Technofunction

Tux - Linux Mascot

Linux is generally regarded as an operating system but technically Linux is not a complete operating system in itself. Since Linux is basically a name of the kernel which was developed by LINUS TORVALDS, who was a computer science student back in the year 1991 and now considered as one of the most influential person in the field of Information technology.

It is important to note that an operating system consist of two parts i.e. system software and an application software. Since kernel is system software which is Available for free on the Linus Torvalds site “kernel.org” and is distributed freely under the GPL (GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE).

But back in the 1984, the GNU Project (GENERALLY NOT UNIX) project was started which is also popularly known as free software foundation. The word “free” used here is not regarded in terms of money but infact it has been derived from the word “freedom”. The main idea behind it was to develop software with the help of the volunteers around the world and provide the software as well as the code along with it which is even followed today in the form of the source code available along with each Linux distribution. The code is supplied with a view that if user wants to add some additional functionality to the software which may be helpful for him to make is work easier, he can do it. Unlike the other paid software shipped which doesn’t allow you to edit or make changes to them which means if you buy a software for 200$ or so and not able to fulfill your need some time in future than either you need to wait for the next release and buy it again or find some other way out. So in order to deal with this problem and also give a boost to software development free open source projects were created

Linux is the best example of an open source project that has been built by thousands of volunteers around the world starting from the scratch. Because the Linux is developed by users around the world it keeps the user needs intact so that you won’t face any problem in your work. Also as it is freely available under GNU and GPL License you can download it, update it and even sell it by adding some more software’s with it. But you may not sell it with the distributions name now and use your own suitable name. More about it can be found in the License details of GPL and GNU.

The Linux operating system is a combination of Linux Kernel and GNU software’s which are combined to work together and are made available by various distributions. Because both the kernel and application software are freely available various distributions have come into existence over time like fedora, Ubuntu, open suse and more. These distributions differ only in the terms of software packaged along with them. So if you how to work on any Distribution you can work on others also. Today Linux available can be summarized as

Linux kernel + GNU utilities = Complete, open source, UNIX like operating system.

But the main thing is that the Linux is developed as a UNIX like system which was quite expensive back in the years and moreover Unix was available only for universities and research work only at that time. And that’s why Linux was developed. Also the Linux may be an enterprise Linux like Red Hat Enterprise Linux [rhel] as well as Community Linux like Fedora, Ubuntu etc the major difference is in terms of Support that is provided by the Company selling an Enterprise Linux. Also more servers are provided and can be configured with enterprise Linux rather than community Linux but on the other hand more software packages are provided with community Linux and also they are more suitable for the personal computing with Linux. Enterprise Linux has a charged subscription but they charge for support they provide.

Also since Linux is Unix like system so if you know Linux than you almost know 60-70% of Unix and you do not need to start all over. Also Linux has its own utilities like backup etc and you do not need to use 3rd party software’s for that but if you want to use you can. Also Linux provides virtualization and much more advanced software which can easily cost you thousands of dollars absolutely free or mere some dollars. So it’s no wonder why companies prefer to power there system with Linux. And that’s why Linux is becoming more and more popular by time.

Written by: Ankit on March 21, 2010.