Linux may have started out small, but it’s grown by leaps and bounds. Today, Linux can be found on everything from a home wireless router to the gigantic mainframe in the data center. Although the spirit of openness surrounds Linux, thanks in part to the GPL, distinct communities have sprung up to support the different environments, each with a slightly different take on what it means to be in the Linux community.

Desktop

The most famous form of Linux, the type that used to get the press, has got to be Linux on the desktop. Supporters of the Linux desktop range from those who value the open source license above all else (the same type of Linux user who posts words like FREEDOM in ALL CAPS in online flame wars), to technically inclined people, to the simply curious. I’ve personally been following the Linux desktop “movement” since 1999, back when Linux Magazine was “Chronicling the Revolution”, a reference to Linux’s impending superiority over Windows as the operating system of choice for personal computers. Year after year, Linux has gotten better, but dominance on the desktop remains elusive.

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