The idea of the Linux operating system was conceived by Linus Torvalds who started it in 1991. Linus took utilities, libraries and the open source principles used to create Linux from Richard Matthew Stallman, a freedom activist, hacker, software developer and the father of the GNU Project and manifesto. Linus also borrowed ideas and the name from “MINIX” (derived from “minimal Unix”), an open source, free, Unix-based operating system created by Andrew Tanenbaum to be used for educational purposes in 1987. To understand the Linux community, one needs to understand open source philosophy and the GNU General Public License.

In 1983, Stallman launched the GNU Project. This was a “free software mass collaboration project”, and initiated development of the GNU operating systems (GNU stands for “GNU’s Not Unix”). The goal was to “develop a sufficient body of software to get along without any software that was not free”, to paraphrase things. This dream became a reality in 1992 with the release of Torvald’s Linux kernel. From this also came one of Linux’s most powerful graphical interfaces, a window manager known as “GNOME”. The GNU General Public License operates under the “copyleft” principle, as opposed to “copyright”. Under this principle, users may use open source products and code to make money and develop their own projects, at tremendous savings. But they must then contribute improvements in development back to the community, allowing others the same opportunity.

Essentially, the license says, to quote a very famous person, “Freely you have received, now freely you must give”. (The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10, verse 8) In legal terms, it means that derived works must be made available to the community under the same “copyleft”. This gives programmers who contribute their knowledge, expertise and time to open source software and operating systems protection from having their works stolen and exploited by software companies who would not give anything back to the community. Considering the “cut-throat” nature of the technology industry, this protection is necessary. In both the hardware and software industries, competitors steal one another’s ideas and reverse engineer each other’s products on a regular basis. The industry has in so many ways been referred to as a collection of blood-thirsty “pirates”, who ironically, sue one another when having done to them what they have done to others.

If you haven’t seen it already, rent or find a copy of “The Pirates of Silicon Valley”. It does an excellent job at depicting the dishonesty and private ambitions that make no one truly “innocent” in this industry. Many times victory does not belong to the virtuous, but the ruthless. It makes a point for the necessity of the GNU Public License.

We use open source software and services every day. Wikipedia, which we are all so fond of, operates under a similar license, the GNU Free Documentation License, making knowledge freely available to all so we as a community can look up anything under the sun that we may desire. Search engines like Google utilize many open source components and tools. Even if you don’t use Linux as an operating system, you may be using applications, web services or device drivers that were developed under the GNU.

We must contrast Linux, which is open source, to closed-source products, such as Microsoft’s operating systems. Closed-source is the opposite of open-source. Whereas open source code is shared with the world, closed-source code is hidden and protected. Let’s look at some disadvantages and advantages of each philosophy:

Open Source advocates claim the advantages are, first of all, the price. It is free. They maintain that GNU products are more secure, since anyone can read the code within them and modify it to plug any security holes they don’t like. They also point out that GNU products are easy to modify and alter to fit an organization’s specific needs because the code is available. Open source advocates maintain that individuals and organizations can make excellent profits with open-source products, even though they make their developments public, by offering services and customizing GNU products to fit different organizations. In addition, entities can sell proprietary software they create along with open source software, decreasing costs and development time.

As an example, Red Hat offers high end server products and service contracts, but still maintains the requirements of the GNU by offering a free version of their OS, “Fedora 8”, which you can download as an ISO from their website. Another example is Carnival Cruises, which uses Linux and GNU products to maintain various systems on their cruise ships. This makes GNU products attractive to organizations that can save thousands on licensing fees and software expenses that would be incurred if they used closed-source products. It also makes the products much more customizable and tailored to the organization, as things are compiled and streamlined rather than a “one-size-fits-all” mentality. Even when so much is “free”, profits are being made in North America and all over the world. Brazil alone did over 4 billion dollars in open source development last year.

Closed source advocates maintain that there is a distinct security advantage. If source is open, any hacker can read through it and find weaknesses to exploit. If the source is closed, a hacker has a much more difficult time finding those weaknesses. Also, closed-source advocates maintain that the QOS (Quality of Service) is superior when project source is proprietary and protected. They state as reasons for this that closed-source projects are more in line with true capitalism and privatized business. As such, these projects generate greater revenue which can provide better service and enhance product quality. (There are those who take exception to this, and point out the large number of exploits and security vulnerabilities of closed-source products. In addition, they ask us to consider the large number of service packs, patches and updates that are released after projects are pushed prematurely out the door as software companies are under tremendous pressure to make sales and recover investment capital as quickly as possible).

While Linux has been a popular server operating system, it has become a popular client operating system in the last few years. Personally, I can’t get by with just one operating system. I usually keep multi-boot configurations of Linux, XP Pro, Vista and 2003 on my laptops and PCs. This tends to waste drive space, but drives are so large these days, one can afford to place a few extra operating systems on them.

Alternatively, one can run Linux as a virtual machine under a Windows operating system, but its performance advantages will be lost in doing so. Programs for this are free and available as VMWare (my preference) or VirtualPC 2007/2004.  It is also important to note that you can run Windows operating systems from within Linux. I run VMWare on Linux Ubuntu and utilize a virtual XP machine so my son and daughter can play DirectX video games. It works both ways.

From a personal perspective, there are some really nice things I can do with Microsoft. However, I also love the free tools I get with Linux Fedora and Linux Ubuntu (debian). I have used Linux daemons as web servers, DHCP servers, DNS servers, NIS authentication servers, proxy servers, mail servers, FTP servers, remote desktop and application servers, firewalls, routers or any combination of these services. As a networking Swiss army knife, Linux works great!

As versatile as it is in the server arena, Linux is also equally effective as a client and workstation solution. Folks find it useful for the incredible amount of free software it offers. Security and hacking tools for ping sweeps and port scans, star positioning tools for amateur astronomy, music composition software, video editing and DVD-burning, viewing DIVX, AVI and MPEG encoded movies and real video, playing MP3s and ripping CDs, graphic editing and manipulation, compiling and development tools in C++ and Java, and Open Office which reads and writes MS Office 2007 documents. I can watch satellite and record my shows with free DVR software. I can run virtual XP and 2003 machines under a free VMWare while using Linux. Linux and its GNU software are 100% free, and they do just about everything one could desire if you have a little patience to cross over the learning curve!

If you haven’t tried Linux lately, give it a shot. It has grown in its capabilities by leaps and bounds. On both Fedora and Ubuntu, you can repartition your drive and create a multi-boot with GRUB or LILO, or you may run the OS with limited functionality off the “Live CD”, without making any changes to your file system. You may download ISOs of the OS free of charge under the GNU from Fedora and Ubuntu’s websites, as well as many others. There are many more flavors of Linux out there to try - and sometimes, the best things in life ARE free.

You may download the latest versions of Fedora and Ubuntu for free from:

1. www.ubuntu.com
2. www.fedora.org 
 

©2008 C. Germany