Alright, someone requested a crash course on linux so here are my incoherent ramblings on the subject.

-----------------------------------

What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system like Microsoft Windows or Mac OSX. However, it's very different for two reasons - it's open-source and it's free. Linux was created in the early 90s by Linus Torvalds as a hobby and has grown into a huge community of users. Most users are very passionate about the idea of free and open-source code.

Believe it or not, the sweat and tears that has gone into linux has been, for the most part, volunteer work. The version of linux that I'm using, for example, was developed by one single person over the course of a year and a half - and he did it while working full-time at IBM. Linux works because of the sheer number of users that support on it, the ability for people to share and expand on the work of others, and the users' love of what they do and belief in the free, open-source ideology. It's a lot more than just an operating system to many, it's about demonstrating the virtues of, well, sharing. *cue sappy elmo music*

Open-Source and Myths

Some of the biggest myths about Linux are that it must be insecure because anyone can look at the code, or its not self-sustaining because there's no money to be made, or it's not going to be taken seriously, or it slows down innovation. I'll take these one at a time

1. Open-source is insecure - Absolutely not. Open-source software has been shown to be far more secure and less buggy than proprietary software. This is because of the sheer number of eyes that scrutinize the code (anyone can, including you!). Additionally, because linux is so community-based, anyone can file bugs or seek help.

2. Open-source doesn't make sense financially - Big computer manufacturers such as IBM and Sun now run Linux on their hardware, and Novell, a software company best known for its server software, is making strategic acquisitions of Linux companies. In fact, IBM, a company known for leading the world in the number of patents they achieve each year, decided to open 500 of their patents just recently to the open-source community. Apparently these companies think there is money to be made still (whether it's through supporting these products or whatnot).

3. Linux is so small, it's not being taken seriously - Microsoft has recently cited Linux as their #2 biggest threat.. behind the economic environment. Linux has also been the fastest growing operating system for the last 5+ years. What was once an OS for nerds/hackers is finding its way mainstream. It's now used in the majority of webservers (like TSIS's ), it has a large market-share in developing countries because it's so inexpensive, and so on.

4. Open-source slows down innovation - Microsoft and others are fond of saying that the open-source paradigm slows down innovation because there is less competition. While a great deal of Linux is based on collective sharing and working off of others' work, that statement couldn't be further from the truth. Linux is highly competitive - we're talking about nerd egos here heh. Just looking at the sheer number of different distributions (see next question) and different applications shows just how competitive it is.

Distributions

Linux comes in many, many flavors. Although the core of linux, referred to as the kernel, is basically the same in all of them, there are hundreds of different distributions geared toward different end users - speed, customability, security, web servers, and so on. While it might be confusing to a newbie, there are probably only 10-20 distributions that are very popular.

Fedora Core (by Red Hat) and Mandrake are usually considered two of the most popular and easy-to-use distros, especially for converts from Windows.

How do I get started?

Just about all distributions are free to download (those that aren't tend to be frowned upon by the community..). If you don't have a high-speed connection, there are many places to order CDs very cheaply.

There are many ways to get started, but the easiest way to get a taste of linux without installing anything is by using a Live CD. Many distributions are starting to make them now (they're all basically adapted from a distribution called Knoppix, quite an innovative idea..). The idea is that you burn the linux .ISO image and then boot from the cd. It runs entirely off of your computer's RAM, nothing is installed. If you go this path, I'd recommend trying Mepis.

If you want to actually install Linux, it requires hard drive space on your comp. You can either create another partition on your machine to be used (in this way, you'll have a dual boot and can boot into either Linux or Windows) or you can install over your current OS. Typically there are anywhere from 1-4 CDs to burn (.ISO again), but the CDs also contain tons of software (like Firefox, an office suit, graphics programs, etc, etc) in addition to the OS. As I mentioned previously, I'd recommend Fedora Core 3 or Mandrake.

Applications

There are literally thousands of free applications on linux (and many will be included with your distribution). All of the "standard" things you want have open-source equivalents. Some examples:

Browsers: Firefox, Opera, Konquerer...
Office Suite: Open Office, AbiWord & Gnumeric..
Email: Thunderbird, Evolution, Kmail...
Graphics: Gimp, Blender...
Chatting: Gaim, Kopete...
Audio: Xmms, Amarok, Rhythmbox, Beep...
Video: Mplayer, Xine...

There are also a few ways to run (some) Windows apps on Linux, but generally most people wouldn't have a need to.

Advantages

Linux has a number of advantages.. It's free. It's inherently more secure than proprietary software (the open-source code goes under the scrutiny of thousands of eyes and is very quick to release updates). You'll never have to download an anti-spyware or anti-virus program - I don't think things even exist for Linux. It's highly customizable. You have lots of different applications to choose from.

One of my favorite things is that most distributions are very easy to keep up-to-date. For example, all I have to do is type "apt-get upgrade" and it will update every piece of software on my machine, including the OS. Notice that this is different from Windows because its update feature will only keep the OS up-to-date and some Microsoft products. Additionally, if there is a new version of Windows or Office, you would have to pay for it. On linux, it's a simple command and free

And best of all, you're supporting the ideology and the community.

Disadvantages

Yes, I admit there are disadvantages. It's true that Linux can be less user-friendly than other OS's (although it has made huge strides here). But to some degree, that's based on who the user is. If you're content with being able to install/remove different applications and just keep your computer up-to-date, you won't really notice it. If you want to duelve further, you'll have to get used to the command line for some/many things.

And, of course, there are some specialized Windows applications that don't have equivalents, or there are equivalents that aren't quite as robust yet. Again, it's a matter of what you need to do and what you use. I've never had the need to use Windows except for the fact that I develop code in Microsoft Visual Basic for work (unfortunately. my boss greatly regrets that mistake).

-----------------------------------

It's not quite for everyone yet but I think a lot of people would enjoy it and can understand some of the reasons why people embrace it so much. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much but I wanted to get some things across about it so people don't think it's just another operating system, because it's anything but.

This was pretty broad so if you have any questions, by all means...

And finally, here is a screenshot for anyone who is curious But again, it's extremely customizable..

windows is ok..

Great post, Stonecrest.

I find myself using Linux more and more often (and enjoying it tremendously). It has come quite a long way from when I first started using it, some 5 years ago.

I've started to use it mainly to test Mono, the open source .NET framework and it's getting there.

I'm planning on buying a new home PC and I think I'll try to install some Linux distribution on it. I've always wanted to try and test Linux on my home computer, but somehow never had time or will to do it...

"Moved from Moderators only to Tech Support"



There is a Mods only forum!?
What are we all missing?

*blows mind*

It's all in Linux. Better hit the books!

I had an old Pentium 1 233 Mhz laptop which I tried to install linux on. The only bootable distros that would work were DSL (damn small linux) and Morphix with KDE. I ended up booting the latter and installing it as the main OS, but first I had many troubles.

I tried EVERYTHING: Suse, Fedora, Mandrake, Slackware, Debian, Knoppix, Libranet, and certainly there were more. They all had some problem with one component of my system or another and none would ever install. Slackware gave me the most trouble, it would take seemingly forever to install (I would leave it overnight) and in the morning it would be ready to install a bootloader, which it was incapable of doing. This makes no sense because the Morphix distro I ended up using uses LILO and it works fine. Anyways, it was with slackware (which is known as one of the less intuitive distros) that I learned how to control Linux from a command prompt; information I have found useless since installing KDE.

Anyways, I ended up installing Morphix with KDE 3.0 and it is pretty good, a bit slow b/c of the age of the components, and it cannot recognize the sound card, but other than that it is cool. I still use Win XP on my main home computer but I occassionally boot a Linux distro for fun (from a CD, I never bothered to partition the HD for dual-OS's). OpenOffice is great, if I didn't already have Microsoft Office I'd probably just use OpenOfiice rather than shelling out $200 (OpenOffice works on Windows too).



I'd reccomend Morphix as a bootable distro to all. It comes in several flavors (check the website) including different ones for KDE, Gnome, and some other smaller GUI. For REALLY low spec machines, I would reccomend Damn Small Linux; the whole distro is only 50 MB and it runs from memory. Ultra-low system resource use.









That's my Linux story.

cool, thanks scott. you've certainly piqued my interest.

i've been thinking about going with linux

Yeah, linux can sometimes have problems with older hardware (but if it works, it's gold). I'm actually turned off by KDE and Gnome for some reason, I've been using Xfce exclusively since I tried out like 10 different window managers or desktop environments. They just came out with a new version today too, it's lightweight and slick. There's a live cd of it at xfld.org if you want to try it out.

And yes, OpenOffice is great. I absolutely love the free open-source software that you can run on windows too (OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, Gaim, etc) - that way, for those odd times I need to run Windows, I can use the same program I'm running on linux.


I expect everybody who has been thinking about giving it a try to do so and report back

great article, hopefully it makes ppl interested in linux.

i just want to add a link to http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
a fine debian-based distribution. if you want to try and install linux, check this one out. it's real easy to use and has some very helpful forums, too: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

if you fear installing linux, try KNOPPIX. it's a full linux-system booting directly from CD ("live-cd", no installation).

both are free to download from the respective web-sites, and available via bittorent, too:

=> UBUNTU linux (bittorrent-link)

=> KNOPPIX (bittorrent-link)
=> GamesKnoppix (as it says: a knoppix full of games) (bittorrent-link)


edit:
just found GNOPPIX, a LiveCD which kind of combines Knoppix and Ubuntu (using the "other" big window manager, GNOME)

=> GNOPPIX (bittorrent-link)

oh, and here's some material for those who think of linux as ugly and uncool.

i found where to download the livecd on that site, where do i download the OS?

what do we use for cd and dvd burning in linux?

i have 4 computers in my house networked and the have MS XP, and i can get files from any of them......if i put linux on one will i be able to transfer say .shn files to and from it, or wont i be able to communicate with it if im on a computer with windoows as the os? thanks

do i need to download new drivers (ethernet, graphics) before i install the os?

Ok i came across this site....for people that want to switch over from windows, but have no idea if there is equivalent software to replace the things you use.....here ya go

http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-lin- ... able.shtml

cool, thanks. i may switch tonight

If you're talking about xfld, it's based on a live-cd-only distribution so it's not an OS you can install yourself. Check out Fedora or Mandrake (or countless others) if you want to install an OS. I particularly liked Fedora because instead of burning 4 cd's worth of ISOs, you could just burn a small 4mb file and then do a network install (where it downloads everything it needs for you and installs it). Only go this method if you have a fast connection though

Lots to choose from, I use k3b myself. That list someone else provided is pretty good, but it hasn't been updated for a year and a half unfortunately. freshmeat.net is definitely your best source for finding linux software.