Celtic Frost, September 25, 2006

I never thought I would see the day when the avant-garde Swiss metal band Celtic Frost, would actually play my city. The Frost came to my attention as the new band created from the ashes of Hellhammer, who were established in 1982 and were one of the pioneer extreme metal bands. Hellhammer's front man, Tom Gabriel Fischer (aka Tom Warrior) and their second bass player, Martin Eric Ain, along with drummer Stephen Priestly, formed Celtic Frost in 1984 and released the album Morbid Tales.

I became more of a fan when I heard their second album, To Mega Therion, which featured a startling (and tasteless) cover painting by artist H. R. Giger, known as the creative force behind the Alien sets and the album cover Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. They were not just a thrash band, but seemed to have some style behind their music, including gothic and symphonic influences, which made them stand out from the rush of Metallica and Slayer impersonators that sprung up at the time. According to their website, their lyrics were influenced by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Aleister Crowley, and Charles Baudelaire



After their third album, 1987's Into The Pandemonium, Celtic Frost took an ill-advised chance to increase their popularity by going...glam, if you can believe it. No one bought Cold Lake and it disillusioned long time fans. They recorded Vanity/Nemisis in 1990 but their career was in free-fall. Parched With Thirst I Am and Dying was the compilation album they released in 1992.

In the mid-90s', Gabriel founded the band Apollyon Sun and released two recordings of this experimental metal before penning a book, Are You Morbid? in 2000. I haven't read it but I would love to track it down.

In 2001, Celtic Frost reformed to begin recording a self-funded album, which turned out to be 2006's Monotheist, which is aimed more at the early fans. The album has received mixed reviews and Celtic Frost have a lot more competition today, including many bands that they have influenced. They are now on a 47-city tour of North America and appeared on MTV's Headbanger's Ball Saturday, September 30 (which was recorded during their NYC appearance.)

Opening the show was Norway's Shag, who were loud but not terribly interesting. There was nothing of note in their presentation, unfortunately. Another Norweigan band followed, 1349, who were extremly heavy in sound and appearance. They wore tons of make up which either made them look like zombie corpses or clowns, depending on your perspective and sense of humour. There was no distinguishing the songs from one another and the vocals of Ravn, if you can call them that, were all but indecipherable. Bands like this will always have a niche appeal, but will not make the jump to becoming big league. Bands that have longevity and increased popularity tend to have songs that you can tell apart and can remember, maybe even play along to on guitar. Probably the most interesting thing about 1349 that I can say is that their name is derived the year the Black Death first arrived in Norway, from a corpse on a boat.



Celtic Frost took the stage with a hero's welcome. In fact, Tom Gabriel was frequently smiling in amazment at the reception and commented on how much nicer it was than what they received at the border by the customs officials. Here's what appeared to be the setlist (although not in this exact order), for fans, it was laden with great material:

Procreations of the Wicked
Circle of the Tyrants
The Usurper
Jewel Throne
Necromantical Screams
Dawn of Megiddo
Mesmerized
Sorrows of the Moon
Dethroned Emperor
Into the Crypts of Rays

There are time changes in the songs, which only serves to increase the excitement level and they build to the point of moshing mayhem and unbridled frenzy. I almost found myself in the pit, but I managed to step away. The friend who I was with, dove right in early on and wasn't seen again until the end of the show! The group sounded surprisingly like they do on record, with a dominant, thick bass guitar sound. Drummer Francesco Sesa was very much like Reed St. Mark, the New York drummer from To Mega Therion (translates to The Great Beast in Greek.)

My only disappointment in the show was the turnout. There was less than 200 people there to witness the return of one of extreme metal's most influential and interesting bands. I don't know if the new album will bring them to a new level of popularity or simply buy their career more time to record and tour again, but I was just happy to see them up close and live. If we're lucky, maybe they will release a live DVD of the tour and some footage of previous tours.

CD: Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death

This album, released about two weeks ago, has reinvigorated my interest in Iron Maiden and it has given me hope that old metal bands can age with some class and intelligence. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other metal band, save for the reunited Judas Priest, who have been around for so long and yet have produced such a satisfying, mature album. And yes, this is, to me, better than Priest's "comeback" album, "Angel of Restitution." While that album had some solid songs that were overshadowed by the easy to digest roaring rockers, it showed that Priest still were a viable band with new material as relevant and as strong as some of their best material. Iron Maiden have actually put together an even more solid album, in my humble opinion. It's filled with long epics, time changes and guitars, guitars, guitars...even some nice acoustic playing.



This album is meaty enough to have me want to listen to it several times before attempting to write my thoughts down. It's not the type of album that you can easily digest in one sitting, and thank goodness for that.

The opening track, "Different World," has what sounds like some of the band members joining lead singer Bruce Dickinson for the friendly sing-a-long chorus in it. It's an uplifting way to begin the album. No one sings metal quite like Dickinson who injects his so much passion into his stylings that you believe you are being told an important tale by a seasoned storyteller. You can hear him not quite hitting heights that he used to, but then again, he is 48 years-old, having joined Maiden when he was 24-ish.



You don't hear Maiden gallop a whole lot on A Matter Of Life And Death, but they do so in the superb third track, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, which references "Robert", which is most certainly Robert Oppenheimer, widely known as "the father of the atomic bomb." The music varies from solemn quietness to the sound of a freight train barrelling down at you.

I've listened to this album a fair bit now and in my humble opinion, there are no really weak tracks among its ten songs. The album clocks in at about 72 minutes.

During the first day it went on sale, the CD was priced at $9.99 Canadian. I ended up opting for the limited edition, which has a 45 minute DVD, including a 30 minute making of documentary.




The album, their 14th studio disc, has been one of thier most succesful ever and has charted in the top 20 in several countries.

# 1 Germany, Sweden, Italy, Finland, Greece, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Brazil
#2 Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Hungary, Columbia
#3 Chile
#4 UK, Austria, Spain, India
#5 France, Ireland, Arabia
#6 Iceland, Belgium
#7 Holland
#8 Denmark
#9 USA
#10 Mexico
#11 Portugal, Japan
#12 Australia
#15 Hong Kong
#16 New Zealand

Concert: The Weakerthans, September 16, 2006

John K. Samson photo by Chris Douglas (Chris' photo gallery)

Arguably Winnipeg's most popular band, I had not seen the Weakerthans before, but I am glad I did. These guys clearly have several solid songs, with some being quiet and introspective while others being all out rockers. The commonality between the songs would have to be their melodic nature, the effort put into the lyrics and the singing style of main songwriter and frontman John K. Samson. Samson, who looked not unlike a young Neil Finn (Split Enz) sings without resorting to screaming. Guitarist Stephen Carroll looked a bit like Hugh MacFadyen, the new leader of the Manitoba Tories. There was one thing that I didn't expect from such a credible indie rock band - the rock star posing, which was sometimes somewhat choreographed. It just seemed out of place. Carrol and bassist Greg Smith must be in top physical form as they ran around their areas of the stage a fair bit, with Smith traveling in dizzying circles like a dervish. They opened the show with number than featured Carroll on pedal steel, something he played a couple of times in the show. Thanksfully, Samson didn't play up on the band's popularity with the usual sing-alongs and other audience-participatig games. They didn't have to do anything extra to keep the electricity flowing in the air. The band played two encores with Samson playing a couple of tunes on his own, including "One Great City" from 2004's Reconstuction Site, their third album, which features the chorus "I Hate Winnipeg."



The Burton Cummings Theatre was just 70 tickets short of a sellout, with about 1550 fans in attendence. Most of the fans appeared to be in their early twenties. The opening act was the George Reznik Trio. Reznik is a fixture in the local jazz scene and the trio received warm applause during their soloing. These guys were so good that I would have purchased a recording of the show, if one was available. Reznik briefly did an impression of Louis Armstrong and threatened to sing, much to the laughter of the audience.

The Weakerthans actually had a song included on the soundtrack to last year's Fantastic Four movie, the rocking "Aside" from Left and Leaning.



The show was partly a fundraiser, but I didn't notice the special t-shirts they were supposed to have on sale, according to their website.

"A Cause Because: $2 from every ticket sold for this concert will be donated to: R.A.Y. (Resource Assistance for Youth) R.A.Y is an organization based in Winnipeg whose focus is helping street youth by providing them with what they need, on their terms, to better their lives. This help comes in many forms, and is always non judgmental and inclusive. RAY is an invaluable support network for youth living through crisis. Currently RAY are facing a crisis of their own. They are in need of new premises from which to operate. Also, Ticketmaster will be donating 25 cents per ticket from their fees to RAY. We are hoping that by helping to raise awareness for RAY, we can help find and fund a new home for RAY. For more information or to make a further donation please visit: www.rayinc.ca

An Ongoing Donation: At this concert The Weakerthans will be launching a special edition T shirt from which all proceeds will be donated to RAY. This T shirt will be available for sale at the concert as well as at local stores this fall. It will be made for sale internationally next spring through Lifetime clothing."

Lost seasons 1 and 2 DVD sets

I can recall watching some of the first episode of Lost, and wishing I had seen the whole thing. The show has won 31 awards including the Golden Globe for Best Television Series in 2006 and several Emmy awards in 2005.

As time passed, I realized that I missed out on a new series that I would have enjoyed. Recently, I decided to buy season 1 and 2 on DVD and watch both series before the October launch of season 3. I watched both seasons in about two weeks.



Sure, you have to suspend belief quite a bit, but if you do that enough, you are rewarded with an additive show filled with mystery, suspense and tension, qualities that are often missing from today's movies. And being a serial, you are compelled to watch each episode religiously. Not surprisingly, there's a few romances that blossom, as well as a love triangle.

With about 42 survivors, the show could not possibly focus on everyone. Instead, about a dozen of the characters are in every episode, with the remaining people just floating around as mostly anonymous extras.

After a while, you begin to question what the island really is. Where the survivors brought to it on purpose and if so, why? Each of the characters end up seeing things which bring up flashbacks to explain their pasts. About one third of the show is told in flashbacks, showing episodes of their lives that shaped who they are. These are pivotal moments.


Emilie de Ravin as Claire Littleton.

All the of the main characters are compelling, as we get to know them from the flashbacks. Sawyer (Josh Holloway) is the charming, handsome redneck conman who distinguishes himself by his greedy hoarding. Jack (Matthew Fox)is the tireless doctor, the superman of the tribe who is a reluctant leader in the face of jealousy, due to his constant heroics. Kate (Evangeline Lilly)is 20-something hottie who knows her way around guns and the jungle, but has a past that she desperately tries to keep quiet. Michael (Harold Perrineau Jr.)is a guy who recently became aquainted with his adolescent son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), who grew up halfway across the world, in Europe, with his lawyer mother and stepdad. Michael was given custody of his son when Walt's mom died, and now they have an uneasy relationship. Walt instantly bonds with Locke (Terry O'Quinn, one of two actors I recognized), one of the bigger guys in the group, who is almost the polar opposite of his former self. Locke is savy with guns, knives, hunting and is almost foolishly fearless. He is a bit kooky with his somewhat mystical outlook on life and reminded me a little bit of Col. Kurtz, the deranged military leader from the film Apocalypse Now, especially in appearance. Hurley (Jorge Garcia)is the fat 20-something Hispanic guy guy who everyone loves due to his easy-going nature. There's a Korean couple (stunning Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim) who don't speak English, apparently. One of the most recognizeable stars for me is Naveen Andrews, who plays an English-speaking former member of the Iraqui Republican Guard. A brother and step sister from a wealthy background seem to have a strong bond, despite their constant bickering. She's a beautiful, seemingly stuck-up blonde (Maggie Grace)with no real career experience, while he is a CEO of a company that his Martha Stewart-like mother has as part of her business empire. He makes an effort to help out while she sun bathes, mostly. One of the actors from Lord of the Rings (Dominic Monaghan)shows up as former rock star with a short-lived but popular band formed with his brother. Shades of Oasis here. There's another young blonde woman (Emilie de Ravin)who happens to be very pregnant, very scared and single.

Like the television show Survivor, these passengers from Oceanic Flight 815 quickly become comfortable traveling through the jungle, with danger seemingly lurking around every corner. One of the dangers of the jungle sounds like it must be a T-Rex. It's huge, rattles treetops and sounds like something from Jurassic Park. You won't believe your eyes when you actually see it.


Terry O'Quinn as John Locke.

There's so new information introduced in each episode but, like any good series, with new information comes new questions as the overall mystery of the show deepens. I won't say much more other than to say that if you haven't seen the show, or all the espisodes, buy, beg, borrow or steal the DVDs and treat yourself to some of the best television in a long time. There is so much that I would love to discuss right now, but I loathe spoiling the show for anyone. For the last two years, I have not paid much attention to the story and I'm glad I've kept myself in the dark. I didn't pay much attention to the bonus material, so I won't comment on it.

Now that I've seen the first two seasons, I have visited the odd blog site to read some in depth analysis of things that I actually missed. Look for details like things like company names and you may notice one popping up over and over again.

The series isn't flawless - what is - but it's definitely a very entertaining way to spend some time. One advantage to watching the show on DVD is that you can catch the "easter egg" on the shark. You'll see something and will definitely want to watch it over again. Season 3 begins Wednesday, October 4, 2006.

Oxfordshire County Council Chooses Red Hat Enterprise Linux For County's 282 Schools

Oxfordshire County Council Chooses Red Hat Enterprise Linux And IBM System X And Bladecenter Systems To Deliver Rapid Safe Web Access For County's 282 Schools
Published 5th September 2006

Solution to help school children quickly and safely access key Internet resources...

London, UK - September 5, 2006 - Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source to the enterprise, and IBM, today announced that Oxfordshire County Council is nearing conclusion of the installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter systems across more than 282 of its remote client systems in the county's schools. The system is used to deliver local web caching within the County's schools system, to improve response times on the "safe" schools' Internet.

The council has deployed Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS and two Intel-based IBM System x servers at each secondary school. These systems also run Websense web filtering software to protect against inappropriate content. A single server solution is deployed in primary schools. The complete system comprises 426 Academic servers with provisioning modules and one Red Hat Satellite Server. Each school has tiered access to the county council's high-speed internet connection, via a central cache.

The Council also opted for Red Hat Network to enable central updates and patches. The Red Hat Satellite Server, deployed in the central computing facility, enables the Council's IT administrators to have maximum flexibility and save time in the management of the remote systems.

"As part of the government's provision of Grant 31B for improved Internet access in schools, we had to look a fresh at how best to enable our pupils to work in a safe environment but still deliver a fast and reliable online learning experience. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux we not only benefit from a cost effective solution, but we also receive a very stable, secure and reliable enterprise-class Linux distribution, that delivers on-going systems management and provides access to new releases via Red Hat's subscription model. This not only meets our educational requirements but also addresses the ongoing IT support issues we face," said Kathryn Proudlock, ICT Project Manager, at Oxfordshire County Council.

An IBM services team from Integrated Technology Solutions (ITS) worked together with Red Hat to build the Satellite environment and assisted with the subsequent deployment methodology and staff training. The consultation process began in February 2005, culminating in the installation of six secondary school pilot sites in August. The rollout commenced during November 2005 with the remaining secondary schools and the commencement of installation for the primary and special schools in January 2006. There have been 277 installations completed to date.

Oxfordshire County Council wanted the roll out to be as smooth as possible without its own IT people spending too much time and resources on each individual Linux installation. The deployment was undertaken by a third party company, Evesham, whose technicians had no Linux skills, so it was imperative that installation of the systems required minimal intervention and that adequate training was provided. By using the provisioning facilities of the Satellite Server and by packaging all third party applications into rpm format such that they could be managed by the Satellite Server, the only operation the technicians had to perform was boot the system from a custom CD.

Oxfordshire County Council has been so impressed with the simplicity of the roll-out process and the comprehensive training it received that it has taken on the remaining deployments single-handedly with the help of Evesham, with Red Hat and IBM only needing to provide occasional support as required.

"The solution for Oxfordshire County Council is a great example of how Linux can be used cost effectively within the public sector and the successful awarding of the solution to Red Hat, a reflection of the attractive academic pricing framework available for public sector organisations. The council's choice of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Network is also recognition of the quality of our services and solutions, as well as the performance, stability and high availability that an open source architecture can deliver," commented Werner Knoblich, Vice President, EMEA at Red Hat.

Phillipines - More schools take to open source

DESPITE the lack of a state policy on free and open source software, a number of government agencies have made inroads in promoting its use in schools, a top information technology official said last week.

In a paper delivered at an academic forum Thursday, Emmanuel Lallana, a commissioner of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology said efforts to promote free and open source software in education have focused on three aspects: 1) getting more people to use it; 2) developing content and electronic learning applications using the technology; and 3) developing experts who can support its wider use.

The largest deployment to date is the third phase of the government’s PCs for Public Schools Program launched last month, which is deploying some 12,000 personal computers worth P600 million to 1,200 public high schools, Lallana said.

Unlike the first two phases of the program that used the proprietary Windows operating system and Microsoft Office, the computers in phase 3 will be bundled with free and open source Fedora Linux and OpenOffice.

“This is the most important milestone,” he said, noting that the project went to Lenovo in a public bidding in part because its software costs were so low.

Free and open source software is also increasingly finding its way into state-owned universities and colleges, Lallana said.

In an informal survey, the CICT found that 15 of 18 of these institutions already use free and open source software as an alternative to proprietary programs.

The software was used mostly in computer labs, libraries, and faculty and department offices. Open source applications were also used to provide Internet, intranet and electronic mail services.

The universities, on the other hand, continued to use proprietary software for accounting, registration and personnel applications.

Among the perceived benefits, the survey respondents cited lower costs, reliability and performance.

On the other hand, survey respondents said there were problems with some users who were accustomed to proprietary software, as well as difficulties in converting data from proprietary systems. Respondents also said they lacked technical support.

Among the 15 universities and colleges that already used free and open source software, eight felt it was better than proprietary solutions, while seven said it was similar.

As part of its effort to increase the number of users of free and open source software, the CICT has distributed three CDs that include selected applications.

These include open source software that runs under Windows, including free alternatives to MS Office, Dreamweaver, Internet Explorer, MS Outlook, Adobe Acrobat and PhotoShop.

Lallana emphasized that while lower cost is a major attraction, open source is about more than just cost reduction.

“It’s about freedom, sharing and community,” he said, quoting technology writer Glyn Moody, author of Rebel Code. Chin Wong

Top public school claims Open Source software improves education

By deploying a Open Source network, one the UK's top public schools claims it has saved thousands in software licensing and allowed its staff to focus on education not ICT equipment. Kings College School, Cambridge has chosen Sirius Corporation to build and support their Linux-based PDC, e-mail and proxy filtering systems.

The new Open Source system includes a number of simple management tools that ICT staff can use to monitor student usage of the Internet, network storage and e-mail.

Wendy Harris, Network Manager at King's College School said: “The decision to use Open Source software does not merely stem from a need to save money, but to save time as well. Without Open Source we would spend our time firefighting holes, hackers and viruses. With Open Source software we spend our time focusing on education, not hardware or software.

"ICT in schools is there to better our children's futures. If the management of computer equipment becomes more important than facilitating teachers, supporting operational staff, or enhancing the learning experience of children, we will have failed to justify ICT in education."

Dr. John Spencer, Head of Education at Sirius Corporation said: “Open Source software like Linux should be an obvious choice for any school looking to save money. We can build Linux servers that work with Windows desktops giving schools all the network functionality the licensing overhead.

"We're delighted to be working with Kings College School and would urge other public schools to see how Open Source software is helping them to run their business."

The project comes following Sirius Corporation's deployment of a Linux-based ICT suite at The Mall School in Richmond.

Notes to the Editor:

About King's College School, Cambridge

King's College School, Cambridge is a leading independent prep school with nearly 300 boys and girls aged 4 - 13. The school enjoys an excellent academic reputation and is particularly well known for providing choristers to the world famous King's College Choir.

For more information visit: www.kcs.cambs.sch.uk

About Sirius Corporation

Sirius Corporation is a leading European IT services group specialising in enterprise-ready Open Source software including databases, email systems, file & print, directory services, and cross-platform authentication. Client's include blue-chip multi-nationals and public sector organisations.

For more information visit: www.siriusit.co.uk
For interviews contact Tom Callway +44 (0)870 608 0063 ext. 6103

Linux represents future of computer systems

Nathan Alday
August 29, 2006

This past Saturday marks the 15th anniversary of one of the keystones of the modern Internet-the Linux operating system.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds first announced he was working on the operating system as a hobby in the comp.os.minix Usenet group on Aug. 25, 1991. Today, his hobby has grown into the premier operating system for Web-servers-critical to the Internet-and supercomputing clusters like Mississippi State's MAVERICK and EMPIRE computers. According to Top500.org, the authority on the world's fastest computers, 73 percent of the top 500 supercomputers run on Linux.

Properly speaking, Linux is the kernel of a family of operating system distributions that also utilize the Free Software Foundation's GNU utilities. As a result, modern distributions, or variants with different support teams and different mixes of packaged software, are often known as GNU/Linux.

Linux has had such great success for a variety of reasons: it is similar to the older Unix operating system common in scientific and engineering applications, it has a huge support community, and it is Free Software (capitalization intentional) licensed under the GNU General Public License, or GPL. The last two are related and are the most important.

The GPL is a software license that focuses on ensuring that the software's user has the right to "change and share" the software. Users may run the software in any way they choose, may copy and distribute it as they see fit and may modify the software and distribute it as well, so long as the modified code remains licensed under the GPL. Also, the software's source code-the human readable version of the computer program created by the programmers-must be available along with the binary code that the computer actually runs. Software licensed under the GPL and similar licenses are known as Free Software.

This emphasis on sharing software and allowing anyone to work on it in turn encourages programmers to use, improve and share it. As a result, Linux has quickly evolved from Torvald's personal project to the dominant force in scientific, engineering and Internet computing. As a result, anyone planning a career in or hobby in science, engineering or Web page development should familiarize themselves with Linux. For example, at Mississippi State the SimCenter, which uses computers to solve problems in science and engineering fields, not only uses Linux to run its supercomputers, but also the individual workstations.

Since it's Free Software, Linux can and has been adapted for many applications. In fact, it was originally written only for Intel PCs. Today, many Linux distributions continue to focus on the desktop PC, and it is growing as a desktop operating system.

As a desktop operating system, Linux has many advantages over Windows and Apple. Most Linux distributions are cost free, Linux as a whole has huge community support and Linux is highly customizable. For instance, unlike Windows or Mac OS X, Linux provides different graphical interfaces so that a Linux computer may look and feel like Windows or OS X for people experienced with those operating systems, or it may look completely different. The Linux and GNU philosophy maximizes a user's freedom and choices. In short, Linux can potentially do anything.

Personally, I use Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution, on my Dell laptop, my desktop and the Macintosh G3 in my office-Linux will run on anything. Ubuntu comes with Sun's OpenOffice, which allows me to read and write Microsoft Office documents, slideshows and spreadsheets.

Also, its point and click software manager allows me to easily download and upgrade programs such as Wine, which runs Windows programs under Linux, and XMMS and its plugins, which can play almost any type of audio media. As a bonus, there is almost no chance of my computers catching a virus. Nor will my computers ever be shutdown against my will and my data locked up inside, something Windows users now face if the Windows Genuine Advantage service mistakes their copy for a pirated version. Remember, the GPL guarantees the user's right to run the software.

Given these advantages, Linux can't help but become more and more common. As a result, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with Linux. Fortunately, this is easy and, unlike Windows or Macintosh, free.

The simplest way to learn about Linux is to download a copy of Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/ and burn it to a CD. Then you can run Ubuntu from the CD simply by rebooting the computer with the CD in its drive. No installation is necessary. This will not affect whatever operating system that is already installed. Then simply click on "System/Help" and follow from there. If you cannot download an Ubuntu CD, email me at nca1@ra.msstate.edu, and I will send you one.

While learning how to navigate using the graphical desktop is important and a good first step to learning Linux, it is a good idea to learn how to use the Linux command line, also called the terminal. While the various flavors of Linux often differ in specifics, they share a common interface in the command line. The basic commands work for all distributions. Also, Mac OS X has a similar command line. For anyone going into a scientific, engineering or computing field, this is necessary, as the Linux command line is not only a powerful tool but unavoidable.

Only 15 years old, Linux is already the leading operating system in more technical fields such as computational engineering. As more user-friendly versions like Ubuntu appear, Linux will become commonplace on desktop and laptop computers. So download Ubuntu, and give it a shot.