First off, if you have ten minutes to increase your knowledge and proficiency in computers read this entire post.  If not, just skip down to the final section (What is Ubuntu?) for an overview of what Ubuntu is and why their logo (the red, yellow, orange circle dealy above) is being used on this site for the month of May.

History of Operating Systems

A lot of people that have grown up using Microsoft Windows (or even the Mac operating systems) are addicted to the ease of point and click.  The graphical user interface (GUI) of Windows makes it easy to use a computer… you move the mouse around the desktop and click on icons of programs you want to run.  However, these GUIs are newborns in the life of computing.  The earliest computers came into existence in the 1930s and by the 1940s were being used to decipher German war time codes.  Until the popular release of Windows 3.1 in 1992 the graphical user interface was practically non-existent.  Before then people were using text user interfaces (TUI) to tell their computers what to do.  Before that people were actually using paper cards, linked together in chains, to operate their computers.

Early computer engineers created a solution that combined many smaller programming styles, languages, etc. into one rather robust (for their time) operating system/platform called Unix.  This eventually gave way to Linux (more user friendly than Unix), Windows and the Mac operating systems (much more user friendly than Unix).  Mac has recently redone their operating system to such a degree that it has reverted back closer to its Unix roots and now closely resembles Linux.  Windows, as much as Microsoft wants you to think differently, is pretty much a derivative/break-off of Unix and thus very closely related to Linux.  While Windows captured the majority of market share in the early 1990s, Linux began to gain popularity in the mid 90s with the release of Redhat (a distribution/derivative of Linux).  However, because Linux is created by the community and is most often free to use (unlike Windows which now costs between $90 and $200 to use it on one computer) it has not received nearly as large a marketing push as Windows has.  Another setback of early versions of Linux is that it was only in TUI form and required the user to know how to run a TUI system (much more difficult than a GUI system).  For these reasons, through the 90s and even through the turn of the century, Linux has been used only by the most intense of computer users.

Rebirth of Linux

Around the year 2000 Linux began its rebirth.  The community of computer users was growing quickly and the needs of those users was growing even more quickly.  Microsoft had become such a large company that many inneficiencies typical to large coporations began to arrise.  Apple had revamped their Mac systems so that they appealed to the young and hip crowd.  Microsoft, however, had lost it’s ability to innovate and was quickly becoming the laughing stock of many of the tech heads in Silicon Valley.  The general public was still widely using Microsoft Windows, but a growing portion of the people behind technical innovations accross the world were become disgruntled with Microsofts lack of ingenuity and habit of releasing expensive products that were bug ridden.  Thus, many of these tech heads began targeting Microsoft with viruses.  Other tech heads slowly began to install Linux on their home computers and tinker around with it.  Entire companies begain to adopt Linux over Windows because it was free, it ran faster, and not as many hackers were targeting Linux with viruses.  All of this led to the rebirth of Linux.  One of the leaders at the forefront of the Linux expansion was and still is Ubuntu.

What is Ubuntu?

If you took the time to read the above history of operating systems you should now see why the world is looking for an alternative to Microsoft Windows.  In case you didn’t read it, let me paraphrase for you:

Microsoft, because of poor releases of software (ie. Vista) and a lack of innovation, is creating a class of consumers who is disgruntled and looking for alternatives.  In steps Linux, and Ubuntu (a distribution/style of Linux).

Ubuntu (pronounced “oo-boon-too”) is an African word which pervays a relationship between people in which cooperation towards success overlies the more base human reaction to compete.  It is also the name of a distribution (a distribution is a set of styles applied to Linux – kind of like a particular flavor of ice cream) of Linux that is the fastest growing, in terms of number of users, Linux operating system.  Ubuntu is spreading quickly because of the following improvements it has helped bring to Linux:

• Ubuntu has an attractive graphical user interface (GUI) much like that provided by Windows.  This has dramatically increased the ease of use (for the general public) of Linux.
• Ubuntu is free.  There are thousands of softare packages that run on Ubuntu that are free.
• Ubuntu has less viruses.  This is mostly due to the fact that even though Linux is growing in popularity most people still use Windows and so that is what hackers write viruses for.  There is also some anti-Microsoft sentiment that probably ads to it.
• There is a growing trend towards the necessity of knowing the ins and outs of computers.  There is also a trend towards companies switching over to Linux for security and cost savings.  If you want to be on the innovative end of business you should know the products by which computer engineers are innovating, Linux.

Disclaimer: While I have both Windows and Ubuntu running on my personal desktop (in a dual boot configuration) there are certain things that you need Windows for.  I use the certain software for editing website and pictures (Adobe CS3 namely) that is not available on Linux/Ubuntu.  Ubuntu has its own free versions of the Adobe CS3 software (such as GIMP) but it is limited in its features.  So, while Ubuntu and Linux works for everday computing (like the majority of people do) it still has a ways to go before it can be a complete replacement for Windows.

The Bottom Line for Entreprenurial Success

Innovate.  This means knowing the new.  Ubuntu is one of many versions of Linux that is making waves. Try Ubuntu out and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Instead of buying Windows for all your machines you may be able to put Ubuntu on them.  I’ve been building computers and selling them on eBay for the past four years and lately I’ve only offered Ubuntu.  I’ve never had any complaints that they don’t include Microsoft Windows.  I’ve actually had several customers inform me that the reason they chose me was because I didn’t use Windows… they wanted a secure solution free of naggy bugs.

Another Linux operating system, highly popularized by the G1 cell phone and Google, the company behind its development, is Android.  If you have a bean of programming experience you can easily learn the programming language Java and write applications for the Android operating system.  Then you can post the application on your website and the Android marketplace and watch the downloads begin, as G1 cell phone users begin to use your application and become familiar with your company name.  Write a game, create a new killer app that helps consumers connect or some other application that will help get your entreprenurial venture before the masses.

Whatever your computing needs, you could probably use Linux as a Windows replacement and save some money.