The purpose of this page is to introduce GNU/Linux to those who have heard about it but have never really checked it out.
Linux is a very powerful 64 bit operating system (It is also available as a 32 bit OS for those with systems powered by chips such as the the older intel and AMD CPUs). By this I mean that it does for your computer what any other operating system does. It acts as a go-between for your programs so they can use the hardware in your computer or other device.
The core of Linux, usually called vmlinuz, is quite small at just under two megabytes! BUT, as with any operating system you get not only the operating system in your package, you get a lot of utilities. These utilities help your system do the things you want it to do. Indeed, almost every OS these days comes either bundled with or integrated with a windowing system. Windows XP and Vista have their OS so heavily integrated that they are inseparable. Linux (a UNIX like OS) and Mac OSX (a version of UNIX) and above come with an impressive set of utilities including the X-Windows server(the program Microsoft's windows was originally modelled on).
The advantages of having the windowing system run by a server include the ability to "serve" the windows to many clients. This means that you can easily have your OS running on one machine and have several others running a desktop without the need for anything more than a bootstrap loader which can be on a chip or a thumb drive. Indeed you can set Linux up on a simple $4 1GB USB stick and run it from there if you like. With a 4GB memory stick you could carry your entire operating system including X-Windows and all your favourite programs with space for your saved data in your pocket. This has many advantages since most newer systems can boot from a USB memory stick.
Now, if you think I believe that Linux is a superior operating system to Windows, you are right.
If you think I am trying to convince you to switch to Linux, you are wrong!
If all you want to do with your computer is play games and do a bit of word processing, then one operating system is as good as another. Why even an old $80 Pentium 4 can do that for you. Just go for the OS with the games you want (Linux comes with heaps of games and will run many windows games either with a native loader - Quake and Doom series etc- or under Scummvm -older sierra games - or even under wine - many MSwindows games and other programs).
But if you want to really do some work on your system, why not use the powerful and FREE alternative?
Lets look at the systems briefly from a buyer's point of view.
SystemBase Cost(AU$)Shell($) Office Package Minimum Recommended System Min Recommended RAM | LinuxFreeFree(X-Windows) Free(Star Office) P111 256 Mb | >WinXPN/A~$360 (Win XP) ~$500(MS OfficeXP) Pentium III 666 256 Mb | VistaN/A~$360 ~$500(MS Office Vista) 2.0GHz Pentium 4 2 Gb |
To set up such systems we must consider that a basic P 4 with 512 MB RAM and 40 Gigabyte Hard Drive in SuperVGA with a CDROM and 16 bit sound card can be purchased second hand for around $80,whereas a 2.0 GHz pentium 4 with 2.0 GB RAM and all else the same runs out at about $200. A P 3 933 with 512Mb RAM under Linux is about the same speed as a 2.0 GHz P4 under Vista.
Of course this only represents the basic cost. With the various flavours of Windows you can purchase thousands of programs to help you do your work more efficiently. These vary in price from a few dollars to thousands of dollars each. The latest version of Autocad is probably the most expensive I have knowledge of.
With Linux you can also get thousands of programs. Most UNIX programs have been ported to Linux and the good news is that the greater majority are free.
There is also a growing commercial and shareware market. Amongst the hundreds of commercial programs available for linux, you may be familiar with such household names as WordPerfect Adobe and Novell. (Note: Novell now produce their own Linux Distribution called Novell SuSE Linux which has a basic desktop similar to Vista.
Linux is designed from the ground up as a multiuser operating system, so it comes with a great deal of built in security. You only let the users see and use what they need. Every user has a user ID and a group ID as well as a password. So if you have other people using your machine unsupervised they can mess around with the interface as much as they like, but it only messes up their interface. It has no effect on yours! A boon if you have a family of budding hackers with a devious sense of humour!
If I have piqued your interest and you would like to try linux out, I'd recommend you pick up the new Ubuntu disk - it runs straight from your CD and does not interfere with your OS on the HDD. If you are confident with computers and either know a little about UNIX or are willing to learn then the SUSE, Mandrake, Red Hat, Debian and Slackware versions are also available and the best news is that they will cost you only around $10 to $20 for a magazine (such as APC) with Linux on the cover DVD or if you know someone with a Linux CD or DVD you can legally copy it or install from their copy. All releases come on CD or DVD. If you have a good internet connection you can even legally download Linux from any one of a number of Mirror Sites but be warned the iso packages are not small (usually 600MB or so)! If you are paying by the hour for the internet and don't have a very fast connection it could be cheaper to buy the CDs. With the CDs you also get a large number of other programs - thousands in fact. The Slackware sets are 4 and 6 CDs depending upon the release you get.
Also, don't forget that there is plenty of help available from other users and a users group called SLUG. It costs nothing to join the email list (full membership of SLUG is only $25 p.a. but is optional) and has meetings on the last friday night of the month at Atlassian, 185 Sussex Street, Sydney, 2000 next to Darling Harbour. For more specific information, check out the SLUG Web Site or check out the email discussion group by subscribing (it's free!).
Hope you found this page useful.
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