Linux and Open Source

Linux is a free operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus began his work in 1991 and worked steadily until 1994 when the first version of Linux was released. It has continued to develop since then and is released under the GNU General Public Licence, meaning it is freely available to everyone to use.

Linux is now a solid, stable and fast operating system.  It has long been used by web hosting companies, powering some 70% of the world's websites.  In recent years, many version of a desktop operating system have been developed and are now a serious competitor to Microsoft's Windows.  In addition, many free programs have been developed under the same licence and they can be freely downloaded and installed without charge.  These programs include:

• OpenOffice, a direct replacement for Microsoft Office
• Evolution, a replacement for Microsoft Outlook
• GIMP, the Graphic Image Manipulation Program, similar to Photoshop
• Asterisk, the core of one of the telephone systems offered by us
• Apache, for web service
• MySQL, a free database program
• And many, many other products such as CRM, Content Management, ERP, etc
  

All these solutions are, in addition to being free of charge, are also free to develop.  This means you are free to download the source code used to build the program and recompile it with your own changes.  If the changes are good, you can even have it added to the standard release so everyone gets to benefit from it.  This is the core of the Open Source movement.

At Safeharbour Technology, we recommend, install and support solutions from both the Open Source and Commercial providers.  We also integrate these systems, to ensure a seamless connetion between products.