           
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
SCO continues to spread sound
and fury with its claims against Linux. But do
its allegations have any supporting evidence or any basis in fact?
SCO's lawsuit is for "abuse
of trade secrets". This means it cannot directly
affect Linux users - it is solely a dispute between SCO and IBM. And SCO's
suit rests on some questionable assumptions. The first, and most crucial,
is
that "SCO owns Unix".
SCO has never owned Unix, as
it was not included in the sale when the
company bought the AT&T code.
The court case between BSD
and USL ended up severing all legal links between the two code bases,
and found that large chunks of the USL code were in fact copyright BSD.
This code presumably still heavily contaminates SCO's code base.
The second assumption is that
a technology transfer went from SCO to Linux.
However, doing a feature comparison shows that the transfer is far more
likely to have gone the other way.
Take symmetrical multiprocessing,
for example. SCO derides Linux for "only
supporting four or eight processors". It was SCO/ Caldera that provided
the original symmetrical multiprocessing hardware used to make Linux SMP-capable,
such that 32-processor Linux systems were around in 1999, and we have
128-processor systems today. SCO's Unixes today still do not go beyond
16 processors.
It has also transpired that
SCO does not even own the copyright to the
original Unix, as Novell kept this. All that SCO bought was the right
to
exploit the code base, and only code that it added was SCO copyright.
All this leads me to suspect
that the SCO case will fall down flat in court.
The company will have to go
to court with hard evidence when it seeks to enforce the revocation of
IBM's license. Its claims will probably be shown up as a sham, but if
they are not, the company will probably find itself subject to a criminal
investigation for filing false claims, subject to SEC investigation for
a "pump and dump" scheme, and subject to several damages suits
by an aggrieved IBM and assorted Linux distributors.
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