Linux
What the hell is Linux?
Windows?
Linux is an operating system; just like Microsoft Windows or Unix, etc. So, you wonder what's the purpose of Linux while there is Windows that everyone already has and understands. However, you should remember what Windows really provides you:
- viruses attacking MS email-clients once a week crowding your mailbox and doing nonsense
- crashes without any cause, forcing you to reboot
- reinstallations of Windows half a year later, when it becomes too slow
- shutdowns that are not shutdowns since the PC is still on
- hard resets that cause scandisk to run at boot time
- unpredictable behavior
- reboots after adjusting settings
- force to update: Internet Explorer 7 will not run on current Windows versionsor Internet Explorer 6 cannot be installed on Windows 95.
- an unattractive interface: boring in older versions and ugly in Windows XP
- ... to be continued;)
If you share these experiences and you are willing to learn a new operating system, Linux is your choice. But what is Linux exactly?
Linux!
Linux is a free and open operating system that has been developed by a lot of people. The first one was Linus Torvalds, who created his Unix in 1991 due to the lack of alternatives. After some work, he published the source code and the more time passed, the more people improved Linux. You have to keep in mind that Linux itself is only the basic piece of software - this is the case for each other operating system as well. There were already some free tools available (the GNU tools) and Linus made the operating system for them. The name "Linux" does not include the desktop environment and the programs that run. Today, "Linux" is used as a kind of collective name for Open-Source software
First Contact
My first contact with Linux was an article in c't [de], a German computer magazine. It was about boot processes of different operating system on one harddisk. The article told that Windows regards harddisk partitions in several ways that depend on the order, on the number of harddisks and on the kind. Thus, it can happen that you create a new partition and then Windows is broken since the letters (e.g. C: & D:) have changed. Linux gives each partition its own name that is unique for the whole system, no matter how many harddisks you have and how often you create new partitions. I realized that this was smart and I have never seen anything smart like that in Windows. So I became curious and read all the subsequent articles concerning Linux. After I had bought my first PC in January of 2000 I worked for some time with Windows 98 SE for a school project. But at that time I really got sick of Windows because of its unreliability.
