  In this paper the linearly damped oscillator equation is considered with the
damping term generalized to a Caputo fractional derivative. The order of the
derivative being considered is 0 less than or equal to nu which is less than or
equal to 1 . At the lower end, nu = 0, the equation represents an un-damped
oscillator and at the upper end, nu = 1, the ordinary linearly damped
oscillator equation is recovered. A solution is found analytically and a
comparison with the ordinary linearly damped oscillator is made. It is found
that there are nine distinct cases as opposed to the usual three for the
ordinary equation (damped, over-damped, and critically damped). For three of
these cases it is shown that the frequency of oscillation actually increases
with increasing damping order before eventually falling to the limiting value
given by the ordinary damped oscillator equation. For the other six cases the
behavior is as expected, the frequency of oscillation decreases with increasing
order of the derivative (damping term).
