Pedants (like me) sometimes point out the PC means Personal Computer and makes no reference to the operating system, Macs are PCs built by Apple and running (usually) a version of MacOS.
However, that's only part of the story, all PCs, even Macs, are capable of running different operating systems, and millions around the world use a free system called GNU/Linux, generally shortened to just 'Linux'.
I started experimenting with Linux in 2002 and have used it full time since 2004. I only keep a Windows XP machine so I can review Windows software and hardware.
This website was made using Kompozer, with graphics created in the Gimp. All my writing is done in Open Office and I send invoices from GnuCash. Don't worry if you use another system though, I can send work in all the usual formats. And an invoice!
In
2006 I wrote a 5000 word
piece for Micro Mart
explaining some of the history of free software, who creates it, what
it's used for and by whom. It's not available on the Micro Mart
website, but you can download it here
in Open
Document Text (ODT) format. (Right-click and save file as...)
People still using old fashioned software that cannot cope with the international .odt format (such as most MS Office users) can download a .doc version here. The file is three times the size due to the inefficient nature of Microsoft's file formats.
(Right-click and save file as...)
Can't
be botherered to read 5K words, watch the video here
then...
There are many different versions of Linux
created by
companies, charities, ad-hoc groups and even individuals. Being
responsible for the distribution of Linux, these operations are
commonly known as 'Distros'. What they all have in common is a Linux
'kernel' at the heart of the operating system. Tux, the cheerful
looking penguin on the left is the Linux symbol.
My
favourite at the moment is Kubuntu, but all those shown below are solid
reliable products that you can download absolutely free of charge.
