Linux on the Radio

Yesterday I was listening to a local radio station. The show is called Tech Talk and it's a local computer repair company that does the show. They were talking about Linux, but they talked about how great Linux is but then they jumped in and said that Linux was just for Hobbyists.

Of course they had to.... They make their money repairing Window machines and selling Windows Software. So if everyone moved to Linux where you don't have the problems that most people have with Windows, and tons of software available with your distribution that came with your distribution or you could download. With Windows pull out your wallet and if you purchased in Windows that you get with Linux you would be Broke in no time flat.

Most Computer software companies won't or don't support Linux. They feel that Linux (or any Unix like Operating System) is not worth supporting. If you look at Unix the cost of Unix is massive and the software that companies purchase for those Unix systems are also massive cost.

You go out and purchase a Windows machine. It's usually buggy and prone to viruses and if you are online you will be viewing the blue screen in death at least once while you have Windows on it.

Every few years Windows needs to put out a new OS so they can make money. If you look from Windows 95 on you will see 95 that was so buggy it was not ready for the public but it was new and looked better than Windows 3.1. Windows 98 was a fix to 95 but it still had lots of problems and so Windows 98 Second Edition was put out. This was to fix 98. They finally had a halfway working OS but they were losing money cause no one was purchasing software or OS's. So out came Windows 2000, and a few others. Windows 2000 was decent. Then Windows XP. Here is where we the people got screwed. Windows XP will not run Windows 98 software so you have to buy all new. The home programmer could not keep up with the new OS went out of business. Then a few years later out came Windows Vista and again XP software would not run on Vista. Vista was like Windows 95/98. Very buggy. So several years later Windows 7 was put out to fix Vista. With each OS you had to purchase new software to work on the new OS.

Now let's look at Unix/Linux. Way back in the 60's a few monster corporations got together to come up with an OS that would work on Several different systems. As it was back then each computer made had a different OS. That venture failed but a few of the programmers who were part of that project got together and went back to work on it. They made it work. A few years later they rewrote the entire OS using C and at that point Unix could go on almost any computer.

Those programmers left and move to colleges and universities. They took Unix with them. Then BSD Unix was created. After MA BELL was broken up AT&T wound up with Unix. They charged everyone massive amounts of money to use Unix. Move up 20 years from the birth of Unix to find the birth of Linux. Linus was a Computer Science Student in Finland and he had a Unix like OS to learn OS's. Linus wanted it on his home computer so he could work on it. Nothing was available. So he created one. Using his name he called it Linux.

Today Linux is turning 20 years old. Unix is over 40 and in some cases you can get Unix for FREE just like Linux.

So to call it a hobbyists OS is a disgrace. It's got about 14 years above anything Microsoft has. Bugs are fixed within weeks vs years with Windows. You can learn how your computer works and best of all. You have control of your computer. With Microsoft if you read the fine print on the OS. It's states (Generally) if you Install Windows on your computer you give Windows the right to control your computer. You LOSE CONTROL of YOUR Computer. With Linux YOU have CONTROL.