Technology corner: Linux, shminux The Garner Citizen

I've purposely avoided the Linux topic until now, but some feedback from my recent Vista column plus a recent article in PCMag, " Diary of a Linux Virgin, " has prompted me to speak up. Linux is an operating system that is open source, meaning the software is public and available to all to download, use, alter, edit and contribute to, unlike Microsoft's Windows, which is proprietary and comes from a software vendor.

Linux is perfect for the Internet, home to blogs, Facebook and other means of group-talk or social networking. All PCs have a starting managing program called an operating system, which must load before your applications start or any useful work can be done. Most of you use some version of Windows as your OS. Some of you have Macs that use the Mac OS. A few of you may have something akin to Linux at home or at work.

Linux has many enticing qualities - at least, at first glance: Free - meaning no charge for the initial license to install and use Reliable and stable - so, better than Windows Fewer, if any, virus issues The truth of the matter is, as an underlying base technology, you either have something that is Microsoft Windows-based, or you have something that is Unix-based. So what is Unix, and does it relate to Linux?

Guess what - Linux is actually based on Unix. Unix is an OS that was invented decades ago by Bell Labs, years before PCs were even imagined. The base technologies of an OS do not change as fast as Intel processors - it's just too expensive.

OS technology is similar to cars: Automobiles change every year, but the underlying engine technology is only refined a little. Hybrid car engines are finally something new and different.) So most of your Windows alternatives are in fact based on Unix. Mac OS is based on Unix. Sun Microsystems Solaris OS is Unix-based.

IBM AIX is Unix-based. Linux is Unix-based. HP-Unix is. Need I say more? The real question is whether you want a Unix-based OS on your PC or a Windows-based OS. When you have an open-source software product like Linux, change and stability become an issue, which can be fun if you're one of those computer science graduates but not so much if you're not as tech-savvy. Some companies specialize in their own version of Linux, such as the local technology start-up Red Hat.

But to get their enhanced version and to get support, it's going to cost you, too. If you really want to try Linux, I suggest you use a spare machine and allocate some time - and patience. As for me, I'm not at that point yet. I'll probably wait until I retire for projects like that.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Pete Dixon says: May 18, 2009 at 12:23 pm Just dive in, the water's fine. Grab a copy of PCLinuxOS since it's one of the stablest and easy to use distros currently out there. At this point the biggest obstacle to Linux adoption for most people is fear and uncertainty.

The reality is that it's already superior to Windows and improving very rapidly. Bunkai says: May 18, 2009 at 1:32 pm There's no need to wait until retirement. There's also no need to use a spare computer if you have 10GB of free hard drive space that you'd be willing to part with.

Both Fedora and Ubuntu operate in fully graphical environments and for most users, will never require interaction with the command line. You've already agreed that Unix-based operating systems are more stable and have better performance than Windows-based operating systems.

Now, you just need to realize the fact that modern versions ARE indeed "easy to use for the average person and not just college computer science graduates".

Download a LiveCD copy of either Fedora 10 or Ubuntu 9.04 and you can even run the fully-functional, graphical operating systems from yoru CD DVD-ROM drive without installing even 1kb on your hard drive.

Then you'll know how compatible your hardware is with Linux, and you can finally show yourself that you've been spending too much money on proprietary operating systems for way too long. When I let my dad use a LiveCD of Fedora for the first time without any instructions, his comments were, "Wow, why isn't Windows this fast?" If Linux is this good, why doesn't everyone use it instead of Windows?" Prior to that use, he'd never even seen any OS besides Windows, let alone used one.

I'm in the process of a blog series called "Migrating to Free Open Source Software" on my blog, http: linville79.blogspot.com, if you'd like to follow it as the series progresses. Thanks! May 18, 2009 at 3:57 pm Well, if Red Hat is a start-up, maybe Novell is also a start-up too, isn't it? And I guess all the hundreds of companies involved with Linux may all be start-ups too?

Well stay there in your big ship and refuse the little life raft - you'll go down too. May 18, 2009 at 10:25 pm this article has absolutely no content to it. Linux lets you mess it up, windows does everything it can to stop you, but as long as you don't abuse your computer and expect it to stop you like windows does, linux works much more reliably than windows.

May 18, 2009 at 11:08 pm You know you've been messing too deeply with Linux when you look at the title and think, "Linux, shared-memory-inix..