Opening doors with Linux
Md. Saquib Hussain | Sunday, 1 June 2008
Linux can also bring down the cost of system in terms of hardware expenses. A typical machine running Windows XP or Vista is really resource hungry. A proper system that can be used in government agencies could cost anywhere between Tk 25,000 and 40,000 Tk. A Linux OS is far more resource friendly. In terms of efficiency, a typical system with 1.5 GHz of processing power and 512MB of RAM can run Linux with all everyday applications without any hiccups. Not to mention there are Linux operating systems that run just fine on any 500 MHz system with 128 MB of RAM. And such Linux OS do not function as Windows 9x, in fact these low spec systems can very well keep up with any Windows operating system, if not better than them. Higher specs also come with higher energy consumption. A high end PC can take as much as 400 to 800 watts of electric power, making it one of the most power hungry electronics equipment in a regular home or office; multiplying that with the number of PCs we expect to see within 2020 tells us how much more energy we will need. The lower requirement of Linux also makes it a greener OS. A Linux distribution running on a 500 MHz system with 256 MB of RAM using Firefox browser can pretty much do anything online, something that's nearly impossible on a Windows XP based system. An average user in our country simply does not need couple of gigahertz of processing power, millions of transistors, and hundreds of watts of energy consumption. A regular PC at any organisation does only a few defined jobs. For instance, it needs an Office Suite, Internet browsing, E-Mail usage, some amount of Instant Messaging, and may be occasional multimedia playback. These tasks can be done with any current Linux operating system with no trouble. Does it make sense to require 100 million calculations per second to write a document or send an email? A first generation Pentium 4 system should be more than enough in most of the areas where computers needs to be installed. The high end hardware is barely required by the average user of our country.
Not only do we get the opportunity to use all these applications just like we do in Windows, but we also enjoy the benefit of a much more secure and stable environment. In government offices, security is the highest priority, which can never be of the same level in Windows. Windows machines are plagued with virus everyday; the issue is more critical for the PCs that are being used at the work place, classrooms, and photocopy centers or at other public places. Linux is a true "Virus Free" OS, the probability of any kind of virus in a Linux based OS is very low if not zero. There are essentially no viruses for Linux in out there (some research viruses certainly do exist). Linux users are not porting closed-source applications to it - the number of permutations is high, so the number of machines a closed-source program will run on (unless the libraries are included) is relatively low, giving almost no chance for someone to write a virus that can attack multiple PCs. A generic user account has much more limited access to the rest of the system, making the corruption of system files much harder. The high development pace of Linux means distributions release regular updates, which means a virus will be overwritten in a relatively short timeframe, having very little time to get popular. Mandatory access controls are almost everywhere, limiting what a rare virus can do even if it did infiltrate a system binary. Linux users have secure file permissions by default; meaning an infected user will not disrupt other users or the entire system. All these make writing Virus for a Linux OS almost impossible, making entire effort not worth the effect.
Computers and Information Technology can never be pushed into our culture if it's in English. The huge difference between people in the city and those in villages help us not to see such barriers. Most people in our country barely pass the fifth grade, let alone understand English. If we look outside the major metropolitan areas, Bengali is still the only medium of communication. A GUI, no matter how good in terms of usability, has very little meaning if the language does not make any sense. Imagine being on a Chinese website with fancy graphics, can we ever use it? Due to the open source nature, Linux can be made fully compatible with our mother language. With an OS that works completely using Bengali language, possibilities of technological improvement becomes infinite for us. Imagine a sixth grade kid writing letters or a farmer checking prices for fertiliser online in Bengali or the postmaster from the next village keeping track of things using the computer - such dreams can be made true if Bengali Linux systems are introduced. In fact, there are many Linux distributions that have been customised to be in Bengali, but lack of funding or proper exposure made these innovations barely recognisable outside the geek cycles.
One of the common misconceptions on Linux based systems is they lack additional software. Linux repositories have thousands of applications tailor made for different purposes. These applications are updated regularly, all available at one place and extremely easy to install. Not only does Linux offer option to do anything that can be done in Windows, in many cases Linux applications have much better flexibility and features compared to those in Windows. The open source nature of the applications themselves brings all the benefits that are available in Linux. The MS Office (300 USD) can be replaced easily by the free Open Office, similarly the basic photo editing work can be performed easily on GIMP than on Photoshop (that costs 800 USD). From regular office applications, to scientific research, or audio editing tools to all in one media managers - Linux incorporates anything that a user could need. It's true that some applications don't have the polished feel available to Windows, but we get all these applications for absolutely free of cost and are almost as good. The differences in Linux and Windows applications are mostly based on the fact that one is "used to" Windows, but Linux applications do have great features and usability. Current distributions like OpenSuSE or Ubuntu have made Linux a whole lot easier to use than it was 5 years ago. A full list of Linux alternatives along with details can be found at: http://www.linuxalt.com.
Those who prefer style and look of the OS could have been running away from older Linux based systems. But the GUI of Linux has undergone massive improvements over the last few years. Thanks to hardcore and dedicated open source programmers, today one can transform their look and feel with unprecedented level of flashy and useful features with little effort. Not only do Linux operating systems provide very classy and usable GUI, but features of XGL/AIGLX combined with Beryl/Compiz put anything from Vista or Leopard to shame.
Linux is simply a more powerful operating system than Windows. Those who have questions really need to look deep into UNIX architecture. World's most high tech research facilities and powerful super computers are run on UNIX environment. Linux provides unprecedented level of scalability. It can be run on a handheld device or on a supercomputer. Looking at MIT to NASA, or simulation systems at Lockheed Martin or NOAA, or even the OS running in PlayStation 3 - they all take advantage of Linux, because they easily outperform anything else when properly configured. Countries like Germany have decided upon usage of Linux OS in federal, state and local governments. We too can build such systems in our research facilities, employing hundreds of CS graduates and engineers of our country. Because of it being open source, all universities can help students study and work with LINUX/UNIX based systems, making our country more self dependant, reducing brain drain and increasing prospect of innovation and research. Linux has more prominent impact on economic progress. Working with Free and Open Source software provides more opportunities to be created in our own country. It provides new alternatives, and more chances for innovation in the IT industry.
It's hard not to see the endless possibilities Linux can bring. In this fast paced world of development, we will be lagging far behind without it. Its overall nature makes it more suitable for developing countries like Bangladesh. Hardware industry might be difficult to battle with due to heavy funding requirements; but with Linux, our software industry can open doors to thousands of bright minds who never get to apply their knowledge in practical field. It's no question that such platform has been and will be the future of computing technology and is only a choice that we have to make to be sure that we don't fall behind this time.
............................................
The writer is a Training & Implementation Specialist at
Therap Services, LLC. He can be reached at saquib.h@gmail.com
Not only do we get the opportunity to use all these applications just like we do in Windows, but we also enjoy the benefit of a much more secure and stable environment. In government offices, security is the highest priority, which can never be of the same level in Windows. Windows machines are plagued with virus everyday; the issue is more critical for the PCs that are being used at the work place, classrooms, and photocopy centers or at other public places. Linux is a true "Virus Free" OS, the probability of any kind of virus in a Linux based OS is very low if not zero. There are essentially no viruses for Linux in out there (some research viruses certainly do exist). Linux users are not porting closed-source applications to it - the number of permutations is high, so the number of machines a closed-source program will run on (unless the libraries are included) is relatively low, giving almost no chance for someone to write a virus that can attack multiple PCs. A generic user account has much more limited access to the rest of the system, making the corruption of system files much harder. The high development pace of Linux means distributions release regular updates, which means a virus will be overwritten in a relatively short timeframe, having very little time to get popular. Mandatory access controls are almost everywhere, limiting what a rare virus can do even if it did infiltrate a system binary. Linux users have secure file permissions by default; meaning an infected user will not disrupt other users or the entire system. All these make writing Virus for a Linux OS almost impossible, making entire effort not worth the effect.
Computers and Information Technology can never be pushed into our culture if it's in English. The huge difference between people in the city and those in villages help us not to see such barriers. Most people in our country barely pass the fifth grade, let alone understand English. If we look outside the major metropolitan areas, Bengali is still the only medium of communication. A GUI, no matter how good in terms of usability, has very little meaning if the language does not make any sense. Imagine being on a Chinese website with fancy graphics, can we ever use it? Due to the open source nature, Linux can be made fully compatible with our mother language. With an OS that works completely using Bengali language, possibilities of technological improvement becomes infinite for us. Imagine a sixth grade kid writing letters or a farmer checking prices for fertiliser online in Bengali or the postmaster from the next village keeping track of things using the computer - such dreams can be made true if Bengali Linux systems are introduced. In fact, there are many Linux distributions that have been customised to be in Bengali, but lack of funding or proper exposure made these innovations barely recognisable outside the geek cycles.
One of the common misconceptions on Linux based systems is they lack additional software. Linux repositories have thousands of applications tailor made for different purposes. These applications are updated regularly, all available at one place and extremely easy to install. Not only does Linux offer option to do anything that can be done in Windows, in many cases Linux applications have much better flexibility and features compared to those in Windows. The open source nature of the applications themselves brings all the benefits that are available in Linux. The MS Office (300 USD) can be replaced easily by the free Open Office, similarly the basic photo editing work can be performed easily on GIMP than on Photoshop (that costs 800 USD). From regular office applications, to scientific research, or audio editing tools to all in one media managers - Linux incorporates anything that a user could need. It's true that some applications don't have the polished feel available to Windows, but we get all these applications for absolutely free of cost and are almost as good. The differences in Linux and Windows applications are mostly based on the fact that one is "used to" Windows, but Linux applications do have great features and usability. Current distributions like OpenSuSE or Ubuntu have made Linux a whole lot easier to use than it was 5 years ago. A full list of Linux alternatives along with details can be found at: http://www.linuxalt.com.
Those who prefer style and look of the OS could have been running away from older Linux based systems. But the GUI of Linux has undergone massive improvements over the last few years. Thanks to hardcore and dedicated open source programmers, today one can transform their look and feel with unprecedented level of flashy and useful features with little effort. Not only do Linux operating systems provide very classy and usable GUI, but features of XGL/AIGLX combined with Beryl/Compiz put anything from Vista or Leopard to shame.
Linux is simply a more powerful operating system than Windows. Those who have questions really need to look deep into UNIX architecture. World's most high tech research facilities and powerful super computers are run on UNIX environment. Linux provides unprecedented level of scalability. It can be run on a handheld device or on a supercomputer. Looking at MIT to NASA, or simulation systems at Lockheed Martin or NOAA, or even the OS running in PlayStation 3 - they all take advantage of Linux, because they easily outperform anything else when properly configured. Countries like Germany have decided upon usage of Linux OS in federal, state and local governments. We too can build such systems in our research facilities, employing hundreds of CS graduates and engineers of our country. Because of it being open source, all universities can help students study and work with LINUX/UNIX based systems, making our country more self dependant, reducing brain drain and increasing prospect of innovation and research. Linux has more prominent impact on economic progress. Working with Free and Open Source software provides more opportunities to be created in our own country. It provides new alternatives, and more chances for innovation in the IT industry.
It's hard not to see the endless possibilities Linux can bring. In this fast paced world of development, we will be lagging far behind without it. Its overall nature makes it more suitable for developing countries like Bangladesh. Hardware industry might be difficult to battle with due to heavy funding requirements; but with Linux, our software industry can open doors to thousands of bright minds who never get to apply their knowledge in practical field. It's no question that such platform has been and will be the future of computing technology and is only a choice that we have to make to be sure that we don't fall behind this time.
............................................
The writer is a Training & Implementation Specialist at
Therap Services, LLC. He can be reached at saquib.h@gmail.com