Now I am not new to computers or networking but I must say that Windows XP still throws me now and then. My friend starting reading his screen to me and mentioned Internet Gateway when he went into his Windows XP Networking Connections. There was a red flag! I told him hooooold on! Stop! Now what did you say again? He said in his Network connections he saw an icon for Internet Gateway. My immediate thought was somehow he had managed to turn on Internet Connection Sharing or ICS.

I bopped on over to my new laptop, running XP Professional and…BAM! I had exact same thing on mine. I hadn’t seen this cute little icon before. Maybe I just hadn’t “just right” opportunity of noticing it before? Who knows…

In my infinite wisdom (Of not knowing what this little mysterious icon would do for o me.), I decided it must be ICS and I didn’t want that, so I right-clicked and disabled sucka! Well, not a swift move for me. It did indeed disable it. The icon went away and so did my whole home network’s Internet connection. DOH!

I tried to simply enable it again, but as I said, icon was now gone. There was nothing to click to enable. I went through everything I could think of but none of my computers could get out to Internet though router. I use a cable modem so I plugged a computer directly into it, rebooted computer and YES, access once again. So I knew problem had to lie with router. It seems somehow I had managed to turn off some portion of my router by just disabling Internet Gateway from my XP Pro.

After fumbling around for hours shutting everything down, resetting router with hardware reset button, reconfiguring all router settings I still could not get it to work again. I wondered if XP had actually shut down router’s WAN port.

•It's free for download but you have to pay a tiny bit to mail order it or buy it from a company. If you're getting Linux for more than 2-3 PCs, you can also get training and support at a small free, if you choose to have it. Else it's Linux community on Net to your rescue. •If you want to get comfortable with Linux, you don't have to let go of windows. Get Linux installed on a seprate partition and you can switch between Windows and Linux. There are some Linux versions that run off CDs too-xandross and Knoppix. •You don't have to be a geek to work with Linux. There are Desktop environments that let you work in Linux as you work in Linux as you would in Windows.

Linux hand in decreasing PC prices. The PCs bundle operating system. Linux being an open source operating system, means that code that runs is open for everyone to see, work with, modify and develop their own innovative apps for it. The deal with this experimentation is that you have to share knowledge you gained and software you created with public domain. So operating system comes to you for free, or if there are some copyrighted application on it, you play up a bit. But this is nothing compared to fortune people spend on OSs like windows. And a company bundles Linux and applications based on it with a computer, quite a bit of software cost comes down.

Linux came into being about 11 years ago- it was developed by Linux Tornados of Finland along with a group of programmers from open source software movement. Linux was mostly something only geeks worked with. And yes, it was mostly about commands and programming. But over years with so many Linux enthusiasts (about 50 million of them) working on it and sharing knowledge about it, quite a few versions have come up which are as easy to use as windows. And developers are still free to work with code and enhance it.

Linux is growing steadily year after year. With a passionate community backing it, with big companies Like IBM and HP pledging their support for it, it's no wonder Linux- wonder operating system for servers of past, has also made it to desktops of today. Not in a sweeping way yet, but in ways that will help you -the user. PC prices are already on their way down. And you get more choice with operating systems and applications. From being an OS only computer professionals had heard about, Linux, in a short time, has made a transition into lucrative and high profile home PC segment. Most of decision to switchover sounds very economical. From a measly base of a few thousand users, Linux now boasts of close to 50 million users, cracking monolith of Microsoft's monopoly. Companies like IBM, HP and Dell have also taken to Linux in a big way. Microsoft doesn't agree with free concept at all-the software is free but support isn't Windows code to outsiders so they could build on to it. Very recently though, company has allowed part of code to be opened up to some US government are vying with each other to get tech-savvy and help citizens through e-governance, opening up of OS code is important, countries like India need a variety of regional language fonts and content to be created which can't done without Microsoft's help, if choice is Windows. Since this isn't happening much, they have gone ahead with adopting Linux.

Linux is based on commercial OS, UNIX. All OSs tries to pack in command line management of systems. System administrators of companies use command lines all times as their lifeline, but it's not really meant for regulars users. But UNIX and Linux are not all about just command line stuff. UNIX has had a graphical user interface for 30 years. In its 11 years Linux has always had always had a GUI too-in fact a choice of GUIs.

Linux Versions: If there are so many people working on it. There's likely to be many Linux versions too. Many companies working on Linux have come up with what are called Linux distributions. There are Linux versions that are compiled and packaged and released with various additional software. The popular distributions or destroys include Red Hat Linux Mandrake Linux, Corel Linux SUSE Linux and Debian . it's just like having different flavors of ice cream. True to spirit of open source, if you download distro from company's Website, it is free for use. But distros are usally quite huge. If you are getting distorts from company, be ready to pay up a tiny bit. Companies compile packages, make installation hassle free, bundle applications, add a manual, and extend any support you need. So they charge a fee for all this.

One note here though: free in Linux stands for freedom of choice, to redistribute, to install a feature, freedom to modify source code. That's spirit of Linux being free.

Linux better than other OS

Linux users won't even bat an eyelid before they say an emphasis comes from a deep dislike of Microsoft's practice of changing earth for software. But a lot of it comes from fact they are ready to swear upon-that Linux is more stable. There are no blue screens and no viruses to speak of. Linux has a better security support for multi-users, lets you set up a stable server, internet gateways etc, and still lets it-self to be used as a desktop workstation. Add to that it being free, and they argue that you don't lose anything by giving it a try. You get free support on Net quickly on any query you may have. And you don't even have to wipe out your Windows. Just get Linux on a different hard disk partition and free to switch between OSs as you please .

Myths about Linux

Installation: Linux is hard to install, isn't it? Not really. Most people haven't ever installed Windows on their computers either-since it comes preloaded. Linux is as easy-some say easier-to install compared to Windows. You can install it through a graphical user interface like Windows. But what really stumps most people in installing Linux on a second partition on their hard disk, when they want to be able to use both operating systems.