… a networking operating system build from the outset to be secure, robust and reliable. Linux runs on the top supercomputers, digital TVs, satnavs, smartphones, Internet severs and NASA’s helicopter on Mars.
Apart from the fact that Linux did not crash, I was struck in 2000 by three things:
- after I accidently shut Linux down while printing something out, when I next booted into Linux it immediately began printing the half-printed document
- I could choose whether to use the command line interface (CLI) or the graphical user interface (GUI) for something; after years of automating things using the CP/M+ command line, this was really comforting
- the graphical user interface was cleaner and easier to use than the Windows 98 interface.
At this stage I was using a mixture of free and open source software and commercial software and it was not until I bought a laptop that could cope with the OpenOffice suite that I began exclusively to use free and open source software.
Linux differs from a number of other operating systems in several ways:
- ‘Linux’ refers strictly speaking only to the kernel which consists of a very small core and thousands of modules; the kernels in a digital TV, a PC and a supercomputer differ in the modules which are included with the core or available for the core to use
- on most computers, the GNU utilities are supplied to handle the day to day running of the computer; you can use just these or you can use
- the graphical user interface, such as Enlightenment, GNOME, KDE or Xfce, which both provides an alternative to the command line inteface and gives you a choice: something like KDE which allows you to customise everything or something like Xfce which never overwhelms you with choices
- security is built into the system; the kernel, the GNU utilities and the programs everyone can use are separated from a user's data and programs and protected by a ‘root’ password so that an individual user, or an attacker from outside, cannot disrupt the system; each user's data and programs are separated from those of other users and only accessible to them, to ‘root’ and to users to whom they give access
- a user's personal preferences and settings are stored with their data and programs; this means that many users can use the same program without another user's preferences or settings interfering with how they prefer to use the program
- the software needed for a personal computer normally comes in a ‘distribution,’ that is, a collection of packages including the kernel, the GNU utilities and all the software you are likely to need, already packaged in one of the two main formats,
.debor.rpm - you can obtain additional packages or update the packages you have by connecting via the Internet to a group of ‘repositories’ containing lots of up-to-date software already packaged for your distribution
- you can get security updates via the Internet ensuring that, if a security hole is discovered in any of the software, it will be fixed often within 48 hours
- if you do not have Internet access, some distributions will sell you a DVD (the charge is to cover the costs of preparing the DVD and sometimes providing a handbook) with the software you are most likely to need.
Security on Linux is most frequently compromised by user error or by security holes in software used to access the Internet. If a security hole is found in a key Linux component, it is normally fixed before most people are aware that it existed.
The Android operating system used on mobile ’phones and tablets has a Linux kernel and Java, rather than GNU, utilities.
I use Linux and its associated free and open source software for the same reasons as I used commercial software in the 1980s; it enables me to do things easily and to a high standard, it helps me to organise things the way I want and it doesn't waste my time.