Why bother to use Linux?

Source: News Forge

We spend a lot of time covering the "Who, What, When, Where and How" of Linux, but rarely talk about "Why." Many of the questions we get through our editors@linux.com email address essentially ask, "Why should I (or my company) use Linux?" There are many possible answers. I'm going to try to cover, in the most newbie-friendly way possible, a few of them here. Please feel free to chime in with your own in the "comments" section.

I first started messing with Linux, back in 1996, bcause Windows crashes were "eating" too many tightly-deadlined stories for my taste. I wanted an alternative that would handle my writing tasks and let me browse the Web "full strength," including graphics. All the graphical DOS Web browsers I tried were unsatisfactory, and the Web was becoming increasingly image-driven, so dropping back to DOS wasn't an option. I heard about Linux from a friend and gave it a try. I dual-booted Windows and Linux through most of 1997, and dumped my one remaining Windows partition in early 1998. I chose Linux because it offered me high stability, didn't need powerful hardware to run, and had all the (very simple) applications and capabilities I needed. The fact that it was free (or available on CDs for very little) was a fringe benefit.

Some choose Linux primarily because it can be had for free or at very low cost compared to commercial operating systems. Others choose Linux primarily because of licensing freedom. Under the GPL, the license that controls the Linux kernel and the GNU tools that, together, make the operating system most people call "Linux," technically "GNU/Linux." Under the GPL, anyone who has a copy of Linux or any other GPL-licensed software is free not only to make copies of it to give to friends and associates, but is also free to modify that software in any way, and to share their changes with the rest of the world. This is the exact opposite of the way things work with commercial operating systems. If you found a way to modify Windows's base code to make it impervious to viruses without add-on anti-virus software, and shared your new "super-secure" version of Windows with all your friends, you would be breaking the law and Microsoft could have the police come and put you in jail.