[LUGSB] What makes Linux great?

[Michael Graffam]

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, Sean Callanan wrote:

> (2) Linux runs on everything. I have personally installed Linux on an
> Alpha, a Sparc, a PlayStation2, a PowerPC, a MIPS-based laptop, etc...
...
> (3) I trust Linux to be free forever and ever from any DRM, if I don't
> want DRM. I trust it never to send information about me anywhere. The
> source is available and there are people like me verifying that it is
> free of these encumbrances.
...
> (4) Linux is free as in beer. If I want Linux on a box, I download a CD
> from the Internet and put it in the CD-ROM drive of the machine I'm
> installing it on

Linux isn't just free as in beer (classically used to refer to
proprietary free software, like IE), it is free as in freedom, too! When
you get beer free from me, you won't get a recipe. I can't give you the
recipe because Guinness didn't give it to me.

Crypto code, even if proprietary, can be offered for peer review. And
proprietary code can be ported to a variety of platforms, too.

Linux has these advantages, and more, because we have the source. And,
more importantly, because the GPL insures that large corporations can't
hijack the source.

I use Linux because it is portable. I run it on a lot of hardware,
especially older hardware that modern Windows versions won't even install
on. This extends the life of my investment. Contrast this to the Windows
world where hardware is discarded as obsolete because it won't run Windows
XP. This is true of a 500 MHz AMD K6/2, which is orders of magnitude
faster than the Pentium Classic at 133 MHz that I use everyday.

Portability means that a common interface and tool set is available to me,
whether I'm using a shiny new 2GHz P4, or a 16 MHz m68k Macintosh.

Continuity is the key. I'm sure that I'll still be using Linux (or a
UNIX-type system) 10 years from now. And UNIX is already 30 years old.
This is practically unheard of anywhere else in the computing industry.
I know that the tools I'm using will be around in the future, and I know
that what I've learned thus far won't become obsolete. On the other hand,
Microsoft solutions have already undergone numerous revisions.
Microsoft users have had to learn four distinct user interfaces.

Plus, Microsoft solutions will never cost me $0.00