So I'm sitting in my living room watching the news as always and I found a new drink I like Captain Morgan and Lemonade. While the conversation on the news is about Trump and the Democratic Primary, the only thing I could think of is Windows...not windows to look out of but, Windows the Operating System.
I've never liked Windows, not because it's a proprietary OS (Operating System), but for a whole list of other reasons, MacOS I hate because it's proprietary. Unfortunately Windows is a large part of the Computer Industry, mainly due to incredible marketing, because the OS sucks. But hey, I'm a computer geek anyway...not as much as most, but a geek nonetheless.
Well we are facing the end of Windows most popular Desktop OS, Windows 7. While a lot of computers have been switched over to Windows 10 and some people find the experience enamouring, I am and will always be filled with grief. Over the years Microsoft has managed to take all the things I love about Computing and wrap them in a GUI (Graphical User Interface), not completely a bad thing, but horrible for other reasons.
Windows 7 was a vast improvement over Windows XP, but it took time for users to adapt to, like going from Windows 98 to Windows ME or from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95, but it's still Windows a crap OS.
So Windows 10 is the last Desktop OS Version to be released...or so they say. I'm not mad at Microsoft and I'm happy Bill Gates is where he is, he has done more with his fortune than any other billionaire that has been recorded.
Anyway there a new guy on the OS scene that some have heard of and may nothing about, and I'm excited about the new release due out soon, yes it's a Tux distro (Linux Distribution). Linux is an Open-Source OS of UNIX, this means that the source code for the OS is freely available for anyone to modify it however they like if they wish to.
Welcome Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, it has the ability to replace Windows all together. Ubuntu is the most popular Linux Distro, and while some say they don't like it and have various reasons not to like it, it's still the most popular Distro, with the largest online community.
Just a little background on Operating Systems. Back in the days there were 3 main Desktop OS vendors Microsoft, IBM and Apple. Apple was Apple, Microsoft was MSDOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) and Windows, IBM was IBM PC DOS (IBM Disk Operating System) and OS2 (Operating System/2).
There were several NOS's (Network Operating Systems), the most popular were Microsoft NT LAN Manager, Novell Netware, IBM LAN Server, Banyan VINES, UNIX (the most poplar versions were Solaris and HP-UX) and AppleShare. In my mind having worked with all of them, I found Novell Netware to the better of them all, but they were all better than Microsoft.
Now we are all caught up on Operating Systems or Geeked Out on Operating System, lets discuss Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a free OS and Linux based as explained earlier. Microsoft has had a fear of Linux for years, because it's Open-Source. Linux has been taking over in all areas. If you have an Android Cell Phone, Android is a Linux OS. Most of your Smart TV or anything else you use that's programable is most likely based on some Linux Distro.
The most popular Linux Distro is Debian, which is what Ubuntu uses. In second would be Fedora, known for Red Hat and I think third would be SuSE Linux.
SuSE Linux become popular when Novell moved from the dying Netware platform in the early 2000's. Netware while it was great and the most functional and easy to use NOS basically failed due to the .com explostion we know as the internet. NetWare was not designed to be Internet or Database friendly. So it was replaced with SuSE, but the damage was already done.
Fedora in terms of Red Hat was very Internet and Database friendly and is still driving the majority of the internet, internal Open-Source Databases and eCommerce.
Debian is used by Ubuntu. Ubuntu made a very user friendly Distro of Linux that was easy to install, this is probably the primary reason it is so popular. People that want to develop applications don't want to spend the time to tweak the OS, they want something that just works. The majority of Linux Distros are based on the Ubuntu distro, mainly because the community is so large. Having a large community means that there is plenty of support for almost any problem and plenty of users out there willing to assist with their expertise about problems.
So as Windows 7 comes EOL (End Of Life) it might be something worth checking out. You can install it side by side with Windows so you can start/boot your computer to either. If you don't want to spend the money on upgrading to Windows 10 or want to try something other than Windows give it a try. My understanding is that Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Long Term Support) nhas Microsoft rethinking things. They have already extended support for Windows 7, on a pay as you go basis.
