Frequently Asked Questions

What about the Linux court case?

The company that owns the UNIX operating system (SCO) is suing IBM (a big Linux company) alleging that some of the lines of code for UNIX are in Linux. I believe that there are two possible outcomes, neither of which will adversely affect Linux.

Firstly they will find that there is not actually any UNIX code in Linux and SCO will lose the case.

The second possibility is that somehow UNIX code did make it way in to Linux but SCO is not eligible for any compensation because they have previously released their own version of Linux under the General Public License so any code contained has been released to the public by SCO themselves.

Is Linux ready for the mainstream?

The latest release of the KDE desktop gives users a brilliant, easy to use graphical interface that anyone can use. Therefore I think the question is not "is Linux ready for the mainstream" but "is the mainstream ready for Linux?" The answer to this question, I think, is almost. I believe that Linux will trickle in to the mainstream through larger organizations IS&T departments installing it on limited function computers and shops selling cheap computers with Linux pre-installed for home users. Governments (local and national) and educational establishments will also start installing Linux as a good way to save money. As this happens I believe more and more people will choose Linux at home. I believe that this will not happen overnight but that within 5 years Linux could be installed on 50% of the worlds computers. 

Is Microsoft/Windows bad?

Microsoft and Windows is not bad, it is just, I believe Linux is better. Microsoft is a very successful company for a reason and it was probably inevitable that one operating system dominate as this gives software companies only one environment to program for making thier lives easier. A better alternative has come along now and who knows, in the future Microsoft may even bring out their own version of Linux.