Switch to Linux
What is Linux?
Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. It is one of the most widely used examples of open source development and free software. Unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS, all of its underlying source code is available to the public for anyone to freely use, modify, and redistribute.
Why Linux?
The high level of access granted to Linux's internals has led to Linux users traditionally tending to be more technologically oriented than users of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, sometimes revelling in the tag of "hacker" or "geek". Linux and other free software projects have been frequently criticized for not going far enough to ensure ease of use.
This stereotype has begun to be dispelled in recent years. Linux may now be used with a user interface that is very similar to those running on other operating systems. Users may have to switch application software, and there are often fewer "known" options (as in the case of computer games) but there exist replacements for all general-purpose software, and general applications like spreadsheets, word processors, and browsers are available for Linux in profusion. Additionally, a growing number of proprietary software vendors are supporting Linux.
Article: Giving desktop Linux a try
Market Share
The Linux market is rapidly growing and is projected to exceed $35.7 billion by 2008. It is important to note that this figure represents only paid Linux shipments; since most Linux distributions are available for free download from the internet, the actual installed base is higher than may be indicated by this figure. It is projected that there will be more Linux-based systems than Windows-based systems in the year 2010.
This text was taken from the Wikipedia entry on Linux distributed under the Gnu Free Documentation License.
