You know, you get in some of the strangest discussions when you start talking about using a non-Microsoft operating system like Linux, the "Unix-like" alternative operating system first introduced in 1991 by a Finnish university student named Linux Torvalds. Releasing the operating kernel source code onto the Internet, Torvalds invited programmers from anywhere and everywhere to hack, change, modify, insert, and generally participate in making the nascent operating system better and better and bolder.

Legions of programmers and hackers from all over the world responded, and Linux has become something of a phenomenon. The buzz on Linux in the computer world is currently loud and getting louder. Corel has announced they’ll produce a Linux office suite in 1999. Netscape has supported Linux virtually from the beginning (of Netscape) by porting its browsers to the OS. Although the operating system kernel source code is now and must always be "public" (and distributed for free) under its public license, several companies are producing and selling commercial, shrink-wrapped, "value added" versions of Linux, including Red Hat, Caldera, S.u.S.E., Debian, and others. The cost? If you choose to buy a commercial distribution of the OS, about $50. Or you can simply download the latest version of the OS from the Internet for free.

Because of the burgeoning popularity of Linux, new companies seem to be signing on to support it almost weekly. For instance, software giants like database powerhouses Informix and Sybase Software, Inc. have announced their support for Linux in the past year. But what has really gotten computer-tongues wagging is what happened just last month: Two of the biggest names in computing---Intel and Netscape---announced that they were pumping a few hundred million dollars (ahem…pocket change) into the company that distributes probably the most popular Linux shrink-wrapped version, Red Hat Software, Inc.

For Intel---half of the Microsoft/Intel duopoly sitting astride the computer world---and Microsoft arch-enemy Netscape to cooperate in supporting Linux has virtually caused eyeballs to snap throughout the industry. Why? Because although Linux is essentially distributed for free, and therefore no one knows for sure how many users it has, studies amounting to educated guesses put the number now at between 9 million and 14 million users, and growing fast.

In addition, studies have shown that only two operating systems are gaining users over the last couple of years: Windows NT…and Linux (this statistic may not include new users, but only existing computer users who are upgrading). When you consider that Linux didn’t even exist nine years ago, and that its distribution and development have been and continue to be "free," it’s nothing short of astounding that the OS is even on the radar screen.

Mark Andreeson, executive VP of Netscape, explaining his company’s investment in Red Hat at a trade show a couple of weeks ago, said Linux "is free, it’s stable, it’s fast and scalable, it’s Unix, it’s the OS of choice on the Internet, and it runs on cheap Intel hardware." It also is capable of doing everything Windows NT is touted as being able to do---the operating system that Microsoft has said we will all be migrating to over the next few years---and more. Studies comparing Windows NT and Linux have even in some cases shown Linux to be superior to NT…something the dedicated Linux following of computer nerds, hackers, programmers and Unix gurus have loudly asserted for several years.

So. I decide to take a flyer on Linux, buy a shrink-wrapped version, visit the local Linux users group, and maybe see if I can make the OS work on a spare Intel 486 machine I have with 16 megs of RAM. And what do people say when I tell them I’m going to try out Linux? "I don’t get into any of that radical computer stuff," said one fellow lawyer. "I just stick with Microsoft."

How about a more knowledgeable computer aficionado? Like our own newsletter editor, Fred LaMartin? "Now why would you want to waste time learning a new operating system when Windows works just fine for everything you want to do?" he said. Later he was even more supportive: "I know what Linux is," he said. "It’s just the latest fad of the anti-Microsoft people. First it was DOS, and people didn’t want to switch to Windows." (Yep, I said, that describes me.) "And then when they were forced to go to a Windows-type OS they went to OS/2," Fred said. (Yep, I said, I tried out OS/2 before being forced to go to Win95.) And now, Fred continued, the anti-Microsoft cranks (yep, that may well describe me too, I thought) are all rallying behind Linux. Doom and gloom, and you’re wasting your time, our editor seemed to be telling me.

And yet…and yet…there is the…you might call it "underlying philosophy" of Linux, which has fueled its explosive growth, and undergirds the entire "world domination" movement that the Linux-lovers jokingly say is their ultimate aim. That philosophy, which was impossible before the advent of the Internet, has been called "the bazaar model." And it has been most powerfully explicated in a seminal article written by Eric Raymond in 1997 called "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." Within seven months of the publication of the article, Netscape Communications executives had read it and announced the release of the source code for Netscape Communicator 5.0. And I admit it: The notion of what might be called "spontaneous cooperative software development" does appeal to me.

Want to read the piece? You can find "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" all over the Internet. Just do a search for the name of the article and lots of locations will pop up. What makes the entire development of Linux so fascinating is how it has (1) seemingly come out of nowhere, and (2) constitutes an almost diametrically opposed philosophy and structure for software development from Microsoft. Where Linux has come about through the apparently spontaneous operation and organization of "the bazaar model," Microsoft is a resolute of "the cathedral" model. Read the paper; it’ll all become more clear then.

In the meantime, I wonder if there are any Linux-users in the TPCUG? And I wonder if there might be any interest in forming a Linux SIG? Hello? Hello? Anyone out there? I’m going to be loading my copy of S.u.S.E. Linux onto one of the hard drives in my old 486 machine here before too long. I’ll let you all know how it turns out, if there’s any interest. And if anyone has particular knowledge about Linux, let me know by email at condon@usa.net. I might want to pester you for help…if all does not go well. u