What is Linux?

Linux has become something of a buzzword recently, people say it's a threat to Microsoft, a free solution for small businesses, the biggest breakthrough since Java. But it's still a relatively small movement, and not too many people know what it is.

Linux is a free varient of the Unix Operating System. Operating systems are controllers for your computer, like Windows 98, or Mac OS 8.5. Unix has been around for over 20 years, and it's backed by industry powerhouses such as Sun and IBM. Unix is very stable, it will never crash on you, and it is used on 90% of internet servers. It is also used extensively in business networks because it can interact with Windows, and it's more stable and powerful than Windows NT.

Linux is a new kind of Unix, developed originally by Linus Torvalds around 1991. It is Open-Source, meaning that anyone is free to alter it, make it better, and distribute the new version they've created, as long as it's still free with the source code. That's what makes Linux so powerful, it was developed by thousands of programmers independantly, and when there is a problem with Linux, thousands of people are there to fix it.

To illustrate how this works, let's say a California company comes out with a new CD-ROM drive for Windows. A Canadian Linux user buys one, and then finds out it doesn't work for Linux. He can research the product, and program a driver for it. He puts this driver on the internet, and within hours anyone anywhere can use that CD-ROM drive with Linux. This also works with bugs - The notorious 'Ping of Death' bug was fixed by Linux programmers and the patch was available on the internet two hours after the first attack on a Linux server by the bug.

Businesses also like Linux, becuase like many other flavors of Unix, it can run on an old 386 processer from the 80's. Small companies enjoy not having to upgrade old computers to use the free Linux.

Unfortunately, there is an inherent drawback in the concept of Linux. When independant programmers develop Linux, they develop it to work for themselves, not for others, so it isn't as user-friendly as some commercial Operating Systems, such as Windows 98. So Linux is not for your average personal computer user. But if you're willing to put the effort into getting Linux to work, it is simply the most powerful OS as a server, or a personal computer.

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