I Need To Know About Linux?
I am planning to switch to Linux, so I need to know about this a little before I totally switch over to it.
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asked 2 years ago
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Linux has a lot going for it. Large companies have started to take it seriously, and are supporting Linux as a pre-load option for their hardware, or have ported their applications to it.
But what is Linux, and why should you use it? The answers are very straightforward. There is little to no licensing requirements. Most distributions of Linux allow you to install from one CD-ROM to as many machines as you like at no additional cost. There is also no subscription or ongoing fees for your installation. There is a large support group for Linux, ranging from the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) to IRC chat rooms to USENET news groups. If you feel you need a company to blame and call when things go wrong, there are a variety of companies that offer commercial-grade support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Red Hat is one of those companies, and companies like VA Linux sell hardware, support, and other services.
Most companies that sell Linux make their money selling support or other services instead of selling the software itself.
In terms of OS features, Linux supports most of the major peripherals that you would see on PC hardware. USB, PCI, AGP, and PCMCIA peripherals have drivers built into the OS, and Red Hat will automatically detect when new devices are added to the system and have them configured for you. Linux coexists peacefully with other PC operating systems, and can read the other file systems, so you can easily read data from a Windows drive.
Linux also has superior networking capabilities, allowing you to communicate via Ethernet, modem, and wireless connections. You can talk to other UNIX machines, Windows machines, or Apple Macintosh boxes as either a server or a client, all at no additional cost.
Since Linux has a low cost and low overhead, you can easily combine the power of multiple machines together, making what appears to be one large machine. Of the top 100 of these clusters in the works, almost ninety percent are running Linux, and Linux accounts for some of the top 500 machines in the world.
But what is Linux, and why should you use it? The answers are very straightforward. There is little to no licensing requirements. Most distributions of Linux allow you to install from one CD-ROM to as many machines as you like at no additional cost. There is also no subscription or ongoing fees for your installation. There is a large support group for Linux, ranging from the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) to IRC chat rooms to USENET news groups. If you feel you need a company to blame and call when things go wrong, there are a variety of companies that offer commercial-grade support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Red Hat is one of those companies, and companies like VA Linux sell hardware, support, and other services.
Most companies that sell Linux make their money selling support or other services instead of selling the software itself.
In terms of OS features, Linux supports most of the major peripherals that you would see on PC hardware. USB, PCI, AGP, and PCMCIA peripherals have drivers built into the OS, and Red Hat will automatically detect when new devices are added to the system and have them configured for you. Linux coexists peacefully with other PC operating systems, and can read the other file systems, so you can easily read data from a Windows drive.
Linux also has superior networking capabilities, allowing you to communicate via Ethernet, modem, and wireless connections. You can talk to other UNIX machines, Windows machines, or Apple Macintosh boxes as either a server or a client, all at no additional cost.
Since Linux has a low cost and low overhead, you can easily combine the power of multiple machines together, making what appears to be one large machine. Of the top 100 of these clusters in the works, almost ninety percent are running Linux, and Linux accounts for some of the top 500 machines in the world.
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