Why do I use GNU/Linux?

GNU/Linux is a free reimplementation of UNIX, in other words it is differentiated form of UNIX operating system. Slackware is a GNU/Linux distribution. Most of the packages in GNU/Linux systems published under free sofware license and this means that Slackware uses open source software packages which are available and redistributable in source and binary form. Most hardware vendors such as "Intel", "AMD", "NVIDIA", "ATI" and "Ralink" provide support for GNU/Linux systems. You can install and use any hardware on market on GNU/Linux systems. For example, graphics cards, audio cards, printers and scanners can be easily installed on GNU/Linux systems. Linux is the kernel of GNU/Linux operating system and Linux kernel is updated frequently to support for new hardware by developers. GNU/Linux systems provide a developed localization support. After installing related packages, it is possible to configure language, date-time format, currency unit and locale character support settings for all countries. GNU/Linux systems also provide different desktop environmens such that KDE, GNOME and XFCE. These are the most popular advanced desktop environments. One and more desktop environments can be installed on a GNU/Linux operating system and you can easily change session among these desktop environments. You can obtain the open source software for your basic and advanced needs in the GNU/Linux world. These sofware packages licensed under free software licenses and freely developed under these licenses. The most popular free software license is GPL (General Public License). GNU/Linux is also licensed under GPL. Most of the software licensed under GPL are free of charge. There are also software packages developed for Microsoft Windows under GPL and sofware packages developed for GNU/Linux usually have Microsoft Windows versions, so that spirit of the free software injected to Microsoft Windows users. It is possible to use commercial software programs on GNU/Linux. Most of the commercial software producers also release UNIX version of the software programs. As an example, The Mathworks Matlab can be installed on a variety of operating systems including UNIX. Software programs developed for UNIX can be installed on GNU/Linux operating systems. It is also possible to find free clones of these commercial software packages in the GNU/Linux world, for instance "Scilab" and "Octave" are the successful free clones of Matlab. I use Slackware, because it meets my software needs by the open source software packages and supports all hardware that I can have.