Operating Systems

Not too many folks may think this is interesting but we almost all use computers. I love them. I have 2 desktop computers I built. That is a term for the big ones not the Laptops. Neither of them sit on the desktop since they are in cases we refer to as towers. On the floor vertical. I also have 4 laptops. I use Microsoft Windows 7 on the main desktop and I added an external HDD (hard disk drive) that I installed an OS (operating System) called Linux. It is a Unix derivative originally developed by a gentleman named Linus Torvalds. Thanks Linus.

There are many kinds of Linux which are distributions that are referred to as distros. The ones I use are Ubuntu, PinguyOS and SUSE. All in all the reason for using them is that 2 of the laptops are pretty old. With WinXP they were so slow that they were almost unusable. Not saying anything bad about Windows it is a great OS and I love it. But once I tried Linux they were like brand new computers. They boot up quickly and the performance is great. My old IBM ThinkPad is over 10 years old and it now rocks. It was getting so slow and bogged down I was getting ready to recycle it. Once I loaded Linux on it the darn thing came back to life. That is nice since it is the one I use when travelling on the motorcycle and I post on the trip. Go back in the archives to August of 2005 and you'll see them. Lots of pictures as well.

The other nice thing is that Linux is what is referred to as open source. That is free and has tens of thousands of software programs also free. They keep it going with a large community of developers that write everything for free. They keep it going from contributions we make and also from corporations that buy Enterprise distros. All good.