[ Thanks to Miko
Wakabayashi for this link. ]
“Linux is an operating system well-beloved of geeks. I’m no geek
(and I’m aiming this column primarily at others like me), but I’ve
long admired this OS from afar, partly because of the amazing way
it was, and continues to be, developed. You can read about that in
Eric Raymond’s groundbreaking essay, The Cathedral and the
Bazaar.”
“The anarchic way Linux grows is admirable not merely from a
free-marketeer’s perspective. It also results in software that’s
been parsed by knowledgeable, curious people around the world
before it gets to your computer. So it’s stable. It doesn’t
crash much. And most important of all, the source code is available
to anybody, so you don’t have to wonder what little spy devices and
cracker-doors might be built into it. (Are you listening, Mr.
Secrecy Gates?)”
“Who should use Linux? The article behind that link concludes
that Linux is still mostly for those who prefer to change their own
oil and tweak the fuel-injection system, not those of us who just
like to get behind the wheel and drive. However within the last
year it’s become much more accessible to mere mortal computer
users.”