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What Is Linux?
Date: 22 Jan 2010 / Author: SeanParsons / Views: 3038 / Comments: 3
I recently had the opportunity to accidentally switch a very lovely couple to Linux. Before I explain this unintentional OS conversion, I should give
you a little background information.
I currently work at a very nice non-profit post-secondary school teaching pharmacy classes. I'm kind of a
geek, and therefore function as our department's unofficial tech support both around the office and on staffs' home equipment. Enter Grace, not the
kind we receive from the Lord, but the name of my co-worker whom teaches electronic health records courses.
One day while drinking coffee and
eating an apple (yes, I do conform to those types of cliches as a professor) Grace and I are chatting and she mentions how much time, effort,
and money her husband has spent trying to fix their nine month old PC. Apparently their telco and an unnamed squad they took it to both suspected it
might be a hardware problem, so they had purchased and installed a new ethernet card to no avail. A friend of the husband thought it might be a
failing mother board, and Grace thought it might be something as simple as a problem with their modem.
My better three-quarters was working
late that day, so I offered to come over and check it out after classes, not that I had an excessive amount of equipment on me to diagnose and fix the
problem. I went over to their home, did the idiot check that everything was connected correctly, and it was. Next, I rebooted their modem and watched
all the pretty green lights come on in the proper sequence. So far so good. Next, I turned on their PC and was greeted by MS Vista as it booted up. I
don't believe my 'gasp' was audible, but I realized it had been months since I had seen a computer running Vista.
Everything appeared to
come up correctly, but when I launched IE I got a generic message that said something like "Host not available, blah, blah, blah...". I went to the
command line and found I could see the modem, but could not ping any servers. Next, I thought about using Vista's system restore, but apparently
Grace's husband had already tried using the system restore and was unable to fix his PC that way. I decided to hook up my laptop and found I had no
problem getting on line.
I decided to make sure it wasn't some flaky hardware problem on their PC since we knew for certain that it wasn't
their modem or their telco's fault. I did have a copy of Ubuntu 9.10 on me and tossed that in and rebooted. Everything was correctly identified and
booted up with no problems, next I launched Firefox and was able to easily navigate the web. Grace and her husband were clearly amazed when they saw
me running an entire operating system from the CD drive, and that I was able to surf the web. He started asking me questions about Ubuntu and Linux
and I was just giving some quick generic answers about how it's an operating system like Windows Vista or Apple OS X.
Now that I had confirmed
that the hardware was working well, I suggested that it was either a virus or some other software problem. There was a concern about how they could
get a virus when they have their anti-virus software up to date, and I gave another quick explanation about how often a problem is discovered before
anti-virus software can offer a preventative, that its just a nature of the beast. I also threw in a simple statement about how much more common
viruses are for Windows because of market share and general security of system designs with respect to different operating systems.
The
question became what to do next. Well I admit to not knowing Windows that well as I haven't ran it on anything of mine in nearly a decade. That even
includes my wife's and my daughter's computers. I suggested copying his bookmarks in IE and grabbing the photos they really want to keep off their
hard drive as that's really all they had on there in the way of personal data. Then they can either use their 'recovery disc' or take it back to
the unnamed squad now that they know a little more about what's wrong with it. Or since they only use it for a few websites, checking email, and
writing the occasional document they could use Linux. I left them with the disc to mull over their options as I needed to leave to meet up with my
lovely wife for dinner.
A couple of days later Grace mentioned they were still running Ubuntu off the CD and that they had some more question
about what was Linux as they were leaning towards just installing that, especially since they couldn't find a recovery disc. She mentioned this while
we were passing in the halls and I thought I should email her some sort of really smart sounding explanation that would convince her of the many
virtues of Linux and make her wonder why she hadn't switched sooner.
First I looked at an old article I had written about six years ago that
started off:
"Now instead of taking the usual route of expounding that Linux is nothing more than a kernel which is a part of
the greater whole of GNU/Linux/X, I would rather define what Linux is to me - personally.
Linux is a social setting in which all individuals
have a voice and have the potential of being equal. It is an opportunity to learn socialism on a philosophical level (which is probably where
socialism belongs). There is a guaranteed equality that exists in few other things....."
I looked at that article and realized
it would mean absolutely nothing to someone completely unfamiliar with Linux.
Next, I looked at a couple of websites that I might be able to
either quote or refer her to:
Linux On line
"Linux is a free Unix-type operating
system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License , the
source code for Linux
is freely available to everyone...."
HowStuffWorks
"Every desktop computer uses an operating system.
The most popular operating systems in use today are Windows, Mac OS, and UNIX
Linux is an operating system -- very much like UNIX -- that has
become very popular over the last several years...."
SearchEntrpriseLinux.com
"Linux
(often pronounced LIH-nuhks with a short "i") is a Unix-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very
low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive Unix systems...."
Introduction to Linux
"In order to understand the popularity
of Linux, we need to travel back in time, about 30 years ago...."
Linux Journal
"Linux, also known as GNU/Linux, is a free,
UNIX-like operating system, developed originally for home PCs, but which now runs on practically every hardware platform available including PowerPC,
Macintosh, DEC Alpha, Sun Sparc, ARM, Mainframes, and many others. Linux aims for POSIX compliancy...."
Wikipedia
"Linux (commonly pronounced /ˈlɪnʌks/, LI-nuks in
English, also pronounced /ˈlɪnʊks/, LI-nooks) is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux
kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source
code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU
GPL...."
Nothing was really looking appropriate for my target audience, a middle aged professor and a retired police officer.
So this is the beginning of my quest to answer the following question:
What Is Linux?
Rickford Grant wrote in Linux for Non-Geeks that:
"Your computer, despite being a
collection of highly sophisticated parts, is really just...well, a collection of highly sophisticated parts. On its own it can do nothing more than
switch on and off and spin a disk or two."
For a computer to accomplish anything of actual value it needs an operating system
(OS). An OS is the main program that let's your computer perform the tasks you want it to do, be it surfing the web, writing a paper, or watching a
video. It allocates the necessary resources for these various applications. Common examples of OS's are MS Windows 7, Apple's OS X, and Ubuntu
Linux.
Most people have heard of, seen, and maybe even used the first two, but the latter is completely foreign to them. Just like most people
find Windows 7 and OS X fairly intuitive to use despite looking somewhat different from each other, the same can be said about Ubuntu
Linux.
MS Windows 7
Apple OS X
Ubuntu Linux
Now, it is probably worth mentioning that there are a few different versions of each of these, like Windows 7 comes in
Home Edition, Media Center Edition, etc.; OS X you can get Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, etc.; well with Linux let's say there are a lot of versions
(actually hundreds of versions).
Unlike Microsoft which owns Windows 7, or Apple which owns OS X, no one actually owns Linux. It's released
under a license that allows people to do anything they want to it as long as those changes are made available to others. So many companies, and even
individuals, have made their own versions deciding that different default applications, and uses for these operating systems exist allowing for some
of these versions, called distributions, to become highly specialized.
Let's look at the most popular Linux distributions (popularity was
determined by Distro Watch, and brief descriptions of each distribution also comes from Distro Watch)
Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The
Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should
be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their
software in whatever way they see fit. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the
spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.
The Fedora Project is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a
meritocracy, following a set of project objectives. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general
purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based
releases of Fedora about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building
Fedora and will invite and encourage more outside participation than in past releases. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an
operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community.
Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based
distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback,
Java and other components. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation
interface. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories.
The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere,
this program provides free, easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux distribution. The openSUSE project has three main goals: make openSUSE the
easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most
usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging
processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors.
Mandriva Linux was launched in 1998 under the name of Mandrake
Linux, with the goal of making Linux easier to use for everyone. At that time, Linux was already well-known as a powerful and stable operating system
that demanded strong technical knowledge and extensive use of the command line; MandrakeSoft saw this as an opportunity to integrate the best
graphical desktop environments and contribute its own graphical configuration utilities to quickly become famous for setting the standard in Linux
ease of use. In February 2005, MandrakeSoft merged with Brazil's Conectiva to form Mandriva S.A., with headquarters in Paris, France. The company's
flagship product, Mandriva Linux, offers all the power and stability of Linux to both individuals and professional users in an easy-to-use and
pleasant environment.
Various Linux fans will explain why they like the distribution they use better than other distributions, but Ubuntu is
definitely the most popular right now.
As a result of the licenses involved, most distributions are made available for free and make money
through services and support contracts that other companies and individuals may choose to purchase. Most individual users decide they do not need
these contracts as there is a lot of free help available on line.
Software is probably not a major issue for many users as their needs are
pretty basic, but it is worth mentioning that not all the applications available to Windows or OS X are available to Linux, but other applications
that offer the same or similar functionality are often available. Grace and her husband definitely fall under the category of very basic
needs.
Web Browsing
Instead of using Internet Explorer, one could use Firefox or Konqueror.
Watching On line
Videos
Adobe Flash is available for Linux, and other videos that aren't Flash based but are embedded in web pages will still play due to
an mplayer plugin.
Productivity
Instead of MS Office for spreadsheets, documents, and presentations, OpenOffice.org offers a good
option for those along with compatibility for the files made in MS Office.
Multimedia
Instead of Windows Mediaplayer and iTunes,
Linux users could use Totem and Rhythmbox.
There are plenty of other options as well which can be found at http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html in order to help new Linux users
transition over from another OS comfortably.
I've written a lot of information concerning Linux in this article, but I have yet to provide a
persuasive argument for people to switch. I could discuss lower cost than competing OS's, better security, easier application installation and easier
system upgrades, the freedom inherent in the licensing model used for Linux, or just the shear coolness of Linux; but the last person I knew that made
the switch only needed a virus and a live installable disc to make that decision on their own. After all, by the time I had compiled this information,
Grace and her husband had already made the switch.
RSS feed for comments on What Is Linux?
Comments: 3
1. naisasd | 17 Feb 2010 - 12:06
muy buen programaa
2.
| 25 Mar 2010 - 14:14
Debian Gnu/Linux
--
One of the oldest linux distribution, the base for most of the others
--
ArchLinux
--
Latest software versions, prefered by advanced linux users.
3.
| 25 Mar 2010 - 14:16
PS: Windows and Mac only dream to become stable as Debian some day... I don't think that they will have succes.