Introduction

Linux is an Operating System, or to be precise it's the kernel of the GNU/Linux Operating System. Developed by Linus Torvalds as a hobby while a student at Helsinki University, he began in 1991. Pretty much from the outset Torvalds made the source code public and asked others for comments, advice and assistance, thus creating one of the greatest Open Source Projects in history.

What he actually developed though was the kernel not the operating system. The kernel is at the heart of the system, it's the first thing to load into the computer and pretty much dictates what everything else does and when it does it. Much of the rest of the operating system already existed, in one form or another, in a project called GNU to create a Unix-like system.

There are literally hundreds of people and organisations that have released operating systems based on the Linux Kernel. Some of the best known ones are Red Hat from the USA and Suse from Germany(now owned by Novell), there is also Mandriva (formed from a merger of the French Mandrake and Brazilian Conectiva). New to the scene in Ubuntu, who seem to be running a truly global operation.

Here at Bazaar Systems we have experience with Red Hat and Mandriva, but currently most of our systems are running on Suse 10. It seems to be a very reliable distribution.

Apart from the fact that it's freely distributed, Linux's functionality, adaptability and robustness, has made it the main alternative for proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems. IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other giants of the computing world have embraced Linux and support its ongoing development. More than a decade after its initial release, Linux is being adopted worldwide as a server platform primarily. Its use as a home and office desktop operating system is also on the rise. The operating system can also be incorporated directly into microchips in a process called "embedding" and is increasingly being used this way in appliances and devices.

Throughout most of the 1990's, tech pundits, largely unaware of Linux's potential, dismissed it as a computer hobbyist project, unsuitable for the general public's computing needs. Through the efforts of developers of desktop management systems such as KDE and GNOME, office suite project OpenOffice.org and the Mozilla web browser project, to name only a few, there are now a wide range of applications that run on Linux and it can be used by anyone regardless of his/her knowledge of computers. Those curious to see the capabilities of Linux can download a live CD version called Knoppix . It comes with everything you might need to carry out day-to-day tasks on the computer and it needs no installation. It will run from a CD in a computer capable of booting from the CD drive. Those choosing to continue using Linux can find a variety of versions or "distributions" of Linux that are easy to install, configure and use. Information on these products is available on the Internet, or contact us for more details