Is your computer a Windows98, Millenium, Windows2000, or NT machine ?

Do you think you have to buy a new computer to have a safe operating system. There is a safe and capable operating system that comes with fully featured software! From full Office Suites to Web Servers, from Data Base to Pornography filters, Linux will do about anything you can do with a computer. And Linux will run just fine on your “older” hardware.

Dont pay $ for upgrades to keep a program you've already paid for or pay good money for an operating system that crashes all the time and pay more to “protect” it and then have part of your desktop sold for advertising, There is no need to steal (pirate) programs because most of the software is FREE ! (as in speech). Linux is free and legal !

There are software programs that are equivalent in nature to those you can find with windows. Here are some links to sites that list them. Because Linux is growing in leaps and bounds this list is getting larger all the time.
HERE and HERE

So Why isn't everyone already using Linux ... Windows did for personal computing what Ford did for the automobile. Cars were for the very rich before Henry Ford developed mass production. Microsoft made a graphical desktop and marketed it very well. The initial idea of using a pointing device and Icons (representing commands) to manipulate programs was initially developed by Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) back in the 1970's. Later, Apple Computer turned it into something useful for the masses and then Microsoft built their first GUI on top of DOS (Windows 1.0). Windows 95 was the point at which (I think) the PC could be used by a “non technical” person. Microsoft released “standards” that many manufacturers used to build hardware that would work with windows. This brought the price of hardware down to “commodity” prices that could be afforded by all. To the opposite, Apple Computers tightly controlled the manufacture of hardware and the prices stayed high(er). So Microsoft Windows became the de facto operating system for PC's. (this is a very limited history story. I have left out a lot of detail that makes for fascinating reading ... www.sitepoint.com has a good article to read.)

So why not stay with Windows? ... Earlier in Windows history is a side note about Internet Browser's. At first, Browsers were a program that ran on top of an operating system (like a word processor or such). Along came a company called Netscape that made a browser that worked (many say) better than Internet Explorer (Microsoft's browser). Microsoft saw the future and wanted it's operating system to use it's browser. So Microsoft made the browser part of the operating system. Netscape complained to the Feds. To late, Internet Explorer was now part of the whole operating system and could not be removed. Any browser that would work with windows had to use Internet Explorers API's (programing interface) so therefore no browser could do anything more than Internet Explorer could. Netscape went out of business but first released it's browser (Mozilla) and source code to anyone for free. The World Wide Web expanded exponentially and now the bad guys (hackers) could share their knowledge. Bad guy hackers “black hats” and “script kiddies” made a game out of hacking other's computers. The problem was that operating systems were written before the bad guys came in to the picture and no one had thought that pc's needed protecting. Programs were written in attempt to thwart the bad guys but pc operating systems were not written to stop bad people, after all, the idea of early (consumer) operating systems was to make your computer do useful work, not guard itself, and one way in to your computer (browsers), was (is) now part of the core operating system. The point is, is that Windows is not secure. It was written that way. And nothing short of writing a new operating system will change that.

OK ... how about Vista. Its a brand new rewrite? ... I don't have any experience with Vista, and just a little with XP. XP still requires you buy extra “protection” and has an inadequate security system that seems more involved with stopping piracy then with protecting privacy. From what I've read, Microsoft Vista magnifies that problem. XP and Vista are large complex operating systems that require some horse power to run.

Why Linux ? ... Linux was created by Finnish computer student Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linus wanted a Unix operating system that would work on his cloned IBM PC. Linus chose Minix as the bases of his “port” of Unix to run on the Intel 386 platform. Unix was written by Bell Labs in the early 1960's as a operating system for “main frame” computers. At the time a computer would fill an entire room and was shared by many people. Unix was written so that different people could run their software (processes) at the same time without interrupting the other users. This is why Linux (and Unix) are so much safer then other operating systems. Unix (and therefore Linux) was written from the start to keep multiple users and processes separate from each other. A user can only control their own processes and cannot see or change a process that another user is running. This is controlled by the permissions given to the user by the system administrator. The system administrator is the “root” user and can see and control all users and processes operating on the computer. As an example, If your cruzing the web and you get a virus. The virus cannot do anything more then the permissions given the process (Web Browser). The virus cannot install itself in the root directories and cannot write any information to directories that other processes or users have. All the damage is limited to the directories that the browser has permissions to write to. In Linux, you can set a permission to “read only”. That way a program (process) can read a function (how to write to the screen for example) without endangering the “write to screen” process for other programs. (your word processor and such). The “permission's” is the hardest concept to learn for the average Windows user. You dont really have to know much about permisions except when adding a user. Most distributions of Linux have presets you can choose from.

Linux is very versatile. What people call Linux is actually several programs "wrapped around" the Linux kernel. A Linux operating system is actually a " distribution" of software packages that is put together for a specific use or audience.

If your computing needs are "non-gaming" such as filtering or control of Web Surfing, Word Processing, Email, Database, Time or Contact management, Financial or Project management, Web Page authoring/maintenance, ... (the list goes on and on), Then I can set up a Linux solution for you. Linux is a stable, secure, and maintainable way to do business.

I provide a service of setting up and maintaining Linux operating systems. You don't have to figure out how to do what to your computer. You can get down to the business you actually want to do. I think there are a lot of people who just want their computer to do something usefull. I think a lot of people don't care to learn how to install and/or maintain any operating system and just want a safe, affordable, and stable computer they can use. I'm being open and showing what and where the software I use is so you can make a knowlegable decision. I'm not locking you in to proprietary software that only I can service, You can do this yourself. There are thousands of places on the web to get help with any subject you have. Chances are that someone has already had the exact same problem you are having and already has the solution. I will also try to help answer questions. You can E-Mail me at "Springfieldlinux “at” Gmail.com". I install and use Ubuntu, Fedora (Red Hat),and IPCop distributions of Linux. Every "flavor" of Linux does things slightly different and these are the ones that I prefer. So if you want to protect your children from porn, Are tired of the popup ads, or just want a computer that can surf the web, do Email and write a letter without all the maintenance, Call me.

I offer as a service, my knowledge and ability to set-up and maintain Home and Office networks, including installing software and teaching how to use it. I don't do windows but I will “hold your hand” and guide you thru getting familiar with your new operating system and programs you use. For now I charge $49.00 to install Ubuntu (a very good linux desktop operating system) with one hour of training.

I exclusively use Linux based solutions. I have found that Linux is a superior product that gives you complete control of your computer.

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