Linux is an Free and Open Source Operating System that is the brainchild of Linus Torvalds, a Finnish software engineer. It may be altered and redistributed, free of charge (if you redistribute it, you must leave the source open in the same fashion) and it comes in a variety of flavours (AKA "distributions" or "distro's"), such as Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, and Redhat/Fedora.
Each flavour of Linux caters to a slightly, or even vastly, different audience and most of the popular flavors are free, as long as you are willing to use the online Linux community for support in lieu of a support subscription. Most Linux software applications are also free (in the same manner).
Now, Linux's biggest strength is that it has tens or hundreds of thousands of developers, with different backgrounds and strengths, from all around the world contributing to its source. Its biggest weakness is that it has tens or hundreds of thousands of developers from all around the world contributing to its source. Yup, that's right, its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. Let me explain.
While the plethora of Linux developers have different strengths, they also have different tastes. This means that software that is created is often more secure and more efficient because there are more people to review and improve the code in their respective areas of expertise. This is the driving benefit of Open Source Software (OSS) (aside from it being free, of course). Other benefits include potentially faster application development (if planned properly), increased reliability, better features, and greater innovation.
The problem comes in the differing tastes of developers. Since developers are often unpaid, they tend to focus on projects of personal interest, rather than projects that can help to make Linux more competitive against Windows and MacOS. The result is that there are a wide variety of software to fill the needs of micro-niche markets and fewer to fill larger markets that would drive competitive innovation for the operating system.
I read in a tech blog today that porting World of Warcraft to Linux would cause a massive shift of Windows users to Linux. I couldn't agree more! Having well over 10 million users, World of Warcraft is a huge player in online gaming. If Linux could pluck even half a million or a million of those users, allowing them to play World of Warcraft (without having to paying for Cedega or other Windows-Emulation software, or have to deal with WINE's bugs and quirks), it would be inevitable that developers would follow suit and Linux development would accelerate.
As for me, I just sit, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for Linux to finally get its chance to shine in a world of corporate giants like Microsoft and Apple.
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