I first want to highlight a couple of things BEFORE we get into the meat of this post…

This is a MARKETING blog. This post is going to be quite a bit about marketing.

There WILL be some techie stuff discussed as well, but, very high level. Hopefully not too techie to bore marketing folk to death.

I AM a UBER techie, who has been working with Linux since a couple of days after Linus released his very 1st kernel on the Internet in 1991.

I have been using Linux ever since for MANY different things. I DO use Windows for much of my marketing activities, as the software I use is not yet available on Linux.

Thank goodness for VMWare which allows me to run Windows on top of Linux.

Unlike Microsoft Windows, which has a couple of live “versions” out there, Linux has HUNDREDS of distributions, better known as distros in the Linux community.

Many of them are targeted at specific audiences and market segments.

Generally Linux is free, as the main part of the operating system, the kernel, is released under the GPL.

Some companies DO charge a fee, but, this is either for distribution costs, or, for support.

(more…)