The myth of free Linux

Stan Beer
Sunday, 15 April 2007 09:25

Opinion and Analysis

Those of you who are considering moving away from Windows to Linux for your desktop may need to be dispelled of a certain myth. No matter what distribution you ultimately choose to download, Linux is by no means free of financial cost.

As a matter of fact, most open source advocates will readily admit, the concept of free software does not mean it costs nothing. In open source parlance, free means free access to source code, freedom to develop your own Linux distribution, freedom of choice, freedom from the constraints of a single vendor solution - that sort of thing.

In fact, if you're like me, financial cost is not the reason you would move from Windows to Linux. Superior stability and better security are my primary motivators. I want a more robust operating system and I want it to be easy to configure.

If you're so inclined, you could theoretically download and set up Linux distribution for your desktops and set up a home or small office network without paying any out of pocket costs (assuming there are no hardware incompatibilities). However, if you consider your time to be worth money and you would rather be doing more productive things than trawling Linux sites and distro forums trying to find answers, then it's false economy to suggest that paying nothing up front and spending endless hours configuring your system to work the way you want it to is free.

I'm prepared to experiment and get my hands dirty because I write about this stuff for a living. However, if like the majority of computer users these days you're not technically adept, building your own Linux system from scratch is probably not an option. You want a plug and play system.

Therefore you have two choices. You can wait for Dell and the other mainstream computer vendors to deliver hardware with pre-loaded, supported Linux distros or you can pay a specialist Linux consultant to set up a system for you. Linux consultants don't come cheap and I will be interested to see what prices Dell will charge for its first pre-loaded Linux boxes. I doubt that they will be that much cheaper than the Windows computers.

Whether Dell's Linux desktop and notebook computers are cheaper or about the same price as its Windows lines, for my money they will still be worth very close consideration when making my next purchasing decision.

Other hardware vendors should take note of the number one request from Dell's customers on the company's IdeaStorm web site and get into gear. It could well mark the beginning of the long overdue growth spurt in desktop Linux we've all been waiting for. However, if you're expecting to get a plug and play Linux system for free, think again.