Is Linux viable for web design? Happily the answer is “Yes”. The fact that you’re reading this right now means you already have your own reasons for being interested in Linux, so I don’t need to convince you that it’s worth your consideration. However, you might not yet have heard about all the perks you’ll be able to enjoy on Linux...read on.
With a few exceptions, installing a Linux distribution is like checking into an all-inclusive resort. Your hardware works out-of-the-box, and you get an impressive selection of pre-installed software: from photo editing tools and multimedia players to email and chat clients, and even a full-blown office suite. This is just the beginning.
In the recent article at the Fossbytes website: "Top 9 Linux Distros For Programming for 2018" the #1 choice is Debian GNU/Linux. This distro is the mother operating system for many other Linux distributions. Debian is a distribution that emphasizes free software. It supports many hardware platforms. Debian and distributions based on it use the .deb package format and the dpkg package manager and its frontend (apt-get). In any discussion of the best Linux distros for programmers, Debian and Debian downstream distros find a special place. The reason behind Debian’s status as a developer’s operating system is a large number of packages, which are aimed at stability, and tons of tutorials out there to help solve your issues and get better at whatever you’re doing. Here, I’d also like to mention the Debian "testing branch" (ie. rolling release), which has all the latest software and it’s pretty stable. It’s highly recommended for advanced programmers and system administrators.
Why use Debian for programming? If you want a rock-solid stable system whose prodigious repositories have tons of open source packages, go for Debian. Also, its popular .deb package management is another major plus. (ie. "apt-get install bluefish")
My personal choice as primary HTML editor Bluefish is a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdevelopers, with many options to write websites, scripts and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages.
FOSS is software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software. That is, anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright and the source code is usually hidden from the users.
The benefits of using FOSS can include decreased software costs, increased security and stability (especially in regard to malware), protecting privacy, education, and giving users more control over their own hardware. Free, open-source operating systems such as Linux and descendants of BSD are widely utilized today, powering millions of servers, desktops, smartphones (e.g. Android), and other devices. Free software licenses and open-source licenses are used by many software packages. The Free software movement and the open-source software movement are online social movements behind widespread production and adoption of FOSS.
Free Software
Richard Stallman's Free Software Definition, adopted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), defines free software as a matter of liberty, not price. The earliest known publication of the definition of his free software idea was in the February 1986 edition of the FSF's now-discontinued GNU's Bulletin publication. The canonical source for the document is in the philosophy section of the GNU Project website. As of August 2017, it is published there in 40 languages.
Open Source
The Open Source Definition is used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether a software license qualifies for the organization's insignia for open-source software. The definition was based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens. Perens did not base his writing on the four freedoms of free software from the Free Software Foundation, which were only later available on the web. Perens subsequently stated that he felt Eric Raymond's promotion of open source unfairly overshadowed the Free Software Foundation's efforts and reaffirmed his support for free software. In the following 2000s he spoke about Open source again.
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