Linux
2007 was supposed to be the year of the Linux desktop, but it hasn’t turned out that way. While Linux has made great in roads into the data center, Linux on the desktop hasn’t been as popular as once thought. The Linux Operating System has many great variations from Red Hat to Ubuntu and is equal in many of its features as its bigger commercial rivals.
Linux is an open source Operating System, meaning anyone can view or change the source code as they wish. It is developed by thousands of volunteers worldwide and dozens of companies which maintain their own versions of Linux, called distributions.
In this section, we will review the similarities and differences between two of the major distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu) and Microsoft Windows.
Figure 20: Ubuntu Desktop, retrieved from https://help.ubuntu.com/5.10/kubuntu/kquickguide/C/sect-kde-desktop.html
Figure 21: Red Hat Desktop, retrieved from http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/step-guide/ch-kde.html
The Desktop is very clean and has a Start menu in the form of the distributions logo. Both Red Hat and Ubuntu (shown above) are based on KDE, a windowing environment on Linux (whose largest competitor is Gnome).
Figure 22: Konqueror File Manager, retrieved from http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/step-guide/s1-konqueror-files.html
Konqueror file manager is similar to Windows Explorer and allows you to explore the computer and storage devices. Notice the menu bars are at the top of the window.
Most Linux distributions provide Gnome or KDE as the user interface environment. Linux allows you to setup multiple “desktops” – each running their own applications – so you can rotate through those and not get one desktop too cluttered. Does it improve productivity? I don’t know, but Linux users I know love it.
“The Panel” as it’s called in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is similar to the taskbar in Windows. The Panel contains the Red Hat Menu (similar to the Start Menu), shortcuts to applications and other virtual desktops, and open applications.
Figure 23: Konqueror Web Browser, retrieved from http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/step-guide/s1-browsers-konqueror.html
Like the other platforms, Linux comes with its own web browser. In RHEL, it’s Konqueror shown above. You can install other browsers if you would like, but the default one has competitive features with other browsers on the market.
Figure 24: Ubuntu Also Includes Konqueror
Figure 25: Settings on Konqueror on Ubuntu, retrieved from https://help.ubuntu.com/5.10/kubuntu/kquickguide/C/sect-settings.html
Ubuntu (and all other flavors of Linux) includes a Settings section which is similar to the Windows Control Panel. Here, you can personalize the OS to meet your needs.
Figure 26: Open Office Writer
One of the frequent assertions in the OS wars is that Linux and many of its applications are free – so there should be more adoption. Open Office is the most popular free suite of desktop applications which is very similar to Microsoft Office. Open Office Writer is the Microsoft Word equivalent.
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