- Linux source code is freely distributed. Thousands of programmers have reviewed the source code to improve performance, eliminate bugs, and strengthen security. This Open Source design has created most of the advantages which are listed below.
- Technical support available. Linux is supported by commercial distributors, consultants, and by a very active community of users and developers. In 1997, the Linux community was awarded InfoWorld's Product of the Year Award for Best Technical Support over all commercial software vendors.
- No vendor lock-in. The availability of source code means that every user and support provider is empowered to get to the root of technical problems quickly and effectively. This contrasts sharply with proprietary operating systems, where even top-tier support providers must rely on the OS vendor for technical information and bug fixes.
- Hardware Support. Most Linux systems are based on standard PC hardware, and Linux supports a very wide range of PC devices. However, it also supports a wide range of other computer types, including Alpha, Power PC, 680x0, SPARC, and Strong Arm processors, and system sizes ranging from PDAs (such as the PalmPilot) to supercomputers constructed from clusters of systems (Beowulf clusters).
- Stablility. Properly configured, Linux systems will generally run until the hardware fails or the system is shut down.
- Availibility of tools and applications you need. Programs ranging from the market-dominating Apache web server to the powerful GIMP graphics editor are included in most Linux distributions. Free and commercial applications meet are available to meet most application needs.
- Linux interoperates with many other types of computer systems. Linux communicates using the native networking protocols of Unix, Microsoft Windows 95/NT, IBM OS/2, Netware, and Macintosh systems and can also read and write disks and partitions from these and other operating systems.
- Low cost of ownership. Although the Linux learning curve is significant, the stability, design, and breadth of tools available for Linux result in very low ongoing operating costs.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Advantages of Linux
linux history
Linux is the first truly free Unix-like operating system. The underlying GNU Project was launched in 1983 by Richard Stallman originally to develop a Unix-compatible operating system called GNU, intended to be entirely free software. Many programs were contributed by developers all around the world, and by 1991 most of the components of the system were ready but had a missing kernel.
In 1991, Linus Torvalds (a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland named )who had been using Minix, a non-free Unix-like system, began writing his own kernel. He started by developing device drivers and hard-drive access, and by September had a basic design that he called Version 0.01. This kernel, which is called Linux, was afterwards combined with the GNU system to produce a complete free operating system.
On October 5th, 1991, Torvalds announced the release of Version 0.02, a basic version that still needed Minix to operate, but which attracted considerable interest nevertheless. The kernel was then rapidly improved by Torvalds and a large number of developers communicating over the Internet.By December 19th a functional, stand-alone Unix-like Linux system was released as Version 0.11 under a freeware license.
Later on Version 0.12 (under the well established GNU General Public License) and Version 0.95 was released, an improved, stable kernel. A growing group of distributed programmers continued to debug, develop, and enhance the source code baseline to this day.After several versions ,in late December of 1993 ,the linux kernel of version 1.0 was released on 14 March of 1994.
Resources. The following sites provide more information on Linux:
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