In one of my first posts, I ranted about how Windows is buggy, unstable, and hard to maintain. There has to be something better out there for those of us who don’t have Apple hardware and yearn to be free from expensive proprietary software and operating systems.
A solution exists. It’s called Linux. Yes, it’s derived from the Unix operating system, and that legacy is still there for you to play with, if you want. But most people today would be horrified by the terse (albeit powerful) Unix command set and the tools used with it back in the bad old days. DOS copied many of the commands and structures, and most people don’t realize that the present Apple operating system has deep roots in a Unix derivative.
Linux gets its name from Linus Torvalds, who as a college student, wrote a non-commercial alternative of a Unix derivative. Since then, it’s become an Open Source world wide phenomena with programmers from all over the world contributing toward its future.
It is constantly updated and renewed, becoming more powerful, stable, and easier to use. It’s broken out of the nerd elite and they’re coming after you, the average user by making the experience more like that of Windows, without all the bugs, high prices, and frustrations.
Have old hardware that can’t run the latest software? How about a new operating system that’s only 50MB and runs completely in RAM on an old machine without much memory? Or one that can boot and run from a USB stick or a CD without altering the machine it’s running on? Or one that can be run or installed from within Windows, or booted as a choice alongside Windows, if you can’t yet bear to do completely without Microsoft. Or, gasp, can run Windows from within Linux simultaneously. How about more bells, whistles, and eye candy than Windows could ever dream of. Something more “Mac like”, perhaps. Stable as a rock and just keeps working. How about something which can live along side Windows, read and write its files, and can rescue those files when Windows crashes, all without having to be installed itself.
Want choice? That super small efficient version that flies on old hardware, or a version which takes advantage of all the CPU cores, memory, and fancy video hardware, packed with a huge suite of applications ready to run? Linux is all about choice. Small/efficient like DSL (Damn Small Linux) or cute as a Puppy (Linux). Commercial support on big servers or across the Enterprise (Red Hat). Or a refuge for the average Windows user on recent hardware (Ubuntu). Choose your size and look and feel, all with a familiar core that constantly improves and scales up and down to all the variants. Try it with no obligation by just booting from CD. Try one, try another. Freedom that’s free.
You won’t miss defragging (you won’t be fragmenting), worrying about viruses and spyware (they can’t get a foothold), fixing broken registries (there isn’t one), and keeping up with updates (you’ll be notified and the operating system and applications can be updated together easily at one time, most of the time, without rebooting). Many of the applications are also trying to win you over also. Substitutable for and compatible with Microsoft Office applications, and substitutes for or better than substitutes for other common expensive software applications. For free!
OK, it’s still a bit techy, and sometimes you still have to roll up your sleeves and get under the hood a bit on some of the more challenging applications, but it beats keeping buggy Windows stuff going that you paid good money for.
More along the way.
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