Yesterday I posted a poll requesting topics in Linux you’d like to see covered on Tech Jaws, and as sort of an introduction to this series, I’d like to take a brief moment or two to talk about what Linux is and the basic philosophy behind Free & Open Source Software (FOSS).

Open source software is software whose code is freely available for viewing, and often dismantling and modifying and redistributing without paying royalties or signing a non-disclosure agreement. Usually this involves just giving the author credit and distributing your derivative works under a similar license. The GPL (General Public License) is a licensing system that works this way, created by GNU (GNU is Not Unix, a circular acronym).

Linux is open source, and most variations are licensed under the GPL. Some people release software using other schemes, like a Creative Commons License, or CopyLeft license. Google is your friend if you’d like to know more about those. Linux is free, for the most part, and anyone charging is usually charging for support or download services or some other part of a package besides the operating system itself. Most Linux distros don’t charge anything more than a small fee for a copy of Linux on CD and a manual.

Free software comes in two different varieties: free as in “free beer, here ya go!” and free as in “free speech” - the information is free and not held back from the world. Linux is usually both, actually.

There’s no need to be afraid of Linux - there’s actually plenty of Live CDs of different kinds of Linux out there. A Live CD is basically a bootable CD that runs a semi-complete operating Linux system without making any changes to your system, so that you can see if you like it before you dive in. Linux is a lot more user-friendly than it used to be, and there’s a lot more hardware support. Plus, there’s an absolutely huge community of people out there willing to help. Start with the forums on the website of whatever distro you choose.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about several distros - different “flavors” of Linux. Again, since it’s free and people can modify it, just about anyone can have their own customized Linux operating system. If you’d like to jump the gun and try one out, make sure you try a Live CD instead of braving through installation on your own.

Veteran geeks, what’s your favorite linux distro? Let us know in the comments.

-The Raging Tech