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Linux User #155521 As you have probably read or heard about or is already in love with GNU/Linux, it is a completely free OS. Linux, copyrighted by Linus Torvalds is the free kernel. Mr.Torvalds started writing the kernel when he was a student in Finland and with lot of developers around the world contributing code and bug fixes, Linux kernelexternal link is remarkably stable, fast and provides true POSIX compliance. It is a true multitasking environment.

The free in Linux license implies more on the freedom you have with the source code. This kernel when combined with GNUexternal link software can give you a complete OS. Check the GNUexternal link site to learn more about their software and the philosophy. GNU project was started by Richard Stallman, without whose software I doubt whether Linux kernel would've been possible at all.

At Home

How can Linux help you at home? I have two machines at home, one runs as a server, which runs Apache, MySQL, IP forwarding, Squid etc. The second PC is used as a workstation which has most software I need, and dual boots into Windows 98 and Mandrake Linux 8.0. I rarely boot Windows98 - our banking software was the only application that I use there. This year, even that is not necessary since our bank now has a web based interface and they are throwing out the old program. My wife uses Windows98 because she uses mainly Encarta and Encyclopedia Britannica.

At Work

Early 2002
Oracle 8 on Linux is rock stable. It is a really goof alternative to expensive non-Intel architecture based machines. Even Gartner Group recommends Apache over IIS, thanks to Nimda and Code Worm viruses. And Zope works beautifully on Linux.
Early 2001
I regularly use Mandrake Linux as my desktop machine at work. StarOffice 5.2 is good enough for office needs and can read most Microsoft Office documents.
Early 2000
I used Apache running on RedHat 6.1 with PHP support compiled in to access an Oracle database. A development Zope site also runs in that machine. A small P166 Dell PC with 32MB RAM supporting Apache, Zope and Oracle 8 with a database containing millions of records (sized is around 12GB) and reasonably good hits for querying the database. Has been up since November 1999 (when it went down when there was a power failure. Before that it was up since August 1999) - compare this with an NT4.0 server with Quad P450MHz Compaq server with 600MB RAM and 40G RAID II array, running IIS and FileMaker Pro; which has to be re-booted every week!

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