Word: linux
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Back in the spring, I wrote about the travails of installing the free operating system Linux. Since then, I've got e-mail daily from folks who want to know how it's going; in their way, Linux's adherents are as evangelical as any member of the orthodox Macintosh religion. Others--who, I guess, didn't read between my lines--wanted to know if they should use Linux instead of Windows or the Mac's operating system. That second question is far easier to answer than the first: for most of the laypeople who read this column...
...Linux and the open-source movement that spawned it are among the most exciting and important things going on in the software world today. But the setup is just too complex for the average person. A few weeks after my column ran, I had to swap the PC I was using for another one that didn't have Linux, and I still couldn't install the version from Red Hat without tech support...
...tried another flavor of the operating system, Open Linux 2.2, sold by Caldera Systems ($69). It comes with an application called Partition Magic, which is supposed to make it easier to run both Linux and Windows on the same hard drive. I was up and running in half an hour--but when I rebooted my system, I was unable to launch Linux, apparently because my hard drive is too big. (Don't ask. I consulted a long-time Linux user for help, and even he couldn't figure it out.) Since Caldera doesn't offer free phone support, I sent...
Recently, a new web site appeared called the Red Hat Wealth Monitor. Red Hat, of course, is a company that sells support services for the free operating system Linux. Last week, Red Hat went public in spectacular fashion. Check the wealth monitor now: It's worth almost $5 billion. This for giving away free software...
...What does this mean for the Linux community, an informal, international fellowship of benevolent hackers who since 1991 have labored unpaid to develop the perfect microcomputer operating system? Until now, they've done it for the purest of motives ? because it was fun, and because it was useful. Now unexpected success has brought other motives into play, and nobody seems quite sure how to deal with them. MORE...