Q. Who all use it?
A. There seems to be this major misconception that Linux is used only by the geeks and hackers and not for mission-critical stuff and definitely not by large corporations. Well, hold your breath, Linux has gained so much popularity in the
past two years that there are actually few corporations left that are not using it. For starters, companies like Mercedes Benz AG, Sony Worldwide Networks, Cisco Systems Inc, Byte Magazine (McGraw Hill), several ISPs, and many more use Linux. For a quick check on who all are using Linux try the  website.

Q. What does it cost to buy and maintain?
A. Whenever one buys a network operating system there are two major costs to consider: first the cost of the package itself and then the cost of maintaining it. Most of the time people tend to forget the second part. But in both the cases, Linux turns out to be a very cost-effective solution. In fact, in many cases it’s so cheap that people don’t take it seriously enough. Since Linux is inherently a multi-user Unix-based system, it does not have the concept of number of users. You can have as many users as you want. This brings the cost down compared to a lot of other operating systems where a per seat/user charge is levied.

Q. What support is available?
A. With over four million users, Linux has a great support structure. If you buy commercial versions of Linux, you are entitled to the vendor’s support. If that’s not enough, then the support you get from the various websites and news groups is tremendous. We found that the support was actually better than most other commercial software. Apart from all the support groups the documentation for Linux is really vast. Every Linux distribution comes with huge amount of documentation on CD-ROM, normally available in two or three different formats: HTML for quick and easy viewing, and PostScript for easy printing.

Q. Is installing and configuring Linux really a nightmare?
A. Most Linux distributions have really neat installation programs. In fact, at PCQ Labs when we were installing Linux (which we did several times), we managed to get a basic installation up and running in 20 minutes. The process was completely menu driven, and all one had to do was answer a few questions and the rest of the process was taken care of. When it comes to configuring the system, the biggest difference is that most other non-Unix operating systems do not even allow themselves to be reconfigured. You only have some user-controlled options. In Linux one can reconfigure and recompile the kernel to do precisely what you want it to do.