LINUX. . .

Let's face it, folks - Linux is an unstoppable force. It runs on everything, everywhere and impacts each one of our lives on a daily basis, whether or not you realize it. Here are five reasons why your operating system of the future will be a Linux distribution and why Microsoft is powerless to stop it.

1. The best keeps getting better.
Linux is improving at a pace far exceeding any other operating system. Period. Not even with the army of paid programmers can Microsoft keep pace with the blinding speed at which the Linux kernel and user space software are being updated. Every day, the system is getting easier to use, more software is being released, and Windows is falling farther behind.

The marriage that major hardware vendors have with Windows is shaky, at best. The day that you see one big vendor like Dell or HP dropping Windows entirely is the day Microsoft's monopoly will end. Unfortunately, these big hardware vendors are the sole reason Microsoft began its dominance of the home desktop and it will take them to end it. But, with the pace of improvements in Linux, it's only a matter of time.

2. Linux doesn't restrict what you can do with the hardware you've paid for.
You've spent hard-earned money on your laptop or desktop and you have the right to use it the way you see fit. Listen folks, if your parents didn't teach you it was wrong to steal, Microsoft and the MPAA certainly aren't going to. DRM is a joke and placing restrictions people's computer systems only serves to piss them off. If I could take a page from one of our former presidents, "It's all about freedom, stupid."

So let me get this straight: I've legally purchased my computer hardware and I've legally purchased my DVD collection, so why is it that I can't legally watch my legal DVD's on my legal hardware without restriction under Linux or FreeBSD? Holy freakin’.. cow..MPAA, are you *trying* to push people to circumvent your "anti-copying" measures??? (As you can see, this really bothers me.)

Fill in this blank for me: "Allowing people to watch DVD's under Linux is bad because ______." I can't think of a reason, either.



3.  30+ years of research can't be wrong.
Linux stands on the back of the Unix giant. For over 30 years, major universities, businesses, scientists have relied on Unix and Unix-like operating systems and improved them with each release.

For example, multiuser security is still just as important today as when it was conceived years ago, so why is Windows still not a multi-user operating system? Despite the billions of dollars that have been poured into Microsoft's OS "research", have they not figured out that it's a bad idea to combine system administrator rights with normal user accounts? Surely, some Ph.D. in Redmond offered up the idea that it's probably a good idea if a normal user doesn't have the access rights to delete the NT Loader program? Yet, here we are billions of dollars later and 90% of desktop computers run an operating system that allows script kiddies to recruit millions of PC's into massive botnets. Nice.

Let me give you this little nugget of thought: The Melissa virus would not have happened if we were all running Linux, FreeBSD or any other Unix-like system. In fact, and you can quote me on this, the computing world will be a safer place when everyone uses Linux.

4.  There is strength in flexibility.
Want a sleek web server? Want a fully featured desktop? Want an embedded system with a small footprint? Want a real-time OS? Want to be virus-free? The answer to all of these questions is Linux, not Windows. Sure, you've got WinCE (appropriate acronym) but along with it you get macro viruses for your Pocket Excel. Sweet thanks a lot.

One of Linux's greatest strengths is the Unix philosophy of using small programs that you can connect in various ways to accomplish complex tasks. Windows started off as a GUI on top of DOS - more of a modular style - but since then, it has been increasingly integrated. Microsoft has even integrated the IE web browser so tightly with Windows, you need an advanced degree and some voodoo to remove it without breaking your system. From the MS knowledgebase article on the subject: "After you uninstall Internet Explorer 6, you cannot uninstall the previous version of Internet Explorer that remains on the computer. If you uninstall Internet Explorer 6, visit one of the following Microsoft Web sites to download any security updates that are needed for the version of Internet Explorer that remains on the computer..."

5.  The operating system is becoming a commodity
Open standards will always win out over closed, proprietary software. Think about how many areas of your life would be more dangerous if competing organizations were allowed to define their own technologies and there weren't any one standard that they agreed upon. Would you like one Drug Company’s definition of "miligram" different than another drug companies? Would it help you any if gas stations were allowed to come up with their own definition of what constitutes a gallon of fuel? Why do we allow commercial software vendors to define "standards" and then not completely share those standards with the rest of the community? (i.e., OpenGL vs. DirectX, Open Document Format vs. Microsoft Office Open XML, Ogg vs Mp3, PNG vs. JPG, ad nauseum)

Linux already runs on everything from large mainframes and supercomputing clusters to your handheld PDA. There's even a Linux-powered wristwatch. Yeah, IBM built it back in 2001.

The point of all this is to say, the operating system will become a commodity as Linux spreads everywhere. Your computing experience won't be about the operating system per se, rather developers will focus on creating rich user interfaces and killer applications that talk across different hardware platforms. Microsoft will have to reinvent themselves sooner rather than later, as they are increasingly displaced. We will see just how little Windows matters anymore when Vista is (finally) released and users reject it en masse.

Our grandkids will look back on our Windows vs. Linux debate and wonder what the heck we were thinking even using Windows in the first place. I'm going to make a prediction here. Linux will be the operating system of choice for new PC's and the majority of desktops by 2020. Windows will be relegated to legacy hardware and computer museums. Anyone want to take me up on this bet?