There is a ghost that has been haunting the dreams of Steve Balmer and Steve Jobs, a spectre that has been robbing them of sleep. Its name is Linux.

Many of you may be wondering, “What the heck is Linux?” Linux is an alternative operating system written by the Finnish programmer Linus Trovalds. Uniquely, it is perfectly free. Linux is open source software, which means that both the code and the use of the OS are perfectly free.

Because it is open source, unlike Mac OS X or Window’s Vista, Linux comes in many forms, often aimed at specific user profiles. Ubuntu Linux, for instance, is aimed at the average user. Its slogan is “Linux for human beings,” and appropriately has an intuitive user interface. Red Hat and Novell are targeted at businesses and large organizations because their distributions are generally designed for servers. For instance, every time you access Google, you are making use of a Linux variant designed for servers. Gentoo is for the hard-core programmer or computer geek. Zenwalk or Xubuntu are for older machines with little power. The variations are many and diverse, which means that you can find a version that will work for any purpose.

Security is another advantage of Linux. Because of the way the operating system is set up, in order to install anything, you must enter a super user password. This means that no viruses, spyware, adware or any other malicious or malignant program can install itself without your specific consent. To further protect your computer, there is no file extension that allows for automatic running. In order to run any file, it must be marked as safe to run by, you guessed it, a super user password. Once a file has been marked, however, it never needs be marked again. Programs installed using the package manager, which gives you access to a massive library of free software that has been approved as safe to use by a central authority, don’t even need to be marked. This means that all the standard software you would need, such as Open Office, Firefox, Opera and Amarok are immediately available and free.

For those who are less security conscious or believe that anything free could never both look and act high-quality and well-made, I would encourage you to go look up anything with the search words “Linux Compiz.” Compiz is eye candy for the Gnome desktop. Gnome is the standard user interface available with most distributions of Linux.

Linux is a well thought out, carefully constructed operating system with a growing popularity with the average every day user. It is fast, stable and free. It can be run on any platform, in fact there is a book titled How to Install Linux on a Dead Armadillo. It is an OS that is overlooked by most people, simply because there is very little advertising for it. In recent years some companies such as IBM and Dell have begun endorsing Linux, though momentum is still gaining slowly. Linux is not just for scary computer programmers anymore.