why linux??

mohn wrote to me some time back saying that he was somehow not motivated enough to spend time learning linux. so here are a few reasons i feel really attracted to this os.

open/free source
i am not sure how to earn money developing open/free source. but i certainly use a lot of such projects. even in java i use a lot(almost everything i use) of open software. i really love the concept of open source software(oss) of sharing knowledge. the community develops and shares. rapid bug removal, better security..

we are programmers
as a prog i would like to learn a lot on computers/software. not only a particular language but more on the overall working. linux is not the easiest os. and you inherently end up learning different things on the os. things we take for granted in windows are more apparent in linux. and as prog i guess we get more interested to explore more. take for instance the boot process, services, file systems, .. the list is endless. personally i have learnt a lot on how the os works, but the todo part is more than enough for a life-time. we might not end up being kernel guru's but can still learn a lot. also if you read books on os'es like how processes work, simply open a c file to see the actual implementaion yourself.

choice
i don't know if i should call this a merit. there is so much choice, right from a distro, to a file-sys, to a window manager, to browsers, and every type of app. i found it really overwhelming. i somehow settled on a particular set of apps on red hat and will soon shift to (try to) gentoo. so that should keep me busy.

shell, command-line
everything in linux was made to work on the shell. you can always do a job clicking on a gui. but seriously,.. working on a shell gives me a major high. makes me feel like a real prog. you discover a lot of command line applications, and compiling a kernel should be a good ego booster.

so if you want more eureka moments in your life... learn linux.

if any of you are not motivated enough, send me travelling fare to come there and kick your ???. {read a 3 letter word) (regular expression joke).

i'll try to cover some basic topics from next time. you guys should obviously join in.