Linux

I’m more than aware there’s many a PC user sat at home who doesn’t know their KDE from their GNOME from their XFCE. They’ve possibly heard of Linux but think it’s something which runs the internet and is administered via convoluted strings of green screen text by overweight sweaty programmers in yellow tinted glassed (OK, it used to be, but didn’t all operating systems?). This is 2010, things have moved on.

I’m going to try and dispel a few myths, open a few doors and introduce a few new terms and phrases by explaining the basics of the Linux operating system, it’s flexible availability of use and it’s different but related family of distributions, a sort of introductory ‘nutshell’ from command line to desktop on a few easy pages to provide you with an ‘overt’ view, nothing scary or super technical but with enough depth of information to generate interest for the PC novice, the geek, and at the top end – the business Network Manager.

We couldn’t possibly start any expose of Linux without a respectful nod of the head to it’s legendary creator and king of the kernel, the man Linus Torvalds. Linus *wrote* the original Linux kernel (it’s brain, for want of a better description) in 1991 on the back of an evolutionary chain of development to create a UNIX compatible user friendly operating system which would comply with terms of the recently created GNU GPL free software foundation. UNIX (for info) is a mega robust computer operating system developed during the 60′s and although immensely powerful wasn’t too user friendly (although I suppose it was never meant to be, this was the 60′s after all, Facebook wasn’t even on the horizon), interestingly however Apple’s OSX operating system is actually a version of UNIX under the skin (Darwin UNIX) and you can’t get a more user friendly desktop environment than OSX.

As Linux inhabits the world of open source software this means that it’s free to download, use and modify, yes, your computer operating system can be obtained (quite legally) for nothing, completely and absolutely, and not only is Linux free, it’s better than your current system in many ways.

Due to it’s modular code base Linux is extremely stable, not only that it’s super safe, you’re not going to get infected with any of the hundreds of thousands of viruses hanging around the internet no, not one, you don’t need a virus checker to (further) slow your PC to a crawl. A great analogy here is the childrens story about the three little pigs, Linux is the computer operating system equivalent of the brick house, but with NO windows or doors, solid.

Next Page > Functional