Linux is the Best Operating System

Some people may think that the only operating systems available are Windows (Made by Microsoft) and Mac OSX (Made by Apple) as they are the 2 most common operating systems. This is not true and there are in fact dozens of different operating systems to choose from including Solaris, BSD, and Chrome OS.  While there is a rather large amount of modern operating systems available I believe that the best one, for a number of reasons, is Linux. Linux was released by Linus Torvalds's in 1991 and was intended to be a free and open source alternative to UNIX which is the operating system Mac OSX is based around. When software or hardware is free and open source it means that the source code (if its software) or the schematics (if its hardware) are freely available and can studied, improved upon and re-released with no legal repercussions.

         The fact that Linux is free and open source is one of the things that makes it a superior operating system. When a bug or exploit is found in Linux it can be patched (fixed) and then distributed to users in a timely manner while on an operating system such as Windows (which is closed source) an annoying or even a dangerous bug can take months and in some cases even years to be patched. This leaves a user of a Windows PC vulnerable to exploits which in turn can help a hacker gain unauthorized access to there computer.

Another great thing about Linux is that it is highly customizable even for someone who has no knowledge of programming. If wanted a person can build the operating system from the kernel (The very base of the OS) up. While most users might not want to do something so time consuming as building there operating system from the ground up the ability to customize Linux is still useful to an average user. For example we will say a person is using the Fedora Linux distribution (a Linux distribution or distro is a collection of software bundled with the Linux kernel to make a working environment for the end user)  but you don’t like the default KDE desktop environment then you can change it to something else such as Gnome or XFCE. In Windows or Mac you just can’t get that level of customization. You can really make a Linux based computer YOUR computer.

 Another reason Linux is better than the competition is that it can modified for any situation and because of this is used in everything from TV sets to cellphones to home computers. If you have ever used Google Android (e.g the Motorola Droid) then you have used a Linux based phone. Scientists from many different fields use Linux for research because it can be modified for there needs better than other operating systems.

 Finally one of the best things about Linux (besides it being completely free!) is that a Linux based computer is much more secure than a Windows based PC. This is not only because less virus’s are wrote for Linux but also because Linux is far more secure than other operating systems because of how it is designed. User permissions are handled in a way that if a virus infects a Linux computer or device it can only do minimal damage to a system.

 So why are you not using Linux right now? The only thing that separates you from giving Linux a try is a few clicks on an Internet connected computer, a blank CD-R, and a CD burner. Find a distribution (Such as Ubuntu, commonly used by Linux beginners for its ease of use) that interests you and then download it and burn it to a blank disk. Then simply restart your computer with the disk inserted and you can try it out without even installing it! The more people that use Linux then the better it will become. What person wouldn’t want to have a part in helping better something that over 30 million people use? I know that is something I want to be a part of.