Do you have friends who are constantly telling you that you should switch from Microsoft Windows to Linux? Have they gone as far as providing you with a Ubuntu CD to install on your computer? Are you starting to dread hearing the word Linux because your very happy with your current operating system? Well, to be honest, you are not alone. If Linux is so great why are only 3% of the computers currently being used running Linux? The reasons for such a low percentage of use is not really relevant because what is interesting is this — even if you have no interest in switching your computer operating system, Linux is in your home and effecting your computing life in many different ways.
Linux is not a new operating system, there has been a lot of talk about the operating system in the last couple of years so you may have just started to hear about Linux but the operating system has been around since the early 1990s. This means that Linux has been time-proven and thanks to the open-source community Linux is constantly being improved. This very reliable operating system is running many of the servers we connect to every day. Most internet service providers use Linux as the operating system on their servers. Highly visible web sites such as Google and Ebay use Linux-based servers as well. Think where you would be without Google or Ebay and how often do these websites go down? Companies that stake their reputation and their profit on a computer usually choose Linux as the operating system of choice.
Linux does not have the layers of bloat that other software operating systems are notorious for. In fact, Linux is small enough and reliable enough to run many of the electronics in our homes. Do you have a Tivo in your home? It’s running Linux. Do you own an Audi? It’s running Linux. The software is highly configurable which allows electronic manufacturers to build operating systems that contain only the necessary information needed to run the device. Linux is also free which can keep the manufacturing costs down.
There are relatively few viruses in the world that are designed to attack Linux. Linux may be solid and virus free but the community is still at the forefront of providing free security upgrades on-line. Before Linux started proving free upgrades on-line, upgrades were provided by either ordering a CD or going through a knowledge base of information looking for a download link. One click software upgrades were created on Linux first and when first rolled out in the mid 1990, the process was considered invasive to personal privacy. The success of Linux’s upgrade center led to Microsoft and Apple building their own free software download center that do the same thing.
Linux has shown that freedom of choice of software is important to consumers. Open-source software is fairly inexpensive to create which means new manufacturers can enter the market easily. If the programmers working on software solutions are not creating software to address the needs of their customers another programmer can step in and make a better product. With the abundance of choices, you can select the tools and software that meets your needs. Linux is proving that customers need and want more than one choice in their software because one company can not meet the needs of everyone.
Linux brought us interoperability. Before interoperability became standard, you could not connect a Mac to a Windows based network and you could not share files between different software programs. Linux users wanted to share files with other computer users and connect their computers to home and work networks which has caused interoperability to became a necessity. Once Linux users paved the path, Microsoft and Apple were not too far behind and now it does not matter what type of computer you are using, you’re able to interoperate with others.
Linux can also be thanked for the ideas of individual configuration. Linux was the first operating system to offer the option of individual profiles and user configuration. Each user can have his or her own individual profile on the same computer. This includes the look of the desktop, which icons you see, what programs start and even what language the desktop is in. Before Linux caused the individual profile and configuration ideas to be become popular, everyone had the same desktop look and all configuration processes effected everyone who used the computer.
Linux has been on the forefront of new ideas. The open-source community has been able to keep Linux free and evolving. And of course when something becomes popular it will eventually end up in the next versions of Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X operating systems. Even for those of us that have no desire to run Linux as our operating system, we have a great amount of computing and software ideas that we should thank Linux for.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
we should be at least equally gratefull for GNU as well!
i wont go that far calling by linux distro a GNU/Linux distro, but, a shout out to GNU! for giving me freedom!
linux rocks
September 9th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Great article ! Thanks for the support !
September 9th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Linux ownz! I run Suse Linux as my home firewall and I can’t remember that last time that it went down, that is if it ever has gone down for any non-hardware issues.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Linux is nice, but if we want to get technical, throwing GNU in there, don’t forget to thank Berkley for BSD, and the BSD License, as well as Bell labs for designing Unix.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Again, getting technical since Linux is at heart really just UNIX rewritten it would be worth mentioning that UNIX is around 50 years old. Also Linux supports more hardware out of the box than any operating system has, ever. For example Linux supported before any other operating system:
# USB 2.0
# Bluetooth
# PCI Hotplug
# CPU Hotplug
# memory Hotplug
and currently it has the fastest usb bus speeds of any operating system (USB things go faster on Linux)
And for all you Apple fanboys remember that Apple took BSD (another UNIX like OS, similar to Linux with a different license) and used it as the core for OSX so really you are paying all that money for Apple’s crappy API and GUI, not even a whole operating system.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
way to costly an have to pay for drivers windows are free
September 11th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Great post, you said only true facts in an intelligent manner.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
porter: WTF? “way to costly” Linux is free, I don’t know where you got the idea that it was costly. “have to pay for drivers” No, you don’t. “windows are free” No it isn’t. When you buy a new computer with Windows preinstalled, part of the cost is for Windows. You should also learn some grammar before you make another post anywhere.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
lakotajames, I think that in all likelihood we are dealing with an actual idiot.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I dont think porter knows what “open source” means, just disregard his dumbass comment.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Linux (Ubuntu 8.04) gives me complete control of my PC. If I don’t like something, I can change it. Also, I have not had to pay the people at Norton or anyone else for 4 years now. I have not had a virus in 4 years. I have had no adware or spyware in 4 years. I miss NOTHING about Windows.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:10 am
Thanks for the article.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
i am using linux for 3 years. but never gave up windows. i miss new games, important software like autocad and many others to work properly in linux. altough i love linux but its to far away from beeing my first OS
September 14th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Good article, and I agree with about 99% of what you stated, but the part about not being able to interface a Mac with a Windows network pre-Linux may not be quite accurate. I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure the protocols were available pre-1991.
All that aside, like I said….good article, and I think more people should at least try one of the Linux Live CD’s.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Well said.
But its all about the perception of the end user. In early days of Linux, things were different, we had to,in many places, configure our device manually and take help from community but now things have changes drastically with Linux automatically recognizing those. I strongly believe that distros like Ubuntu will really make Windows user at least “think” that they “should” switch to it.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:44 am
So true how something that doesn’t have a huge market share has changed technology.
September 20th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Switching to Linux expensive? Yes. Learning linux takes up a lot of time. Time equals money. A simple home user can do it in their sparetime. But not companies. They have to send their technical service back to school to learn linux. Next they have to teach their other employees how to use linux. Oops now their expensive piece software specially written for their business doesn’t work anymore. Owh well let’s ask our software supplier if they can develop a linux version. Oops, now our customers are incompatible. I can go on with this for a while.
Who was the idiot? Certainly not the guy that said Linux is expensive. Because the operating system is freely available doesn’t mean it’s not gonna cost you anything. BTW, most companies also wants support for the software/operating system they’re using. Not free either.
But boy i love to see a good looking linux touchscreen mobile =)
September 21st, 2008 at 2:49 am
I enjoyed this article. Indeed most of what you have written I can testify to be true, and those things I can’t I assume you’ve done some research on. Thanks.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:52 am
Great article and a nice introduction to Linux for those with questions! I will certainly be linking to this page from my Linux Blogazine!
Next up, Terry. He obviously has either never used Linux or has a financial interest in MS. Ive never read so much sillyness. I am a professional coder/developer(DX10) in a software studio, and use Vista at work, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.(so out of most people I am probably more balanced as I run Linux at home)
Sure, Terry hits upon the cost of retraining, however he fails to mention the cost of specialist support anyway, (which is available for Windows and Linux, outsourced to other companies) At our company, the admin staff use Linux and Open Office, and the training was no more difficult than showing them where the OO icon was on the desktop.
Terry, since you seem to know, would you like to tell us all how much it would cost for 200 installations of MS Office in a small firm? and youre saying Linux re-training is expensive?
Terry doesnt seem to know that cross platform development is not as much of an issue these days, true the market is not there for commercial linux projects, but then thats hardly the environment Linux users want to promote anyway.
Terry also doesnt seem to mention Wine which will allow you to run most native Windows code if you have some custom software that you MUST keep.
I would urge anyone who reads this to be careful of post like Terry’s. Do your own research, go to forums and see what issues users of the system are having. If you are a commercial company, its always best to employ a consultant who can give you an unbiased appraisal of your IT needs. If you are a home user you can always dual boot, test out Linux and see if it is for you.
Of course Linux is not for everyone, but its better that you decide on your OS as a result of an informed choice, not a series of half truths (Terry)
Take care all,
http://www.openbytes.wordpress.com
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am
On the note of it running in TiVo and in your Audi, don’t forget about your wireless (or wired) router that a large amount of us have. Almost all of these are running some sort of simplified Linux kernel.
September 26th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
“r u annoyed because people are saying linux too much?….. well i have a solution for u………LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX…… oh and linux”.
a faithful linux user since 1998.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I guess Google servers run FreeBSD … which u could say makes a rock-solid server OS compared to Linux …FreeBSD is awesome on the desktop too … its gonna be my FIRST OS for years to come…Ubuntu being my 2nd
October 1st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
What would all of the malcontents have to complain about without Windows?
BROKEN RECORDS! ALL OF YOU!
October 16th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
UNIX is responsible for most of those things… not Linux. Linux just ’shared’ the ideas.
October 28th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Very nicely presented mate. After a decade of pain I’ve microsoftly switched to mac and after this post, I’m getting another spare machine to explore Linux.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I even found out the other day that my 42″ television has linux, at least thats what it says in the book, about gnu and linux headers etc