Linux

Linux (pronounced ⁱ/ˈlɪnəks/ LIN-əks or, less frequently, /ˈlaɪnəks/ LYN-əks) is a Unix-like and mostly POSIX-compliant computer operating system (OS) assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution. The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on 5 October 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to describe the operating system, which has led to some controversy.

Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture, but has since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system. Thanks to its dominance on smartphones, Android, which is built on top of the Linux kernel, has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems. Linux, in its original form, is also the leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers and virtually all fastest supercomputers, but is used on only around 1.6% of desktop computers with Linux-based Chrome OS taking about 5% of the overall and nearly 20% of the sub-$300 notebook sales. Linux also runs on embedded systems, which are devices whose operating system is typically built into the firmware and is highly tailored to the system; this includes smartphones and tablet computers running Android and other Linux derivatives,TiVo and similar DVR devices, network routers, facility automation controls, televisions,video game consoles, and smartwatches.

Linux (disambiguation)

Linux is a computer operating system based on the Linux kernel.

Linux may also refer to:

See also

Linux kernel

The Linux kernel is a Unix-like computer operating system kernel. It is used world-wide: the Linux operating system is based on it and deployed on both traditional computer systems such as personal computers and servers, usually in the form of Linux distributions, and on various embedded devices such as routers and NAS appliances. The Android operating system for tablet computers, smartphones and smartwatches is also based atop the Linux kernel.

The Linux kernel was conceived and created in 1991, by Finnish computer science student Linus Torvalds for his personal computer and with no cross-platform intentions, but has since expanded to support a huge array of computer architectures, many more than other operating systems or kernels. Linux rapidly attracted developers and users who adapted code from other free software projects for use with the new operating system. The Linux kernel has received contributions from nearly 12,000 programmers from more than 1,200 companies, including some of the largest software and hardware vendors.

NTFS

NTFS (New Technology File System) is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft. Starting with Windows NT 3.1, it is the default file system of Windows NT family.

NTFS has several technical improvements over FAT and HPFS (High Performance File System), the file systems that it superseded, such as improved support for metadata, and the use of advanced data structures to improve performance, reliability, and disk space utilization, plus additional extensions, such as security access control lists (ACL) and file system journaling.

History

In the mid-1980s, Microsoft and IBM formed a joint project to create the next generation of graphical operating system. The result of the project was OS/2, but Microsoft and IBM disagreed on many important issues and eventually separated: OS/2 remained an IBM project and Microsoft worked on Windows NT.

The OS/2 file system HPFS contained several important new features. When Microsoft created their new operating system, they borrowed many of these concepts for NTFS. Probably as a result of this common ancestry, HPFS and NTFS use the same disk partition identification type code (07).

Transactional NTFS

Transactional NTFS (abbreviated TxF) is a component introduced in Windows Vista and present in later versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system that brings the concept of atomic transactions to the NTFS file system, allowing Windows application developers to write file output routines that are guaranteed to either succeed completely or to fail completely. Transactional NTFS is also known informally as NTFS 6.0, because it was introduced with Windows Vista, which has internal Windows version designation NT 6.0.

Major operating system components, including System Restore, Task Scheduler, and Windows Update, rely on TxF for stability.

Due to its complexity and various nuances which developers need to consider as part of application development, Microsoft has considered deprecating TxF APIs in a future version of Windows. Microsoft has strongly recommended that developers investigate using the alternatives rather than adopting the Transactional NTFS API platform which may not be available in future versions of Windows.