Migrating to Linux Author: Pendus Timofei language adviser: M.

Ababii This is an article about Linux, a free, open source operating system that's changing the world of computing. In this article, Ill show how you can completely change the way you work with computers by exploring a powerful and free operating system. Linux goes against the traditional computing mainstream, being developed by a loosely organized group of thousands of volunteers across the Internet. Linux started as a real underground movement and brings a lot of excitement, discovery, and self empowerment back into today's corporate-dominated computing culture. People use Linux for many different reasons. For many it is a matter of power, stability, security, virus immunity, multilingual capabilities, or even personal philosophy. However, for many others, it is a matter of money. Recently Moldova has taken the responsibility to fight against software piracy by improving the law of software copyright. This means that soon each computer in our republic should have a licensed version of the OS and all the software running on it. Microsoft allows a single copy of Windows to be used on only one computer. In contrast, once you have purchased Linux, you can run it on any number of computers for no additional charge. For desktop or home use, Linux is very cheap or free, Windows is expensive. In order to be able to perform your tasks a computer must have: an OS, an Office package, zip-soft, Antivirus, Graphic soft, etc. Making the maths I found out that for a Windows based system it will turn to nearly 500$ for the minimal of soft. For a Linux based system this cost would turn to zero. Just think for a moment about what it costs to get started up with an operating system like Windows, for the Technical University of Moldova, which claims to have nearly 900 computers.

installed computers were distributed to these schools and subsequently used in a variety of classroom activities such as science experiments, report-writing, and internet-based research. The project on the whole was largely successful and students are reported to have enjoyed and benefited from working in the Linux environment. There still are some difficulties that makes it harder to decide to migrate on Linux. The most important one is the software restrictions: a program written for Linux will not run under Windows and vice versa. Linux has an enormous base of freely available applications, ranging from desktop publishing and office suites to scientific tools to multimedia applications to games. It can still happen not to find all of the programs we have used. Talking about The Technical University of Moldova, the students work with such programs like Electronics Workbench, Circuit Maker, MatLab, Logic Works, etc. There are few programs under Linux which provides the same functionality as the Windowss ones. This issue can also be settled in Linux. There are Linux distributions that attempt to run a handful of Windows programs directly. The goal here is enable migration of desktop users from Windows to Linux while still being able to run some Windows applications under Linux. Without much effort Ive managed to run the Electronics Workbench and Circuit Maker programs under Linux. Im sure that all the rest of software can also be tuned up, using such emulators like Wine, because Linux is being developed in the open by thousands of programmers, as well as numerous companies and universities, all contributing new features, performance enhancements, and bug fixes. Opinions still differ on how suitable Linux is as a general-purpose desktop system. But the tremendous advances in usability and stability of the desktop software and its applications are undisputed. Soon (if not today), one will find Linux in many offices and other end-user environments.
1. M. Welsh, M. Dalheimer, T. Dawson, L. Kaufman Running Linux 4th Edition, O Reilly 2002, p. 1 10

The idea of switching to Linux has become an increasingly active topic of consideration over the past few years in Japan. Starting in late 2004, a trial study conducted at a handful of schools across the country, comprising a total of roughly a thousand students, experimented with using Linux-based systems in the classroom environment. Three hundred Linux-

2. Rickford Grant, Linux for Non-Geeks: A Hands-On, Project-Based, Take-It-Slow Guidebook, No Starch Press 2004 3. Lisa DiCarlo, The Limitations Of Linux, Forbes magazine. June 16, 2003