Why Linux? A lot of people know nothing at all about Linux, and there is a significant portion of the computer-using community who don’t even know of its existence. Sadly, this may be due to the fact that companies who aren’t open-source can’t afford the same marketing budgets as Apple and Microsoft. It’s a shame, because there’s a fair chance most people would switch, given the option. Yes, you heard me correctly - it is an open-source operating system, and there are more versions of it than there are versions of Windows and Mac OS and OSX put together. Linux and Unbuntu are two of the most well known, and it is customiseable to the point where if you wanted an OS custom-built for you, it’s fully possible. Open-source is also what it says on the tin - free code, which means that you’ll never pay a penny for the OS, or any of the software that works with it (unless you’re going out of the open-source bubble, which seems pointless when there are so many free alternatives that offer roughly the same features). Installing it takes not long at all, as it’s quite a small OS in terms of memory, and it’s also nowhere near as CPU intensive as Windows or Mac OSX, so whether you’re running fifty programs at once or just a Twitter client and OnlinePoker.com, everything will feel smoother and more responsive. All I can say is that if you’re running a netbook or a low spec PC, or even a powerhouse, you owe it to yourself to install it, even on a partition, and test it out. Who knows? You just might become one of the thousands, if not millions of people contributing to the most generous movement on the web - the open-source community.
