Many years ago, an IBM salesmen I knew dumped cold water on my enthusiasm about Unix by dismissing it as a "tinkerer's delight." Later, however, IBM started selling its own version of Unix (called AIX). And today, IBM offers Linux for its larger systems. Evidently Unix is no longer considered a "tinkerer's delight."
Linux is the most prominent of the current embodiments of Unix. As such, it has been evolving and improving for longer than any other major operating system. The valuable ideas have survived. The bad ones have been discarded. It is a practical solution that is arguably superior to its competitors.
Not only has the operating system itself become technologically excellent, the same sort of Unix-style thinking has been applied to application software. This has resulted in a wide variety of useful programs that run under Linux. Nowadays, most individuals and companies do not need any software beyond that which is already available in a Linux distribution.
Aside from these practical matters, there is an idealism associated with Linux.
The software industry as a whole has grown selfish and cynical. The gloom goes deeper than the foibles parodied in "Dilbert" comic strips. The list of serious, industry-wide problems is long: the dot-com bubble, viruses, out-sourcing, cyber-terrorism, spam, online pornography, corporate corruption, copyright violations, software piracy, invasion of privacy, and so on.
Fortunately, the success of "free" software represents a strong and hopeful counter-trend. We mean "free as in freedom." The free software movement, of which Linux is a part, is successfully opposing all such problems with ingenuity, generosity and optimism.
Richard M. Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation, had the foresight to develop a legal instrument that protects this ingenuity, generosity and optimism. It is called the General Public License (GPL). Linux is currently the most prominent system licensed with the GPL. A full explanation is available at http://www.fsf.org.
So free software, including Linux, combines both pragmatism and idealism. This combination attracts top programmers from all over the world who are always making contributions to the free software movement by improving Linux and related software. And all computer users benefit as a result. Its successes are attracting ever more support.
Of course, Linux is not perfect. No operating system is. But, on the whole, Linux embodies better technology and a more wholesome philosophy than do its competitors. Ultimately, this is because it is published under the GPL.
Currently, many large companies are using and selling Linux. In addition to IBM, there are Novell, Hewlett-Packard, Red Hat, and many more. Such companies are in business to make money. In the long run, it may or may not be in their interest to publish software under the GPL.
So, rather than guessing about future policies of corporate giants, it is more pragmatic to stick with the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. In this manner, one can be sure he is only using software that has been published under an appropriate "free" license, such as the GPL.
For more information, contact Philip Ansteth, 918-743-6342; 575-776-2468