1.3.2. Ten years of experience at your service
While Linux is probably the most well-known Open Source
initiative, there is another project that contributed enormously to
the popularity of the Linux operating system. This project is
called SAMBA, and its achievement is the reverse engineering of the
Server Message Block (SMB)/Common Internet File System (CIFS)
protocol used for file- and print-serving on PC-related machines,
natively supported by MS Windows NT and OS/2, and Linux. Packages
are now available for almost every system and provide
interconnection solutions in mixed environments using MS Windows
protocols: Windows-compatible (up to and includingWinXP) file- and
print-servers.
Maybe even more successful than the SAMBA project is the Apache
HTTP server project. The server runs on UNIX, Windows NT and many
other operating systems. Originally known as "A
PAtCHy server", based on existing code and a series of
"patch files", the name for the matured
code deserves to be connoted with the native American tribe of the
Apache, well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy
and inexhaustible endurance. Apache has been shown to be
substantially faster, more stable and more feature-full than many
other web servers. Apache is run on sites that get millions of
visitors per day, and while no official support is provided by the
developers, the Apache user community provides answers to all your
questions. Commercial support is now being provided by a number of
third parties.
In the category of office applications, a choice of MS Office suite clones is available, ranging
from partial to full implementations of the applications available
on MS Windows workstations. These initiatives helped a great deal
to make Linux acceptable for the desktop market, because the users
don't need extra training to learn how to work with new systems.
With the desktop comes the praise of the common users, and not only
their praise, but also their specific requirements, which are
growing more intricate and demanding by the day.
The Open Source community, consisting largely of people who have
been contributing for over half a decade, assures Linux' position
as an important player on the desktop market as well as in general
IT application. Paid employees and volunteers alike are working
diligently so that Linux can maintain a position in the market. The
more users, the more questions. The Open Source community makes
sure answers keep coming, and watches the quality of the answers
with a suspicious eye, resulting in ever more stability and
accessibility.
Listing all the available Linux software is beyond the scope of
this guide, as there are tens of thousands of packages. Throughout
this course we will present you with the most common packages,
which are almost all freely available. In order to take away some
of the fear of the beginning user, here's a screenshot of one of
your most-wanted programs. You can see for yourself that no effort
has been spared to make users who are switching from Windows feel
at home:
