Linux Community Magazine

Quite a few people have a tendency to dabble in Linux. This means that from time to time, they might download a distribution, burn it to a Live CD, and try it out on their computer without actually installing it to their machine. If you are a Windows user who is doing this, you need to try Linux Mint.

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu which is the most popular distribution. This is a pretty big deal since Ubuntu which is based on Debian have thousands of packages of software already available from a simple point and click interface. If you have a need for software, Mint will allow you to easily install it. What else is an operating system good for if it can't install and run applications easily?

Mint tends to have familiar Windows controls. This means that there is a panel, aka the taskbar, at the bottom of the screen. On the left is the "start" button, followed by shortcuts, and followed by open programs. The look and feel is similar to Windows making new users already feel somewhat comfortable with the system. If you are used to a certain configuration, having something very similar makes it easier to use.

Mint has a menu system that is fairly logical. There is favorites tab and an applications tab. This will let you get to all your software. New users find the menu system easy. There is more than enough software for the average computer user with a browser, editors, and an office suite.

The best part about Mint is that the music codec, Java, and Flash are preinstalled. This means that your media and browser will just work like you expect them to do. You will be able to open all your documents and media just like you are used to without having to install these manually.

If a store opened across the street from Target, same relative inventory, same service, only difference everything was free, would Target survive?

Unlikely.

Yet in software...

"Payware" = "Freeware" (open source)--------------------------------------Windows = LinuxOracle = MySQLMS Office = OpenOfficeUltra Edit = PSPad

...the current reality is that payware and freeware compete in the marketplace head to head.

In fact, the "for pay" software continues to thrive in the marketplace despite free software that is in many cases just as good (some might claim better).

Why is this?

When you buy a pair of jeans at the store the total cost is paid in full at the time of the purchase. There are no additional costs involved that directly pertain to the manufacturer. Of course there is the on-going cost of maintaining the pants through washing. This is a totally different market that is wholly agnostic to the brand of jeans. In other words, Tide washes Wrangler's the same as Levi's.

With software the game is different. Only a small percentage of the total cost of software can be attributed to its development. Support and maintenance make up a sizeable chunk of the cost. The larger one scales the software the higher these costs go. There is no singular solution like Tide to deal with both Windows or Linux. Sure you copy files in both, and make directories, but the means of doing so is very different and not interchangeable like your detergent. My trivial example has not even exposed the tip of the iceberg!

So this leaves us with the issue of market share. When you have a commodity that requires so much additional and continuing service/support, market share becomes a very important factor.

Support and service for free software is anything but free. Microsoft loves to tell us (and rightly so) that TCO (total cost of ownership) between Windows and Linux is in the same ballpark. They even claim that Linux costs more, all factors considered. But the geeks at Redmond can't have it both ways. Open Source software that can be obtained for free does not represent communism (Remember Mr. Balmer declaring this?). Communism to my understanding was never a sustaining and growing multi-billion dollar business.

If we look back as to how Microsoft dominated the market we tend to forget some key points.

* The mainframe market viewed Microsoft as a passing fad.[The CEO of DEC wondered why in the world anyone would every want to own a computer.]

*Microsoft was the only real game in town when it came to PC operating systems.[Any attempts by others (DR Dos, OS2) were summarily squashed.]

*Microsoft gave away IE in order to squash then leader Netscape.[Who?]

*Microsoft sold early versions of Office for $99.00 to gain market share.[Other players at the time were selling there office suites for 3+ times that amount. Microsoft bought market share by thinking long term. After all, changing your word processor and spreadsheet are a bit dicier than changing your undies. Also, think of all of us who make a living off these products.]

While many software vendors have come and gone, it is the open source, "here it is for free" Cowboys and Cowgirls that are here to stay and threaten the very world of "for pay" software. But what the hey, we developers are typically more enthralled by creating things than making money. I know of no other profession on the planet where not taking and reusing other peoples work is considered the sane way of doing ones job. I believe in journalism they call it plagiarism?

Web hosting has become an industry in itself because of its growing demand in the IT services sector. From the times when these services were meant for just designing HTML pages to the times when programming platforms like PHP and ASP are incorporated, web hosting has indeed come a long way. But even these software platforms only pay off on certain operating systems where their usability can be thoroughly exploited. Linux web hosting India services have become very popular in the web hosting industry because of the features, benefits and lastly, the versatility offered by the software platform. The platform is a safe haven for applications made with open source code as the administrators will always have the liberty to make changes suiting their professional requirements and further modify the program to their own handiness.

Linux operating systems have grown onto become one of the most preferred ones on the block. The system was initially released as an open source GNU GPL with freely available source code. Because of this virtue, IT developers across the world have been able to make drastic changes and mould the code to their convenience. The contribution of many software stalwarts across the world has made Linux a very stable and consistent platform on which Linux web hosting India services have flourished and thrived well. Because of these changes, the platform has seen many variations that tend to add a lot of value to the applications developed. Open source code ensures that whenever applications need to be restructured in a certain way, they can be streamlined accordingly.

The biggest advantage provided by Linux web hosting India is the high level of reliability. The operating system provides space to write critical applications which is of huge importance to organizations. Linux web hosting services are very adaptable to corporate environments and let developers change the coding structure top their comfort. Because of the efficient web server and some robust hardware, Linux web hosting services give users an uptime of up to 99.99 per cent. Also, Linux web hosting services are highly cost efficient and less expensive compared to its counterparts making it very viable. The GPL feature allows lots of variations to be incorporated by web masters and developers.

Hosting solutions should also allow website expansion. Linux web hosting India services allow that to the hilt. The space provided by the services to incorporate changes ensures that whenever the applications need changes according to the situation, the developers have the liberty and freedom to make them. The Linux platform is compatible and the web hosting services made on it are made with a vision of changing times. The system is quite compatible with MySQL, which is basically a database server and also its contemporaries like Ruby and Python. Commercial products such as the Microsoft FrontPage can also be easily run on these hosting services and for business website owners, the Linux web hosting India services will always be a delight to work on.

Linux Web Hosting services are usually available in cheapest webhosting packages with great features. If you are searching for a cheap webhosting then Linux Web Hosting is one of the best option for you with a wealth of features at an acceptable cost. It's also a good idea to consider that any reputable web hosting provider will allow you to modify the specifications of your Linux web hosting service so that you can create a web hosting package that is more ideal for you.With the help of Linux web hosting a company can built its website by using Linux Operating system & it's an open-source Linux operating system to drive its servers. Linux Web hosting helps us to build our website on a large enterprise or you can migrate your website from a small business to large scale along with many features and advantages over your competitors alike. There are several packages are available in the market for Linux Webhosting, but it's very hard to choose one out of them. Once you decid e your budget along with your required feature then you can easily decide which package is best for you and that will further improve your chances of doing well in business. As it's an open-source based, Linux Web Hosting allows us to take advantage of wide range of other free and the best and popular known open-source technologies & applications like XML, PHP, MySQL etc. Linux Web Hosting offers us good flexibility with low cost in comparison to Window Hosting. It also provides high accessibility & availability of the web applications for the end users. The open source programming community also claims that we can quickly access, repair and apply patches for any glitches if a site encounter. It also provides high accessibility & availability of the web applications. The open source programming community also claims that we can quickly access, repair and apply patches for any glitches if a site encounter.

Hosting website on Linux provides a consistence and secure environment as it uses less resource on the server. Security is the very important factor offered by Linux web hosting because Linux servers provides many different mechanism and applications and it helps to offer a highly secure web hosting environment. Like it your website is containing the personal information about you and your clients then it's very important you to be use a secure web hosting environment because you are the only one for all the personal and secure information and data if any of the information is leaked.

Linux operating system is considered as one of the best reliable OS in today's world.Being open source it is cost effective with no licensing fee, also it is one of the most stable operating system on server side.Let's find out the advantages of Linux web hostingLow Cost:

One of the major factor in any business is low cost. You can grow your business rapidly while saving the running cost of your business. Linux has no licensing fee which provides relaxation to end user in licensing fee. Usually you can find php or Linux hosting in $3 to $7 per month easily.Stability:

Linux is very stable operating system. A Linux server can stay up for a year or more, which is not possible in window machine.

Most widely used:Because of low cost and high reliability Linux is being used widely. This helps in website maintenance.Usually you can find easy fixes and solutions of problems, because of its wide usage.Cross platform product:Linux offers many cross platform products. You can run Linux web server and database servers on Windows machine. Thus you can run both window and Linux applications altogether on one machine.

Light Weigh:Linux is light weight operating system and hence it consumes low hardware resources as compared to other operating system. This further improves the performance and reduces the technology cost.

Easy Customization:

Being open source, you have full control over code compilation. You can compile kernel or whole code according to your own choice and needs. This makes the linux as highly customizable for different solutions.

In short Linux is best choice to save cost with high reliability. On-line businesses are generating millions of dollars using open source technology. Now you can host a business or personal website in couple of dollars only.