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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!

Linux News and Notes

From Internet Week:

The Linux vs. Windows desktop is heating up on both the enterprise and consumer fronts.

At the Enterprise Linux Forum in early June, in Santa Clara, Calif., SuSE demonstrated its first enterprise corporate desktop designed for large IT infrastructures. SuSE Linux Desktop costs $598 for a five-user license and comes with a five-year maintenance contract, said Holger Dyroff, general manager of Americas at SuSE. It offers a corporate GUI and a choice of running Sun Microsystems' StarOffice 6.0 or Microsoft Office and starts shipping Monday.

Ximian also demonstrated its enhanced Ximian Desktop 2, expected to begin shipping Monday. The Linux GUI is based on the GNOME 2 platform and incorporates an edition of OpenOffice.org that features support for Microsoft Office file-compatible documents. The GUI runs on many leading Linux distributions.

Red Hat, for its part, plans to debut an enterprise corporate Linux desktop in November, said a source close to the company. Red Hat's first enterprise desktop will feature an enhanced BlueCurve GUI, updated Linux 2.4.2x kernel, Sun's Java Virtual Machine, support for Windows applications and seamless access to Microsoft Exchange via a connector, the source said. The product is expected to be priced between $99 and $139, the source added.

Several IBM Global Services customers using Red Hat Advanced Server are evaluating the corporate desktop as an appropriate companion to Red Hat Enterprise Advanced Server, the source added. Red Hat is also preparing a consumer desktop upgrade for release this fall, code-named Cambridge, but customers want a version supported by Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat's enterprise product groups, the source added.

"Customers want to get off the dependency of Microsoft, including large corporate shops, but they want a Linux desktop with a three- to five-year life cycle, not updates every few months," said the source.

Red Hat executives would not confirm this report.

On the consumer side, Lindows.com is preparing to release a major upgrade of its consumer desktop, LindowsOS 4.0, in mid-June, executives confirmed. The San Diego-based company, which prevailed in court against Microsoft on its spin on the Windows trademark for its Linux desktop, has cut a deal with a third-party ISV to ensure compatibility with Microsoft Office, Windows and Windows applications, sources said.

Clearly, there is interest in the open- source operating system. A newly released report by research firm IDC shows Linux server revenue was up 35 percent in the first quarter of 2003 from the year-earlier period.

But that server-side strength has yet to carry over to the desktop. Linux accounted for less than 2 percent of client operating system shipments in 2001, according to IDC, which has not yet released comparable numbers for the Linux client operating environment.

Microsoft appears to be anything but cocky, even in client operating systems, where Windows dominates. Last week Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer acknowledged competitive concerns about Linux on the desktop in a memo to employees.

"In this environment of lean IT budgets and concerns about Microsoft's attention to customers, noncommercial software such as Linux and OpenOffice is seen as interesting, good enough or free alternatives," Ballmer wrote in a company memo last week. "We will rise to the challenge."

SuSE's Dyroff acknowledged that Linux has made little progress on the desktop to date but said that four or five Fortune 100 SuSE customers in the United States "are looking at" SuSE Linux Desktop as a companion to the company's recently released Enterprise Linux 8 Server. He also pointed to a deal arrived at with German insurance company Debeka to switch 4,000 Office desktops to SuSE Linux Desktop.

While many claim that the threat of Linux on the desktop is overhyped, and that it has served mainly to give Microsoft's customers more leverage when negotiating contracts, a spate of highly publicized defections from Office to Linux desktops, primarily overseas, has Microsoft worried. These include a recent decision by the city of Munich, Germany, to migrate 14,000 desktops and notebooks from Office to Linux. According to published reports, Ballmer flew to Munich to save that customer account but failed.

Linux solution providers maintain the emergence of corporate Linux desktops with better Office compatibility will make a big difference in the long term.

"There are significant barriers to overcome, with Microsoft's virtual lock on desktop apps," said Kevin Gates, Linux specialist at Denver Solutions Group, Denver, which is evaluating SuSE Linux Desktop. ""I don't see us making sales on desktop for at least another six to eight months. But the desktop is like the server was two years ago."

Another Linux solution provider claims Microsoft is digging its own grave on the desktop side.

"The tide is turning, and Linux will increase rapidly now on the desktop as Microsoft continues to increase software prices and make unfair policy changes that costs customers money," said Bob Toxen, CTO of Fly-By-Day Consulting, Atlanta. "The biggest problem for Linux on the desktop is that most users are used to Office and are too lazy to want to change. But given the lower productivity and higher dollar cost of Microsoft, smart management will say that all new installations will be Linux."