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What is Linux

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5 views

What is Linux

Uploaded by

Jiten
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is Linux?

Linux is a Unix-like, open source and community-developed operating system


(OS) for computers, servers, mainframes, mobile devices and embedded devices. It
is supported on almost every major computer platform, including x86, ARM
and SPARC, making it one of the most widely supported operating systems.

How is the Linux operating system used?


Every version of the Linux OS manages hardware resources, launches and handles
applications, and provides some form of user interface. The enormous community
for developers and wide range of distributions means that a Linux version is
available for almost any task, and Linux has penetrated many areas of computing.

For example, Linux has emerged as a popular OS for web servers such as Apache,
as well as for network operations, scientific computing tasks that require huge
compute clusters, running databases, desktop and endpoint computing, and running
mobile devices with OS versions like Android.

The Linux OS can be found in many different settings, supporting many different
use cases. Linux is used in the following ways:

 Server OS for web servers, database servers, file servers, email servers and any
other type of shared server. Designed to support high-volume and
multithreading applications, Linux is well-suited for all types of server
applications.

 Desktop OS for personal productivity computing. Linux is an open source and


freely available desktop environment for users who prefer it to commercial
OSes.

 Headless server OS for systems that do not require a graphical user interface
(GUI) or directly connected terminal and keyboard. Headless systems are often
used for remotely managed networking server and other devices.

 Embedded device or appliance OS for systems that require limited computing


function. Linux is used as an embedded OS for a variety of applications,
including household appliances, automotive entertainment systems and network
file system appliances.

 Network OS for routers, switches, domain name system servers, home


networking devices and more. For example, Cisco offers a version of the Cisco
Internetwork Operating System (IOS) that uses the Linux kernel.

 Software development OS for enterprise software development. Although


many development tools have been ported to Windows or other OSes, Linux is
home to some of the most widely used open source software development tools.
For example, git for distributed source control; vim and emacs for source code
editing; and compilers and interpreters for almost every programming language.

 Cloud OS for cloud instances. Major cloud computing providers offer access to
cloud computing instances running Linux for cloud servers, desktops and other
services.

Linux is highly configurable and depends on a modular design that enables users to
customize their own versions of Linux. Depending on the application, Linux can
be optimized for different purposes such as:

 networking performance;

 computation performance;

 deployment on specific hardware platforms; and

 deployment on systems with limited memory, storage or computing resources.

Users can choose different Linux distributions for specific applications or adapt a
specific distribution to incorporate custom kernel configurations.

Linux distributions
Since its initial development, Linux has adopted the copyleft stipulations of the
Free Software Foundation which originated the GNU GPL. The GPL says that
anything taken for free and modified must be distributed for free. In practice, if
Linux or other GNU-licensed components are developed or modified to create a
new version of Linux, that new version must be distributed for free. This prevents
a developer or other groups from profiting unfairly from the freely available work
of others.

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