Well folks, I got my first real experience with the power of Linux right here from eBay.  I bought a copy of Knoppix, on one of the first ever Live OS CD's.  I couldn't resist seeing how an OS could run from a CD Rom.  I was used to Windows, Mac and Unix, but not Linux.  The disk was incredible.  It was the start of many things to come.  What knoppix did and what it still does is incredible.  I was able to access any hard drive on any computer right from the CD.  Did not matter if the computer was password protected or not.  I still had access to the files.

   Today the entire Linux World has really changed in just a few short years.  It is growing up very fast.  It is outpacing every other OS on the market as to it's potential powers.  Most Linux OS's are free downloads off of a number of sites.  However, if you are on dial up, this is not at all practical.  I tried a few while on dial up.  Knoppix was going to take over 40 hours to download on dial up provided I had zero interuptions of service and no phone calls.  (Not going to happen).  Then at that time, I neither knew how to burn an iso file, nor did I have all the tools to burn a proper iso file and verify the burn afterwards.

  I sell Linux live CD's and OS's for a number of reasons.  In my ad's I always try to inform the potential buyer that these OS's are free downloads, and I explain that I offer these for those on dial up, those that can not burn a proper iso file or for those who do not have the time to put it all together.  Moving into the future, I have already put together over 35 Linux distros into my collection and that number will grow.  I plan to offer special package deals that will give the buyer the best and most unique offerings and will soon start covering isues such as system requirements for these OS offerings.

  Why Linux?  You just have to try them.  The burning software is great on many of the OS offerings.  K3B is fantastic.  The screenshot software is the best I have ever used.  I have moved over to Open Office on most of my computers now and have zero issues in reading and sending any doc's to Microsoft Office.  Accesing the internet from a CD gives true ghost surfing abilities.  I can not get a virus or even cookies while using a CD or DVD to surf with.  No hackers can touch me.  No rootkits, trojan horses, malware or spyware, and best of all, no keys or fees. 

   Okay, what if you want to download files and save them?  No problem.  Puppy Linux has a distro, (Short Linux terminology for distribution), that is a multi session OS CD or DVD where you can save the files onto the CD or DVD.  When the CD or DVD files up, it will burn a new copy for you.  A never ending OS, unless your burner dies.  No hard drive needed.  To access files on another CD or DVD, just load that back in.  Also, you can save files to your hard drive and they can be accessed next time you use the Linux distro.  Other methods are now coming onto the market such as flash drives, but a lot of computers do not boot from flash drives.

   These Live CD OS's are great to have around espeically if your computer ever crashes.  If the hard drive goes and you still need to get on line, just pull out one of these CD's.  Back in business in under 2 minutes.  (Based on system speed).  Linux also has a ton of great tools for fixing Windows systems too. 

   So for those that might think that Linux is either dead or dying, consider this, 25% of all computers in the world are now running Linux.  That's a much bigger market share than Apple can claim.  That also makes Microsoft very nervous, as that's a 25% market stake.  That number is growing, not shrinking.  The PS3 game system is built using a Linux core.  There is now an OS for the PS3, and yes you guessed it, it's only a Linux distro.  3.5gig's of OS.  (Hey you need a big system OS to take care of all that procesing power in that machine). 

   I will cover much more in a future article.  Hope some of you found this helpful.  Let me know.  Plus I will be happy to answer any questions I can.

All The Best;

Chuck