As you sit staring like a wide-eyed zombie onto your Windows computer screen, did it ever occur to you that there were better alternatives out there to the Windows monopoly on your set of eye-balls and the rest of the world's? Surely the thought must have crossed your mind each time you had to contend with the Blue Screen of Death (refer to pic above) after your PC or laptop got accidentally infected by a virus, trojan or some other form of malware. Or perhaps, you find yourself getting annoyed with getting constant reminders in your Inbox to renew that Norton or Symantec Anti-Virus subscription that costs more than a pretty penny? How about when you boot up your Windows machine at work, you get so used to it taking so long that it's your normal routine to go grab coffee and make some idle chit chat with co-workers to kill time before perching in front of your workstation?
Well, just so you know, there ARE better alternative OS's (operating systems) out there without the hassles mentioned above. Have you ever heard of the word Linux? Well, Linux, like Windows is an operating system. In case, you never wondered what an operating system was. It's the software that runs your hardware (be it your PC or laptop) and communicates with any new software that is installed on it or any devices that are attached to your hardware such as your mouse, printer, USB or removable hard drive. In fact, if you are reading this from an iPhone the OS is the iOS and if you are reading from a Samsung smartphone the OS is Android, which is based on the Linux
kernel. Linux, is an
open source form of the Unix operating system. If you've never heard of Unix before, it is an operating system that is primarily run on large servers in businesses to run heavy duty business applications such as Financial systems, CAD CAM systems, etc. Well, you can consider Linux to be the twenty something baby of the forty something Unix operating system. The point is Linux has matured past baby stage to agile adulthood to expertly handle all the things that Papa Unix OS has handled in the past and then some.
In fact, Linux servers run in over
60 percent of websites today and are quickly becoming the platform that top businesses today will come to rely on for current and future application hosting due to its reliability,
scalability, low cost and
portability. Although, Linux has made significant inroads in the business world, it still has not reached mainstream as far as personal use or business use on the desktop. However, I think that trend is about to change with the latest Distros (short for Distributions) on the Linux desktop.
Ubuntu is the #1 Distro for Linux Desktop users, followed by the very popular #2
Linux MInt flavor, which is the easier desktop for Windows users to transition to due to its Windows like
GUI.
Since November 2011, I have been using Ubuntu 12.04 on a 2003 Dell Inspirion laptop which runs dual boot with Windows 2003 and, more recently, Linux Mint 14 Xfce on a 2008 Toshiba Satellite laptop alongside Windows Vista which came pre-installed with the laptop as did the Windows 2003 OS on my old Dell. In my next post, I will tell you more about my experiences with both Linux Distros in detail and why I believe the Windows stranglehold can be broken to increase the adoption rate of both Linux Distros. You know what the REALLY cool thing is to using these Linux Distros? They are both FREE! Both sites offer various ways to download their OS for free. Check them out at:
www.ubuntu.com and
www.linuxmint.com. I will also be listing Linux Newbie Tips & Tricks for those who want to take the plunge and try something different than Windows or Apple. In addition, I will be posting tutorials of things I learn in Linux on Youtube.
Check out my Youtube Channel and subscribe to learn more Linux.
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