I am sitting here being very fidgety as I wait for my new laptop to arrive. Actually, it has been in Portland since Friday, but UPS wouldn’t let me come pick it up until they had tried delivery once. So I have spent the weekend spinning my wheels in eager anticipation (which is why there are now chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered graham crackers and toasted hazelnut bark in my fridge). Now I am sitting at my front window, missing my early warning system* and waiting for the UPS man to arrive.
Instead of a Mac or a Windows laptop, I am getting a Linux laptop. Linux is an open source operating system. That means that the source code that makes the operating system work is freely available. Both Apple and Microsoft have closed source operating systems that are not available to the public. There will be a future blog post addressing open vs. closed source.
Historically, Linux was the purview of only the very tech savvy. The neighbor’s kid down the block would probably not be able to help you if you had a problem. There was always community support, but the bar to entry was too high for many people. Fortunately, this is changing. Linux distributions (versions) now look familiar to anyone who uses Windows or Mac operating systems. Here are 2 examples of Linux desktops:
My new laptop comes from a company called System 76. They sell laptops and desktop computers with Linux pre-installed. Even better, they provide technical support for Linux. As much as I am excited about my new laptop, I don’t think Linux is ready for the mainstream yet. But, I think the day will come very soon when Linux will be a real option for many people.
[Ed. The laptop has arrived and it is now busily installing the new Ubuntu update. Three plus hours and counting].
* Our early warning system was our cat Diana. She had a terror of the UPS truck and could distinguish them from all other delivery trucks including FedEx and USPS. She would hear the truck turn on to our block (we were 3/4 of the way down the street and couldn’t see them turn on to our street) and take off in sheer terror.