5 FREE COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEMS
If you
happen to buy one of those laptops without a pre-loaded operating system,
there's no need to pay a fat sum to buy one or resort to piracy. There are
quite a few operating systems that are totally free (and without any strings
attached). Hitesh Raj Bhagat points you in the right direction
Remix
OS by JIDE
This
one is for Android lovers and one of the prettiest free operating systems
around. Built upon the Android-x86 project, Remix OS is completely free to
download and use (all updates are free too -so there's no catch). It's
compatible with a wide range of computers (including Intel-based MACs), is
built for performance with all your daily tasks in mind and you can choose to
keep it portable (boot from a USB drive) or install it permanently. If you already
have an existing OS, you can choose to dual boot Remix. But by far the biggest
advantage that Remix enjoys over the others is the fantastic app ecosystem of
Android and the inherent customisation and open nature. To start, just head
over to the Remix OS for PC download page on http:www.jide.com and follow the
instruc tions. One small catch is that the Google Play store is not
pre-installed with Remix, owning to licensing issues. You will need to sideload
the Google Play apk (installer file) to take full advantage of the app
ecosystem -but this is a lot easier than it sounds. If you get stuck, there are
a host of video reviews and tutorials online as well as a Google Group where
you can find helpsupport from other users.
Haiku
Project
Haiku
OS is an open-source operating system that is designed for personal computing.
To start or to take a brief tour, you can head over to http:www.haikuos.org .
After you download the files, you can choose to install Haiku to a partition in
your hard drive, make a live CD, boot from USB or use it in Live mode (it will
disappear after you shutdown -to be replaced by your conventional OS if you
have one). Instead of a taskbar like Windows, Haiku has a Deskbar, which is
placed top right by default. The Deskbar gives you access to all settings and
apps within the system. If you like, you can change its location to any corner
of the screen. Haiku has been translated by volunteers into 25 different
languages and all the basics you need to get started are built in: for instance,
it has an email client, web browser, calculator, text editor, disc space
monitor, un-archiver (un-zipper), system monitoring tools, printerwebcam
drivers and audiovideo players.
ReactOS
When
it comes to free operating systems, you're probably thinking `but it's not
Windows'! ReactOS is a free and opensource OS that is based on Windows NT
design architecture (like XP and Win 7).This means that most Windows
applications and drivers will work seamlessly.This also means that for someone
accustomed to the Windows way of doing things, ReactOS won't be a shock. The
philosophy is that you should be able to use it as a free alternative to
Windows without having to re-learn how to use it and without changing software.
Honestly, all this means nothing unless you actually look at screenshots of
ReactOS running just search for images tagged ReactOS and you'll see how
similar to Windows it really is. In fact, ReactOS has also been called a
`viable drop-in replacement to Windows' for people who want to renounce use of
proprietary commercial software.To get started, head to http:www.reactos.org
and head to the downloads page. You can choose to download the installation CD
or just get a Live CD and run the OS from there.
Syllable
Desktop
Let's
say you have an old computer lying around -something that's still got
functional hardware but its about 15 years old (or older!). What kind of
operating system would you use on it? The answer is Syllable Desktop. It was
designed for computers with Pentium compatible processors with 32MB of memory
(that's Megabytes -not Gigabytes!). It's a volunteer project and is still in
development. To get started, head to http:web.syllable.org and look for the
Syllable Desktop link. They also have Syllable Server which uses the Linux
kernel and is optimised for servers. Like many others here, you'll get a bundle
of built in applications (web browser, email client, address book, media
players) and it has drivers for most common peripherals built in. To add more
applications, you can just head to the app downloads page on the website. Some
of the other things you can download for free include games, rescue software
and a VNC viewer.
Chromium OS
You
mig ht have seen or heard of Chromebooks, Chrome Sticks or Chrome PCs all
computing devices that use the cloud-friendly Chrome OS by Google. You cannot
download Chrome OS on your own you have to get a device that has it
pre-loaded. Chromium OS is an open source project which shares the same code,
but you can download it for use on hardware of your choice. It's ultra-light
and there are several versions you can download and try out. For instance, head
to http:chromeos.hexxeh.net to download a build and try it out for yourself.
You can also try out Chromixium ( http:www.chromixium.org ), which combines
features from Chrome and Ubuntu into one beautiful package. You can install
Chromixium instead of any existing operating system or dual boot it with
Windows and Linux. Minimum requirements are quite low too (1Ghz processor,
512MB RAM) which means it should work well on older computers.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Librarian
Khaitan
& Co
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