Software: Systems and Application Software - Principles of Information Systems - page 142

users—including luminous and semitransparent elements, such as buttons, scroll bars, win-
dows, and fluid animation to enhance the user's experience.
Since its first release, Apple has upgraded OS X several times. Leopard is the most recent
version of OS X, released in 2007 to compete with Windows Vista (see Figure 4.6). OS X
Leopard includes an attractive 3-D graphical user interface that Apple claims is more intuitive
than Windows. Leopard includes Time Machine, a powerful backup tool that allows users
to view their system as it looked in the past and resurrect deleted files. Leopard also includes
multiple desktops, a video chat program that allows users to pose in front of imaginary
landscapes, a powerful system search utility, and other updated software. Because Mac OS X
runs on Intel processors, Mac users can set up their PC to run both Windows Vista and Mac
OS X and select which platform they want to work with when they boot their PC. Macs are
also considered very secure, with no widespread virus or spyware infections to date.
Figure 4.6
Mac OS X Leopard
(Source: Courtesy of Apple
Computer, Inc.)
When attorney Renee Mancino decided to leave her Las Vegas law firm and start her own
home-based practice, she chose an Apple MacBook Pro with the Mac OS as her mobile
office. 3 She appreciates the Mac's organizational features that help her to manage and sift
through the thousands of documents associated with her cases.
Linux
Linux is an OS developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 as a student in Finland. The OS is
distributed under the GNU General Public License, and its source code is freely available to
everyone. It is, therefore, called an open-source operating system. This doesn't mean, how-
ever, that Linux and its assorted distributions are necessarily free—companies and developers
can charge money for a distribution as long as the source code remains available. Linux is
actually only the kernel of an OS, the part that controls hardware, manages files, separates
processes, and so forth. Several combinations of Linux are available, with various sets of
capabilities and applications to form a complete OS. Each of these combinations is called a
distribution of Linux. Many distributions are available as free downloads.
Linux is available on the Internet and from other sources, including Red Hat Linux and
Caldera OpenLinux. Many people and organizations use Linux.
In addition, several large computer vendors, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel,
support the Linux operating system. For example, IBM has more than 500 programmers
working with Linux, primarily because of its security features. Many CIOs are considering
switching to Linux and open-source software because of security concerns with Microsoft
software.