The first thing to consider: What is an operating system? An operating system is something you never see, but does the important job of listening to what you want to do then telling that to your hardware. The ‘kernel’ is like the system core that makes everything happen. Windows is what you actually see and interact with, and this is sat on top of a kernel called ‘NT’, which you don’t see.
With me so far? Ok – onto Apple Macs. This is set up in a very similar way to Windows – you just see a new veneer, on top of a kernel called ‘UNIX’. This is 40 years old and is the most secure and stable operating system of all time (and used by many other companies). Unfortunately (like Microsoft) Apple will charge you for this software, but they go one further and restrict you to only ever using it on Apple hardware. But before you break down and cry that the only way out of Windows is Mac OS, there is an alternative:
This kernel is called ‘Linux’, and it is the equivalent of ‘NT’ and ‘UNIX’ but can be copied, passed on, installed on any machine you like and even sold completely legally because it is known as ‘free software’. This means that it costs nothing to download from the net and doesn’t restrict you in any way, shape or form. It is maintained by a multitude of well-known tech companies (such as Intel, IBM and Google) and a huge community of volunteers around the world. You will find what are known as ‘distributions’ such as ‘Ubuntu’, ‘Fedora’, ‘Linux Mint’, ‘Mandriva’ and ‘openSUSE’ which sit on top of Linux and provide all the software you might need free of charge.
For more information, simply check out the YouTube video here or you could Google for ‘Linux’ or ‘Ubuntu’ to give it a try without affecting your existing Windows setup. 
Filed under: Announcements Tagged: | apple, Fedora, Linux, linux mint, mac, mandriva, microsoft, openSUSE, os x, Ubuntu, windows
