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Want a free operating system? Tired of paying through the nose for Microsoft? Getting leary of what MS is starting to include in it’s Eula? What is a Eula? A Eula is a whole bunch of text that appears as you are getting ready to install an application or program. Pretty much all software has one. Its that thing that you select “I agree” and click continue without every really reading. Have you ever considered Linux? Have you ever HEARD of Linux?

Well, without going through the history of computer operating systems and tons of dichotomy, lets just say, Linux is an operating system (like Mac or Windows) that was developed by a guy (Linus Torvalds) who felt that you shouldn’t have to pay to use your computer.

Linux isn’t hard to use it’s just different. But the nice thing is that its free, and with the rising cost of design software, and Windows, and the complexity Linux is a nice alternative. In fact for me its the best alternative. If my machine ever completely craps out, I can re-install without having to make numerous phone calls to India asking for a new key to activate my system. Linux eats much less of my computers resources as well, which means I get much faster response time than XP or Vista. Vista is a huge resource hog, if you are going to get a Vista unit you might as well, plunk down the extra cash for a super-fast processor and a ton of RAM, I would say about 2 gigs. You don’t actually need 2 gigs to run Vista, but if you are going to run Adobe, or anything else for that matter you are going to need it. Just at idle, Vista will use 46% of 1.5 gigs of RAM. YUCK!!!

Linux can do everything that Vista/Windows can do, but faster and free. Yes you can type up documents using the OpenOffice suite, PLUS any thing you created with Windows you can use in Linux, so if you created a document using Microsoft Word, you will be able to open, use and edit this document using Linux Open Office suite. This includes any thing created with MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, etc, etc, etc.

Linux comes in a variety of ‘flavors’, Suse, Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian, and many of those have variations of the OS (Operating System), the one I am amazingly happy with however is Ubuntu. Very, very nice! Of course I am a computer geek so Linux is easy for me right? NOPE! Let’s put this into perspective a bit. I installed Ubuntu on my wifes system. I asked her to open a browser, she then asked, “Whats a browser?” So, that should tell you a bit about her computer literacy. I switched her over from Windows, to Ubuntu and she never missed a beat.  I set up her email client, which is extremely easy to do, and bip-bam-bang she was surfing the internet, adding stuff to MySpace, and chatting like an old pro.  Ubuntu is not just for dummies, Ubuntu is for everyone.