Linux's window

After a few weeks in the company of Linux, I'm convinced that Microsoft Corp. CEO Bill Gates deserves his billions.

You remember Linux. It's the free operating system software developed in part by the Free Software Foundation in Cambridge. Linux has between 5 million and 7 million users worldwide, and it's beginning to offer a head-on challenge to Microsoft's Windows operating systems.

A few weeks back I vowed to try running Linux on my home machine, instead of Windows 95. I'm no Microsoft-basher; I'm just sick of the company's arrogance and eager for a high-quality alternative.

Since then I've received dozens of e-mails from around the world. A few suggested I skip Linux and switch to an Apple Macintosh. But these were far outnumbered by messages from faithful Linux users, and fence-sitters wondering whether they should take the plunge.

I'm not surprised by the response. Even most faithful Mac users know that their computer has reached a commercial dead end. But today's Mac is a technology dead end as well -- along with Microsoft's DOS and Windows 95, and even the shiny new Windows 98. None of these operating systems is designed to take full advantage of today's hot processor chips.

Microsoft is well aware of this. All of its future releases for home and business will be built around the more sophisticated Windows NT. This software is Microsoft's effort to emulate the sophisticated Unix operating system that runs most of the computers on the Internet. Meanwhile, Apple's next generation operating system, Mac OS X, is set to roll out next year. OS X will be based upon a Unix work-alike called Mach.

Notice a trend here? The Unix way of doing things holds a lot of appeal, because Unix and its various clones like Linux tend to be more crash-resistant, even when you're running several programs at once. That's because Linux will assign each program its own chunk of memory to play in, with other programs ordered to keep out. Windows 95 tries to do the same, but it frequently fails, leading to those amusing ``general protection fault'' crashes. Windows NT goes a long way toward fixing this problem, for as much as $800 a pop. But Linux is free.

So why go with Windows? Well, maybe you'd like to get some work done.

I get paid to fiddle with computers, and so I had a ball writing script files and sending desperate e-mails to Linux gurus. Linux harkens back to the Heroic Age of computing, when you actually had to know something about your machine.

Any of you weenies can insert a floppy disk on a PC or Mac. With Linux, I have to shove in the disk, and then type the magical incantation mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy. You PC and Mac users don't have to understand what's really happening when you're swapping disks or installing a new piece of software. You point, you click, you get busy.

And that's what 95 percent of all computer users want to do. My Linux adventure has heightened my respect for the hardworking coders at Apple and, yes, even Microsoft. Gates has earned his money by giving us colorful, convenient software that shields us from the brute realities of computing. Until Linux also gets a simple and attractive user interface like Windows NT, it'll only be popular with tightwads and arrested-development types like me. In addition, Linux needs high-quality software from reputable companies if it's to catch on.

Fortunately, there's movement on both fronts. Netscape Communications Corp. has a solid version of its Web browser running on Linux, and Corel Computer Corp. also offers its excellent WordPerfect program. Indeed, Corel says they're bringing out an entire office suite for Linux -- word processor, spreadsheet, the works. Meanwhile, a band of German software designers have created KDE, a user interface that comes mighty close to civilizing Linux. While it still needs a lot of work, my KDE-Linux setup qualifies for the junior varsity in the ease-of-use league.

And Microsoft just announced that the next version of Windows NT will be delayed again. It probably won't see daylight till next year. I'd call that a window of opportunity for Linux.