Linux started out as an operating system that was intended for use as a server. In the recent years, developers have taken Linux into the desktop arena.



Before, the average desktop user had only Microsoft and Apple to choose from. The computer science community may have eventually started thinking: Why wait and pay for a few people to develop operating systems when we as a community can develop operating systems ourselves? This seems to be a cause for the growth of the open source community.



Here are a few points about using Linux as a desktop environment:



1. Linux supports many free opensource applications for everyday use.

There are many high quality applications for use on Linux, including Firefox for web browsing; Open Office for word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets; Scribus for desktop publising; GIMP for image editing. You can not run MS and Apple applications on Linux, but you can find an open source competitor for many applications.


2. Linux applications are often compatible with MS files.

Open office word processor can read and write .doc files. GIMP can read and write jpg and gif.



3. Many IDEs are available for programmers.

Linux OS often comes packaged with Kdevelop which is a great IDE for C, C++ programming. Also included is the popular Eclipse for C, C++ and Java. You can download NetBeans for programming in C, C++ and Java. I recommend Kdevelop for C, C++ and NetBeans for Java.