About US

Linux systems excel in many areas, ranging from end-user concerns such as stability, speed, and ease of use, to serious concerns such as development and productivity.

Software Development

Programmers often find that the Linux development environment is second to none--a good thing for end users who depend on these software developers to provide free software. Nearly all development software for Linux is free and covered under the GNU Public License, which guarantees that it will always remain free. Linux systems come standard with C and C++ compilers and an assembler, and usually include Pascal, FORTRAN, compiled Java, Perl, Python, and BASIC implementations as well. In addition, modern languages like Ruby and classic languages like LISP are all available, fully functional and completely free.

Linux runs two of the most popular development environments, Eclipse and KDevelop, and you can use these environments to with just about any programming language available. These two development tools support web application development, but there are additional free/open source highly sophisticated development tools dedicated to building web applications.

In addition, the source code for nearly any Linux program is freely available (and often included by default). This not only means that bugs are discovered and corrected almost immediately, but development of software proceeds at a much faster pace than one finds even at extremely successful commercial software houses. This phenomenon is called Open Source and is the subject of much discussion and amazement in the business world, the computer world, and the press.

The Open Source nature of Linux also makes it ideal for embedded and specialized systems (routers, cell phones, multimedia entertainment centers, point-of-sale systems), because there's no limit to what you can do to customize Linux for your special needs.

Productivity

Productivity software availability has exploded in recent years, and commercial developers have been producing excellent software for the Linux platform. The Firefox browser, Opera, and Mozilla are freely available (with some licensing restrictions) as well as the OpenOffice productivity suite, KOffice and a host of others, which often come standard on Linux distributions. Many distributors package commercial software with their distributions, and many commercial producers offer free downloads for Linux. Linux productivity packages can usually read and write files from productivity packages on other platforms; Linux has always been at the leading edge of compatibility and openness.

Linux happily coexists on the same machine as other operating systems including Windows or Mac OSX, and Linux easily accesses the files stored by other operating systems. You can use one of many virtualization techniques to run Linux and Windows or any other operating system (even another version of Linux) on the same machine, simultaneously. You can run many Windows programs on Linux via Wine, or commercial helper products such as Crossover Office or Cedega, both of which even support the popular game Word of Warcraft! There are countless Linux distributions which run beautifully from a CD or DVD without the need to install the operating system. This makes it possible for new Linux users to see if they like Linux without erasing their old OS or having to buy another computer.

Longevity

The open source nature of Linux guarantees it is here to stay, and the amazing growth of Linux over the past years bears that out. Best of all, as long as you stick with a truly free/open source operating system like Linux and truly free/open source applications, you can never get locked into depending on any particular vendor. Linux puts you in control of what you do with your software, how, when and if you choose to change or upgrade it.

Linux has long been praised for its stability.

Linux boxes are known for running months or even years at a time without crashing, freezing, or having to be rebooted.

Linux users sometimes poke fun at other, less stable operating systems, by way of screensavers like BSOD (Blue Screen of Death, which displays crash screens from various other platforms).

Linux is extremely secure compared to other platforms.

Viruses and Trojan Horse programs are practically non-existent. Linux servers practically run the World Wide Web, so one cannot argue that there are so few malicious programs for Linux because it represents an insignificant number of target machines.