time, download the whole thing from the internet. Or pay as little as $2 for a fresh CD of Redhat, or Debian, Caldera etc from cheapbytes , or $30 or so from Redhat direct. All legal, no piracy.
Here's a short list of the software I use regularly in linux, most of these programs will come with your distribution. But the wepages referenced are a good place to get more information on them.
I have collected some notes on my installation of Linux on my C340 laptop here
warlock@eskimo.com