image credits : unixmen.comWhether it is a tech-savvy hero saving us from terrorist attacks by hacking into computer networks; or a skinny, bespectacled software programmer punching the night away on the keyboard, coding up the next big social network... well, chance are you will be shown arcane lines of code scrolling on the computer screen. Lot of cryptic commands, symbols and jargon that makes no sense to anyone but the protagonist. Luckily, for us mere mortals, such melodrama usually ends with big flashing text that say stuff like "Access Granted" or "Nuclear Launch Aborted" or "Virus Contained" or "Kejriwal for PM".
Okay fine, strike the last one out. But the point is that when you watch filmy computer scenes, the semi-geek amongst you will probably point to the screen and proclaim, "Ah, that is Linux!" Indeed, there was a time when Linux was considered to be by the geeks and for the geeks. Mere exposure to it resulted in Einstein-style hair, thick "soda glasses" on your eyes, and you mumbling in your sleep. Worse, if you were foolish enough to gift your techphobic parents aLinux computer, well, 10 minutes in front of it and they would have aged enough to look like your grandparents!
Terminal Case
For, at the heart of Linux, is the dreaded "Terminal" – that foreboding dark window in which you type exotic commands like sudo, yum (nothing tasty about this one!), bash (whom?), apt-get, purge (sure!), nano (a chhotu editor), vim (not the soap), ls (not low society!)... plus a bunch of hyphenated letters like –t, -o, -m, or even double hyphenations, curly brackets, front slash, back slash, whatnot. Here's one we recently came across – this one tells a Chromebook to boot into the Linux partition - sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda;sudo reboot. And how about this one - $ for i in * ; do newname=$(echo $i | sed 's/\(\b.\)/\u\1/g') ; mv -vi "$i" "$newname" ; done.
Click and Slick
But the great news is, these days you don't even need to dabble with commands and scripts. You can actually get work done without mucking around in the shell, ever. Linux is no longer scary! Over the years, it has gradually morphed into something sweet, caring and a pleasure to be in the company of.
Yes, those commands are still available if you want to roll up your sleeves and dabble in some self-flagellation. Though we believe that if you persevere long enough, the pain gradually goes away, and using the Terminal actually becomes a wonderful experience. For, as the say in the Linux world, the Terminal is where the magic happens. You will be amazed by what all you can pull off with a bunch of commands!
Why even bother?
But first off, let's get the Why out of the way. Why even bother with Linux when you have aWindows or OS X machine around? Well, here are some great reasons:
- It is free! Yes, you are getting an extremely powerful OS for nothing!
- It runs on crappy machines, too! Got a 10 year old computer that is still running Windows 98? No problem, chances are it will work fine with most Linux versions.
- It powers lot of electronics and computer accessories out there. Modems, routers, NAS, sensors, watches, media devices... you name it. You will find a customized version of Linux on most of the smart electronics out there. Even Android and OS X owe a lot to Linux and its parent, UNIX. Tinkering with these gadgets gets so much easier when you are familiar with Linux.
- There is no dearth of competent productivity apps (including Microsoft Office equivalents like LibreOffice), audio video players, browsers, casual games... and yes, almost all of them are free.- Now this will sound a bit weird, but working with Linux instills a bit of self-discipline and lot of awe in you – there is so much power under that Linux hood!
Demystifying Linux
This is where things get confusing – there are literally hundreds of spins/ derivatives to try out. Think of Linux as a chocolate wafer, like a Kit-Kat. At its core is what we called distributions – the underbelly, in a way. You would have heard of alternatives such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Arch Linux, Mint... indeed, the list is rather long. Broadly there are two camps – the Debian forks and the RedHat derivatives – think of them as brothers from the same mother, who went down slightly different computing paths as they grew up.
Anyway, covering the core layer of various distributions, is the slick GUI layer called the Desktop Environment. It is what you interact with, spend most of your time on. Among the more popular DEs would be KDE, Cinnamon, Gnome, Unity, Luna... The best part is, you can pair almost any distribution with any desktop! You can even have multiple desktops installed and jump from one to another using different "session". That is the power of Linux!
Where to start
However, in this column, we will focus on just some of the slicker, more user-friendly Linux options – in other words, something that even your grandma will be comfortable with. So we will leave a bunch of renowned Linux flavours, simply because we believe they are tuned more towards the advanced user – think of them as graduation options once you pass the Linux school!
We suggest you start off your Linux journey with these famous four. Try them all out in a virtual machine – so that you don't have to make any permanent changes to your computer. Keep the one you like most, forget the rest.
image credits : max1mlinux.deviantart.com
ElementaryOS Luna
If you like the Mac way of doing things, you will love eOS Luna. The App Tray is there, so are the slick icons and neat transitions. This is the closest you will get to an OS X lookalike in the Linux world! However, Linux veterans might find it too limiting and barebones. But the eye-candy is to die for!
image credits : linuxg.net
Linux Mint 16 (Petra)
If you would rather stick to a traditional Windows PC approach (pre Win 8, that is) - where you get a taskbar, system tray, menus and desktop icons - look no further than Linux Mint. It comes layered with Cinnamon, one of the best-looking desktops we have come across. Google for a few screenshots, and we are sure you will love what you see.
Fedora 20 (Heisenberg)
Some would wonder what Fedora is doing on this list – it belongs to the "other camp" meant for the 'serious' Linux user. Well, Fedora 20 with Gnome 3.10 DE is a sharp and smart-looking OS. Everything just works, nice and neat! But a word of cautious – the latest Gnome DE may not be everyone's cup of tea – it is too keyboard focused and tends to tuck away lot of controls – will make you wonder where to draw the line between 'simplicity' and 'dumbed down'.
image credits : ninosellak.blogspot.com
But try it out, and if you hate it, replace it with KDE, which carries forward the regular desktop while adding some flashy elements to it.
Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander)
Ubuntu is often credited with making Linux popular and taking it to converts mistake Ubuntu to be the whole of Linux – similar to thinking of www to be the whole of Internet! Well, Ubuntu is certainly a friendly option to go out and play with. However, its DE – Unity – is rather polarizing. You will either love it or hate it!
image credits : labalec.fr
Sure, there are many other alternatives out there. We would love to hear about your favorites, and why they earn that status. Please post in the comments below.
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