Linux debabbled
As promised, I'm going to spend the next few Debabblog entries looking at some of the major developments spawned by the open source movement. One of the most famous of these developments is the open source operating system, Linux. Linux, like Microsoft Windows, is an operating system (or "OS", in geek-speak), a core program that provides the basic functionality of a computer and allows it to run other programs. Unlike Windows, Linux is modeled after an older operating system known as Unix, which was historically used in academic and research circles and on large-scale machines such as mainframes.Too make a long story short, historically speaking, conflicts between vendors and licensing issues caused bored graduate students and frustrated programmers to seek a Unix alternative. One such attempt ultimately resulted in Linux (named after one of its creators, Linus Torvalds, and a Unix-like program called Minix). In addition to its appeal as a Unix alternative, Linux was an open source offering, which greatly appealed to its fan base.
Why would you use Linux? Well, for most users, Linux isn't practical at this point as an operating system for your laptop or desktop PC. For better or worse, the Windows platform is still dominant among everyday users, and the vast majority of new software is written with Microsoft operating systems in mind. For servers, though, especially web servers, the story is very different, and many websites currently run on Linux-based systems. In addition to having a wide base of user support, Linux, like other open source alternatives, is extremely inexpensive and is very accessible to individual developers and startups. Most website hosting companies now support both Linux and Windows packages, allowing even users with little or no Linux experience to take advantage of open source alternatives.
