For the free spirit - with time to burn

By PETER SINCLAIR

Believe it or not, some PCs don't use Microsoft Windows. A small but growing number of mainly geekish types are using something called Linux to run their PCs. Why? Because they can.

For them, Linux, with its penguin logo, is not just an operating system, it's a state of mind.

Linux is for the sort of independent, inquiring, slightly ornery surfer who was the standard model when the web was young, before Windows had spread its dense mantle over almost everything.

It appeared in the pre-Windows era when Microsoft Dos still reigned supreme, as a reaction to the cost of closed-source Unix (another type of operating system), and was named after its young Finnish developer, Linus Torvalds.

Although recent by internet standards, Linux (pronounced lynucks) somehow preserves and exemplifies the original spirit of the net, if only because it's (a) open-source (no one owns the software code), and (b) free.

Linux, then, is for readers who would like to both make a statement ("I am a free spirit") and save some money. The first of these is certainly true; as for the second ...

Linux has traditionally been freeware or shareware, although user-friendly exceptions are now showing up like Red Hat, which costs $US29.95 ($73.65); or Red Hat Deluxe Workstation, which at $US79.95 comes with just about everything you need, such as Office Suites (Sun's Star Office, PowerTools, plus services to get you started.

More typical, though, of the Linux variants on offer is Linux Mandrake 7.2, sold at $US10 to cover the cost of the media it comes on.

But without Bill Gates to hold your hand, things will still prove tricky. You'll want to check MandrakeSoft for setting up your system. Even then it won't be easy.

You'll need to know how to partition a drive, or to type "S3 Trio 64 Linux" into Google's search-window to find a driver for your sound card.

You may also need to track down most of the drivers for any hardware you install, since most hardware comes only with Windows drivers.

As well as a CD with the actual OS on it, you'll get a "Companion Disk" containing some basic applications, some games, and a free browser to get you online - Opera is the overwhelming favourite of the Linux community. Then there are other shareware or freeware applications, such as Eudora for mail, or RealPlayer for streamed video.

Like Linux itself, they're all free. But if you kept a record of the time and trouble it took to set up your "free" Linux machine, you might find you didn't save much in the end.

Links:


Linux

History of Linux

Linus Torvalds

Redhat

Sun's Star Office

Mandrake

Linux Newbie

Google

Opera

Eudora

RealPlayer