           
Why Linux?
Glad you asked! Linux
is commonly known as a server operating system or an operating system
for advanced users. Can a non-pro use it, and why should he or she do
so?
While Linux did begin
its life as a server operating system and an
operating system for advanced users, Linux has made significant progress
in a most key area: its graphical user interface.
Linux now has a very
easy to use interface for both the Windows and Mac crowd. The desktop
looks, acts and feels incredibly familiar, as do applications such word
processors, spreadsheets and photo editors.
Here are a few reasons
to use Linux:
FUNCTIONALITY
Linux comes with many tools you normally must buy separately if you run
Windows or Mac, including a full featured office suite (amazingly similar
to Microsoft Office) and a complete software development kit that is comparable
to Visual C++.
STABILITY
Linux is a very stable operating system. Linux systems don't crash often,
and don't need to be rebooted for anything other than upgrading the operating
system itself.
(ALMOST) NO VIRUSES
Linux is not prone to viruses. Because of how Linux handles data, a virus
cannot overwrite system files or append itself to applications unless
you are working as the "root" user. Linux has no registry or
DLL files, so Windows viruses have no effect on Linux at all.
PRICE
Linux is available for download for free. You have the option of buying
Linux CD sets at a very low price. But the two or three core disks, with
thousands of applications and tools, are there for the taking. And these
are "crippled" versions. They have the same files as the CDs
in the store box.
OPEN SOURCE
Linux is completely Open Source, meaning programmers around the world
have access to its "source code", which is code programmers
can read and modify. While this may not affect you as an end user directly,
it affects you indirectly because this means that Linux and its tools
and apps are under continuous, shared development. And updates to the
operating system and all the other software is a snap.
INDEPENDENCE
If the maintainers of traditional proprietary software (such as Windows
or Microsoft Office) stop working on it, or choose to ignore your problems,
you're on your own. Nobody can help you. DOS users remember a great program
called Q&A. Once the company that developed Q&A went out of business,
another company bought this marvelous app and then let it die. If someone
stops maintaining a Linux software application, someone steps in and continues
the work. The software is not "company owned" and controlled,
and so won't become a Q&A.
SPEED of development
Due to the its open source nature, many programmers from all around the
world work on Linux, causing it to develop and mature much faster than
other software.
FLEXIBILITY
If you need a feature in an application (or the operating system itself),
you don't need to turn to the maker of the application to get it in -
any
programmer can do it for you!
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Linux
News and Notes
From the FINANCIAL
TIMES, June 4
Is the world's biggest software
company facing a technology gap? Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer
of Microsoft, addressed that question directly Wednesday in a memo to
the company's rank and file that laid out the challenges of the next two
or three years in stark detail.
HIS MESSAGE: With no immediate
breakthroughs in technology coming, and with the Linux computer operating
system and a batch of other open-source programs biting at its heels,
Microsoft will have to do a better job of
persuading customers it has something they need.
Some way off in the future lies a generation of technology that
Microsoft promises will change the lives of every computer user. Codenamed
Longhorn, it involves a complete revamp of the company's two core product
lines - the Windows operating system and Office productivity suite. It
promises to bring greater ease, reliability and security. In short, it
will
be "the next quantum leap in computing, which will put us years ahead
of any
other product on the market," wrote Ballmer.
When that day will come, however,
noone is saying. In an interview, the
Microsoft CEO would only say that "Longhorn will come when we think
it's
really ready." Some industry analysts have pencilled in 2005, but
the company
is not prepared to endorse that view. Also, following its recent commitment
to delaying software releases until it has ironed out all the bugs - a
marked
departure from the company's earlier practice - Microsoft seems more than
prepared to wait.
What, in the meantime, will business look like?
The picture painted on Wednesday by Ballmer is certainly a challenging
one. There is a general disenchantment with technology spending. Companies
"have not yet seen a tangible return on dotcom investments."
Add in the weak economy, and "there is less passion and enthusiasm
for technology, and greater focus on doing more for less."
In that environment, companies have turned to Linux and other
open-source software programs, seeing them as cheap but adequate
alternatives. Around half of the 1 million corporate computers in the
United
States that run the Unix operating system are candidates for migration
to
Linux, according to Ballmer - a significant challenge to Microsoft, which
has
set its own sights on winning over those customers for its Windows operating
system.
The Ballmer response: Microsoft will have to do a better job of
producing software whose benefits are clearly apparent to customers. And
it
will have to do a better job, in particular, of gearing its development
and
sales organizations to what its customers want. "There's a set of
things I highlight that I want us to do better," says Ballmer in
an interview.
These include redoubling its efforts to make its software more secure
-
an initiative begun by Bill Gates early last year under the banner of
"trustworthy computing." Despite the headway made since then,
Microsoft still
suffered the embarrassment of seeing some of its own computers succumb
earlier this year to the Slammer worm, a malicious bug that crippled
computers around the world.
"Our customers are still hit with security vulnerabilities and we
have
spent a lot of time learning from Slammer what we need to do better,"
wrote
Ballmer in his memo to staff.
Equally importantly, Microsoft must "improve business consistency"
so
that customers are not hit with unexpected - and unwanted - changes. That
is
a lesson learned from last year, when the company's overhaul of its software
licensing terms antagonized many of its customers.
It must also get better at
segmenting the markets its serves and turning out the products that different
customers want. "Our ability to hear is quite good. We have to know
how to respond," says Ballmer. To back up this new push to promote
a more customer-friendly Microsoft, Ballmer promised that the company
would "increase our advertising budget significantly for all our
audiences."
© The Financial Times Ltd 2003. "FT" and "Financial
Times" are
trademarks of the Financial Times.
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