Linux - A Brave Gnu World (The Alternative Desktop Solution)

By: Jonathan Brazil

Most people using a personal computer use the Windows operating system. Most people don't even know that there is an alternative. Well there is and it's completely free, extremely stable, and comes with nearly every application that you will ever want to use at home or in work for absolutely no cost whatsoever. Shocked? Then read on:

The IT sector has been dealing with Unix systems for years. Typically, these systems were large servers; not for home usage. In 1991 a hacker by the name of Linus Torvalds took a section of the Unix operating system and created his own operating system to be named after him, it was called Linux. For years this open source operating system was revered by hardcore techies and was never produced in a friendly enough state for Joe Soap to install and use. Over the last decade though, the open source community has added many new features, smart touches and valuable applications to the Linux platform.

Progress is fast and furious, unlike large corporations with a set number of developers working on a system, Linux had the support of every single person worldwide that wanted to contribute new material and fix existing problems. These days there are several different versions of Linux known as distributions that can be purchased. The price covers packaging, manuals and not much else but you can download the Linux system itself from the web for free, or copy a friends CD's without worrying about piracy laws because it is completely legal. My personal favourite distribution is SuSE (http://www.suse.com) which is currently on version 8.

Unlike the old days when installing Linux was a cumbersome task that required a good knowledge of the computer system, this latest distribution from SuSE takes no more setting up than a couple of clicks. The myth of horrifying setup screens has been abolished, don't let anyone tell you different! The upgrade, or installation from scratch on a new system, is a remarkably quick and easy process; simple enough for a beginner but with enough options and features for advanced users to avail of.

The success rate of installing Linux on a machine without additional setup is increasing by the day. I recently borrowed SuSE 8 CD's from a friend and installed it on my brand new machine. Within 25 minutes I was copying the SuSE CD's for myself with the operating system I had just installed. Even though I had seen the ease of Linux configuration evolve over the last few years, I was still shocked by this achievement. I had a minor problem getting my modem to work but searching the web for no more than 15 minutes on another machine yielded all the information and software I needed to get it working and connected to the Internet.
The new graphical environment is as friendly and intuitive as any Windows system I have ever used and the wealth of software that comes with the distribution is unbelievable. SuSE 8 comes with OpenOffice, which is fully compatible with Microsoft Office 2000 and has similar applications for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. While Linux may still not be the choice for everyone, more and more people are turning towards it for the power and flexibility it offers at a cost that cannot be beat. With the price of computer software escalating so much these days it's nice to see a system that offers you everything you need to work efficiently, on a single DVD. This latest version of SuSE costs roughly EUR100 for the most fully-featured version, a very reasonable price considering what you get for it.

The open source community as I refer to it is everyone in the world who writes software and modifies software for free. They are the true believers in helping to build more stable systems and realise that somebody else might be able to improve on what they have written, so they don't hide it for the sake of progress. There are literally thousands of open source projects in operation at the moment (www.sourceforge.net) that cover all types of software. Assistance is only an e-mail or newsgroup posting away. The people involved in these projects are very forthcoming with help and always willing to further the success of their projects by any means possible.

There is a drive by many people in this country to get Linux up and running. There is even a version of Linux in Irish (sea, as gaeilge mo chara), although I don't know how available it is. There have been a number of success stories in business for Linux (www.li.org/success) but not many across the big picture. The only thing that will really push Linux forward is when training institutes and schools answer the burning question of what is more important, Microsoft experience or computer experience? In the meantime check out Linux for yourself.