The lure of Linux

Mumbai: If there is one thing Bill Gates of Microsoft loves to hate, it is the free and open Linux operating system.

One of the reasons for his visiting India was that some state governments had started using the Linux system for their e-governance initiatives. In every forum he argued that in the long run, the free operating system turns out to be more expensive than Microsoft’s paid operating system.

Microsoft even sponsored a research study by the well-known research group IDC, which came to the conclusion that the Linux system would turn out to be more expensive in the long run.

Despite all this surface tension between Microsoft and Linux, recent media reports have suggested that Microsoft may soon begin to use the Linux system in their software.

Why this turnaround
To understand the issue, let us first take a look at what the Linux operating system is all about.

An operating system is made up of software instructions that lie between the computer and the hardware — disks, memory and so on. At the centre is the ‘kernel,’ which provides the most basic computing functions like managing system memory, sharing the processor, etc. Besides the kernel, an operating system provides other basic services needed to operate the computer, including:
File systems: The structure in which information is stored in the computer.
Device drivers: The interfaces to the hardware devices connected to the computer.
User interfaces: Doors for the users to run programmes and access the file system.
System services: Small helper programmes that provide support for other larger programmes, most of which start automatically when the computer is switched on.

Linux was created by Linus Torvalds when he was a student in Helsinki in 1991. He started Linux by writing a kernel, the heart of the operating system. To do this, he partly used software that was available to the public. Torvalds then released the system to his friends and to a community of hackers on the Internet and asked them to work with it and enhance it. The deluge began.

The Linux operating system, which has all the core features of the Windows operating system, is available for free. It can be downloaded from the Internet and installed. The software is open-source, which means the user has access to the codes that show how the software is developed.

Users can make changes in the software to suit their own requirements, and even develop the software further. This can be done for a user’s own requirement or for other users. The basic idea was to create a culture of free exchange of ideas and software.

In proprietary software like the Windows operating system, you cannot make any changes or improvements. You have to wait for the software vendor, in this case Microsoft, to come up with new versions, and then pay for acquiring that software.

A big success
Today, there are hundreds of developers around the world who contribute to the Linux effort. There is a vast amount of software that can be used with Linux, all of which includes features that can compete with or surpass those of any other operating system in the world.

Microsoft is, thus, facing a real threat from Linux software, which is gaining an increasing share in the corporate server market used to manage networks and data.

Meta, a well-known research group in the US, predicted that Linux will be used on nearly half of new servers by 2007, up from its current share of 15 to 20 per cent, making it difficult for Microsoft to ignore Linux as a platform for its database, web-hosting and email server applications.

“We believe that beginning late 2004, Microsoft will begin moving some of its proprietary application enablers to the Linux environment; this will gradually include the major Microsoft back-office products, such as SQL Server, IIS, and Exchange,” Meta said.

Meta also said Microsoft would also re-price or separate its Windows server operating system “so that it can be favourably compared against ‘free’ Linux.”

Microsoft has denied that there is any move towards changing their present operating system. However, harsh business realities and the instinct for survival may well push Microsoft to gravitate towards an open software system sooner rather than later.

As the saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them.”