Jason said:
Contrary to popular opinion Linux is not free.
Linux itself (the Kernel) is free. You can download it from
http://www.kernel.org/ completely free of charge.
As for any other operating system, there is freeware, shareware and
commercial software available.
The majority of vendors charge around $50.00 for a "Personal Edition" and
over $100.00 for a "Professional Edition"
That is correct for most Linux distributions. One should not forget that
each distribution consists of about 5 to 10 CDs or a DVD with some
thousands pre-configured programs, in 30 languages and a printed manual.
You may use those CDs on as many PCs as you want.
In comparison: Windows XP Home Edition costs 120 ¤, Pro 240¤.
Windows has to be bought for each PC and language anew.
that merely comes with more applications
And what is exactly the difference between Office XP Pro and Enterprise
Edition?
Support is also charged, the amount and length of service varies by
distribution.
Of course, the distributors charge for service call after their
guarantee time. They are no charity but companies!
Support is also available from users. You can ask in newsgroups, message
boards, Linux user groups (LUG, there is one in nearly each town), find
manuals and hints on webpages. Nearly all problems can be solved this
way.
Slackware and Debian are the closest to free [...] because they don't try to be a
Windows clone.
Mandrake and RedHat offer a free version of their distribution for
download. They are "Windows clones". The free versions are without
support and manual and lack some commercial software that is included in
the for-sale packages.
When you add in the books you will probably buy to learn and the fact that
M$ does not charge annual fees for their OS users and their support fees
are less.
I do not know any Linux distribution that charge annual fees. Moreover,
while you have to pay for an upgrade for MS products, those are usually
free in Linux distributions.
In the end you will probably find yourself paying out just as much if not
more than you would have with Windows.
If you are a software pirate: Sure
Otherwise, you can asks a lot of questions to the Linux Vendor support
before you paid the price of Windows XP Home only.
The myth that Linux is more secure is due to the fact that hackers direct
most of their attention at Windows.
Linux has the advantage that there are more different set ups, making it
more difficult to find a weak spot in all of them.
Also, Linux does not allow all programs equal access to everything, what
is the weak spot of Windows. Therefore, Linux is more secure than
Windows.
There are Linux Viruses, Trojans, Worms etc out there
There is Malware for Linux, but none is found "in the wild" yet.
Compared to the >60.000 known viruses for Windows, the <30 for Linux
seem to be a small threat.
and they will increase as Linux becomes more popular.
That is probably true.
most SOHO users, like myself, still do their real work on Windows boxes.
There is an increasing numbers of companies, schools and public
administrations that switch to Linux. (For example, the city of Munich,
Germany, is switching their whole administration to a Linux based
system)
If you do want to check Linux out you may want to do so soon before it is no
longer available without an expensive annual license fee if SCO has their
way in court.
The FSF is already developing an alternate kernel that will be not
affected by SCO patents even if those should be granted by the courts.
The development of this new kernel began already 5 years ago, SCOs
attack is not the reason for the development.
bye,
Onno
