by Obiora Embry

Created on: May 22, 2009

In 1954, Gene Amdahl created the first operating system (OS), which has been defined by SearchWin2000.com as "the program that after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program manages all the other programs in a computer." About 30 years later, 2 operating systems were released that dominated the market-with their market share now dwindling. However, there was one in particular, that used (and still uses today) practices that many companies and people thought were (and are) unfair and unethical, this company was Microsoft, developer of the Windows operating system; the other was Macintosh.

Users began to develop alternative OSes that were stable, robust, FREE, and secure because they were frustrated and tired of the limitations, lack of quality, and security of the Windows OS, and the high prices associated with the Mac and Windows OSes. This led to a revolution in computing that resulted in users creating alternative operating systems. One such alternative operating system-100+ are currently in development or already exist-was Linux, which has been touted as being a rival to the Windows OS.

Linux started as a hobby in 1991 by Linus Benedict Torvalds who wanted to create a free operating system. In the beginning, Linux had a small, but faithful following dating back to its earliest versions through nic.funet.fi and e-mail correspondences by Linus. With version 0.12, the Linux OS was brought under the GNU project-"launched in 1984 to provide a complete Unix-like operating system"-and licensed under its General Public License (Gnu GPL). The Gnu GPL makes Linux free for anyone to copy, study, and change. This license also means that there is no "owner," which means that vendors and developers can create their own version that be released to the general public or tailored for certain users. Most Linux distributions can be downloaded freely from the Internet, purchased on-line or in stores as not all distributions are free. Some of the most popular distributions include Red Hat (now Fedora), Linux-Mandrake (now Mandriva), Debian, Kubuntu, and Ubuntu.

As this is the case, you will have no problem finding the perfect one to suit your needs or desires. If you have trouble deciding which one is for you, you can test drive your new OS using a Linux Live CD/DVD/USB Flash Key, if one is available. A Linux Live CD et al contains a complete OS that can be used for desktop publishing, word processing, browsing the web (if you have an available Internet connection), and/or programming. More specialized Live CDs exist for those interested in medicine, bioinformatics, security, clustering, networking, education, gaming, forensics, GIS, CAD, and multimedia creation. Linux Live CDs et al can be downloaded freely from http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php.

Linux can be installed on your state of the art IBM (386, 486(DX), 586, 686, or Pentium class) or Macintosh compatible computer or laptop; iPhone; or supercomputer without removing your current operating system(s). It is capable of installing itself so that you can have multiple operating systems on the same hard drive and you can choose which OS to boot upon starting or restarting. Once installed, Linux can be tailored to your liking (thanks to the Gnu GPL license). To learn more about the Linux operating system, visit http://www.linux.org/ or http://www.li.org/linuxhistory.php.

After reading this brief introduction to the Linux OS, you should exercise your freedom of choice and pass your (newfound) knowledge onto your family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors, so they can benefit from a permanent or temporary break from their current operating system.

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