Why Linux?

Before you read this, keep in mind that the first time I saw two computers talking to one another, it was with a Commodore 64 and a 1200 baud modem- and I was hooked.

Why Linux?

It all started with wanting to know more about telneting into a Unix box so that I could read my undergrad email. I was introduced to command line applications like pico(email), tin(newsgroups), irc(relay chat) and lynx(http) when people were dialing up with 9600 baud modems and trying to explore the information super-highway (Yes, that's what it was called. I have proof, somewhere) with clients like Gopher and Archie. Then came Netscape on a 486 or Mosaic on a Mac, and a while later for me, IE (welcome to Win95, it might multitask).

Eventually for $10 CDN, you could buy a 1.44" disk bundle from the help desk at my university that came with Kermit, Netscape(1.0 Gold Edition) and a win-sock patch for Windows 3.1-3.11.

Wow, progress.

So I surfed low speed into the free modem pool from home, and got along fine with the black and lime interface.

All the while spending hours in an useless Win3.1 GUI that barely dialed-up. Writing papers and listing to music playing from a 2x CD-ROM which was absolutely killing Win 3.1. My friends, and a DOS 6.22 FAQ, taught me some command line commands, and I started to write my papers and spin the cd player from the command prompt in DOS. That didn't always work out, but it had it's advantages.

Then came the dark age of win95. Look ma, it can do two things at once, and then crash.

That led to a discussion with an MIS / IT guy at work who told me about Linux. Specifically RedHat Linux 5.2 (The blue box).

The discussion went something like this:

You really don't need a Pentium 90 with 32 M of ram. Take that 486 with 16M of ram and turn it into a crash proof machine that never has to be rebooted, is virus proof, more secure from attack, and will by definition force you to learn more about computers that you ever wished.

He was right, and it just looked so intriguing.

The GUI was clean and fresh, I couldn't believe that it came with all this free software - servers, editors, word processors, language compilers, sound tools, image manipulation, and internet applications. The command line was strangely familiar from my DOS dabbling, but it seemed to hold more power.

Now all I had to do was get over the 3 hour hurdle of installing it. Apparently the MIS / IT guy never installed a copy, and was just learning - oh well.

Since then, I've used various Linux flavours: RedHat 5.2, Mandrake 7.0 to 8.0, and as of the last few years, Slackware (7.2 to 12.1 and beyond). Linux was also a clear choice as a platform to really learn to code (c/c++, java, perl and bash), play with web servers, develop networking skills, and understand administrative tasks.

Linux is still not the perfect desktop environment for all users. But it comes close.

The Slackware distribution:

• Is relatively security patch free(in comparison to other distributions)

• It has a certain rawness that I crave

• It will run nicely on a new box, but it still does wonders on an old 486.

• It is free.

• The source is open.

• All the applications are free.

• It supports older hardware very nicely.

• Runs perfectly on new hardware.

• It is incredibly stable and secure

If you're interested, try a LiveCD distribution like Ubuntu / Kubuntu or Knoppix. These all have very good hardware detection, and will run wonderfully on any laptop or desktop from the past 5-6 years. They look good (eye-candy) and are loaded with a lot of free software.

If your computer has 512MB of ram or less, I would recommend PuppyLinux or DSL Linux.

Ubuntu / Kubuntu, Knoppix, Puppy and DSL all run in your computers RAM, and will not effect the machine at all, a reboot is all you need to end your experimentation.

You try now.

A footnote: Since this was written (a long, long time ago), a few things happened:

1. The internet is served on Linux.

2. Smartphones run the Google Android OS or Mac iOS.

3. Tablets, Mac computers and Chromebooks run some form of Linux (Mac OS, Chrome OS). The Linux desktop lives on, but in other forms.