“Sick of Windows and Mac OS? How hard could it be to install the
famous free alternative?”
“For years I’ve wanted to put the operating system known as
Linux on my PC. Why? Because I love the idea of it. Linux, which
was first released in 1991, is an alternative to Windows and
Apple’s Mac operating system — though it will run on virtually any
PC and most Macs. Supposedly 15 million people use it worldwide.
(Since it’s available free, no one knows how many copies have
actually been passed around.) It’s also the poster child of the
so-called open-source movement…”
“But I’m chicken. I never downloaded Linux because I figured it
would be too hard. While plenty of “distributions” — the files and
tools you need to work in Linux — are available on the Net, it
takes hours to download and unpack them. And if my computer
survived the daunting Linux installation process, could I actually
use the thing?…”