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Like Windows and Mac OS, Linux is an operating system – the collection of software that does virtually everything on a computer. Most people are only familiar with one operating system – Windows – although a lot of people have used a couple of different versions of it.

There are many different operating systems in use around the world today, but most of them are used for specialised applications. The most common ones in general use are Windows and Unix. Windows runs on most desktop computers, but the majority of internet servers run some type of Unix.

Unix is an older operating system than Windows – and it was much better designed. For a start, Unix was designed with security in mind from the outset – Windows wasn’t.

Putting it simply, Linux is a version of Unix. Mac OSX is also a version of Unix. The server that this web page is stored on is running a version of Unix called FreeBSD.

Whereas Unix was created as a commercial product, Linux was created to be available for free. It has been written by a loose team of hundreds of programmers, all around the world, working together via the internet. Some of them are employed by large companies to write and improve Linux – and their work is given away to anyone who wants it. IBM, one of the biggest computer manufacturers in the world, is an example of a company that writes software and gives it away for nothing.

Such a concept may seem bizarre, but it actually makes very good commercial sense – if it didn’t, they wouldn’t be doing it. One of the benefits of taking this approach to producing software is that you only have to do part of the work yourself – most of it is done by other people. So for a small amount of input, you have access to a powerful operating system which it wouldn’t be viable to create from scratch yourself.

Another major benefit is that because Linux is free, lots of people use it and test it – reporting bugs and, sometimes, fixing them themselves.

Until recently, Linux wasn’t very popular with desktop computer users – who almost all use Windows. However, it is gradually creeping onto corporate desktops around the world. One notable field where Linux runs on almost all desktops is the Hollywood movie industry.

But perhaps the most revolutionary introduction of Linux into the lives of ordinary people has come with the recent widespread popularity of a new breed of sub-notebooks. The first one to capture public imagination was the Asus Eee Pc. And there seems to be a new, cheaper sub-notebook coming onto the market almost every month. This month a British company, Elonex, is due to release its version – called the “One”. It will cost about a hundred pounds.

All these small, cheap computers are fully functional and usable. And they all come with Linux.

There are two reasons for that – firstly, Linux is free. If the computer is only going to cost £100, adding the cost of a Windows licence to that could raise the price by as much as 50%! The other reason is that, in order to be so small and cheap, these computers are built with fairly low-powered hardware and not much memory, and Windows won’t run very well on it (Vista won’t run at all!) But Linux runs perfectly.

I’ve been running Linux on my personal laptops and desktop computers since 1995 – and I wouldn’t change to Windows if you paid me. But it’s not necessarily the best thing for everyone. You need to know what you’re doing to run a Linux computer with no problems. But then if you don’t know what you’re doing, running Windows can turn in to a nightmare very quickly too.

Maldon IT specialises in Linux installation and support. If you want to know more, please contact us.

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