The answer to the first question is easy. Linux is an operating system based on Unix and written and created on the Internet. The second and third are a bit more complex and hopefully will be answered in this article.
Linux offers all of its users many advantages. Built in networking, multiple users, remote access, and above all reliability. These advantages would weigh favorably in switching to Linux. However the main reason that people convert to Linux is cost. The operating system is free, the support (via news groups) is free, and the vast majority of the applications (around 90%) are free as well.
Because the Linux operating system was originally developed by programmers for programmers, the first applications designed were to assist programmers in their daily work. Programmers write lots of documentation; the applications they have written to help themselves will also help you.
One of these applications is the revision control system. This application is used to track revisions and changes to source code or documentation. When you create a document you place it into the revision control system. Thereafter each time you save the document into the system the changes are tracked. This allows you to roll back your document to an earlier version.
The revision control system also allows branching of documents. I find this useful when writing a story and I think of two or three different endings for it. I can branch the document at some point and then write different endings for each. Then compare the completed stories and select the best one. I can rollback each different branch as far as I like. The revision control system will also handle binary files such as pictures. This is useful for artists who wish to save gifs, or jpeg type files. There are a few hundred more things that you can do with revision control, but that is an article on its own.
Far and away the best program which I use on Linux is LyX. This is a word processor, but it also does typesetting, automatic indexing, bibliographies. If you write nonfiction or technical manuals, indexing is a must. Most publishers want you to pay for your books to be indexed, or for you to do it yourself. Isn't it better to have the word processor handle this for you? Of course it is! LyX is only one of the seventeen to thirty free word processors available for Linux. There are five or six commercial programs as well, including WordPerfect.
In addition to the above applications I use a freeware database called PostgreSQL. I use it to keep track of when and where I have sent query letters, to track and keep my research materials, etc. This database has been reviewed as being equivalent to or better than most commercial database systems. It too is only one of a hundred database systems available for Linux.
Linux is mainly used by people and companies as a server. This comes in handy for me as a writer because it allowed me to use my single Internet connection for multiple e-mail addresses. I have configured it so that I have twelve separate e-mail addresses, not counting the ones for my wife and kids. It has its own web server so I can preview any documents which I want to send as HTML. It also allows me to connect remotely to my home machine from work or from my laptop. I have also configured my home Linux machine to receive faxes during the day, to collect my e-mail at night and to process some of the mail from specific e-mail addresses into the database.
Linux is not as easy to configure as your basic Windows machine, although this is changing rapidly. However once you understand the operating system you will see that it is much more flexable and powerful than any Windows machine. All of the applications and software that I have talked about are free. On the whole the change from the standard Windows system to Linux is a challenge, but the rewards that you can reap from the change more that makes up for the effort. If you are interested in finding out more about this wonderful operating system please follow some of the URL links listed below.
The story Linux For Writers is Copyright 1998 by Rick Dearman.
The collection of works called Fish Eggs For The Soul is Copyright 1998 by Brian Rickman.
Copy edited by Sara Fawbush, editor of The Young Writer's Collection.