Breaking windows: Linux offers users an alternative

摘要

The emergence of the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) forever changed the way consumers and businesses interacted with their computers In the engineering world today, Windows NT dominates the computing landscape, and few independent software vendors (ISVs) have missed the opportunity to support the OS. In fact, operating systems, in general, had become somewhat of a nontopic among those in the engineering community. Linux is changing all that. People are talking about operating systems again. This UNIX-like operating system popped up on radar last year setting off a media blitz proclaiming Linux would give Bill Gates a run for his money and become the next 'Windows." Companies came out of the woodwork offering Linux distributions, and major Windows-only computer vendors such as Dell and IBM began offering server and desktop models with "Linux inside."