What is Linux, what are the advantages and differences from other OS systems?

What is Linux exactly? What is the difference between Linux and other OS system? What are the advantages of using Linux?What is Linux, what are the advantages and differences from other OS systems?
What is Linux

http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/113鈥?/a>



Why Linux is Better

http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/



Overall a Linux based platform can perform most of the tasks equally as well as a propietary platform using the likes of Ubuntu and its derivative distros. However Linux does have its limitations with some applications and in particular gaming. For example I retain a dedicated Windows partition to run specific applications such as Office 2010 etc.

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windo鈥?/a>



Grab a budget pack of blank CD'S and head for DISTROWATCH.COM download a few distros. and create some LiveCD's

http://distrowatch.com/

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Burnin鈥?/a>







LUg.
Linux is a monolithic kernel that began as a project to have unix of the x86 archetecture rather than big VAX machines.

It is most often paired with a GNU userspace, especcially the GNU C library, and the GNU C Complier as well as a few others.

One of the biggest technical difference from windows is that is includes most of the drivers in the kernel tree.This makes it a lot easier to modify the kernel when neccessary to improve security, or when the old method of doing things has just gotten crusty. For instal both linux and windows has gone though about half a dozen USB stacks, but linux devs have been able to throw out all the old ones because they can update the drivers to use only the newest stack. but windows is still supporting several different ways for the kernel to interact with USB devices.

Linux is more secure, that ability to change driver interfaces is just one reason for this. Another is that it is inherently multi-user, and the programs that you want to use will run if you are logged in as a normal usere, where many windows programs are poorly designed requiring you to run tham as an administrator. This greatly reduces remote vulnerabilites and is one of the reasons linux is so favored in webservers. Yes if it were more popluar on the desktop it would be the traget of more social engineering attacks. "Hey look at this cool virus.. I mean screensaver" sort of thing. This isn't a security flaw of linux (or windows) per se.

It's also cross platform.It runs on x86, powerpc, Mips, ARM, Ia64, X86_64, Sparc, and several other archetictures. Many other OS's witht the exlusion of Unix are targeted at only one platform or another.

One of the biggest advantages and difference though is the huge amount of open source software targeted at and availible for the platform. Debian for instance includes acccess to over 15,000 programs. You can usually pull in what you need if you have an internet connection.What is Linux, what are the advantages and differences from other OS systems?
Linux is an Open Source Operating System which means it is community developed and driven by the Free Open Source Software community. Its primary claim to fame was that it didn't cost money to use, though now it is also known for its security. It used to be a geeks-only operating system, but Canonical made great strides in desktop adoption with their very popular Ubuntu distribution that uses the Gnome desktop or Kubuntu using the KDE desktop. Ubuntu runs well on a huge variety of hardware platforms, is quite easy to learn and does 95% of anything you want to accomplish with a computer and the most huge advantage is that it's not Windows.



I wrote an article last year about whether to choose Windows, Mac OS X or Linux that will give you a lot more details.



http://my.opera.com/PMAco/blog/win-linux鈥?/a>



Smiley
Linux is an operating system that is extensively used in many applications from mobile phones to supercomputers
It is scalable secure and free
Perhaps most importantly it is open source so everyone can see the source code - there are no hidden backdoors or spyware built-in - I don't look at the source code but anyone who wants to, can

Perhaps the most important differeence is that linux was always created to be a multi-user and network connected operating system and as such is very secure
Security in linux is inherent - there will be many people trying to create virus for linux because linux is the backbone of the internet and sites like pay-pal (for example) are a pretty rich target
Windows is built on an operating system that was designed as a single-user non-networked pc (*personal* computer)
All the security in windows is added as a 'bolt-on' after thought and it shows

Linux (on the desktop) is not perfect - running some games is difficult and itunes is very difficult if not impossible
Windows has the advantage (on the desktop only) of being the dominant player so some software (especially games) is windows only. Though there is a very wide range of excellent software available for linux and some that is linux/bsd/mac only (like kdenlive)

But apart from these two issues , linux is a very fast efficient and secure and reliable operating system that (for me) offers everything i want and none of the hassle and viruses that I don't want

http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
This is obviously written by a fan of linux but is good to readWhat is Linux, what are the advantages and differences from other OS systems?
There are pros and cons to all OSs. If you can use a mouse and keyboard you can use any of them - they are all WIMP based. (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer based). All three (Macs, Windows and Linux, have a command prompt if you need or want it.

There are several reasons cited as to why Linux is better...

It's free - no denying that, but the OS is only a relatively small price, the TOC (total cost of ownership) is about the same when you factor in training and support. You may think that TOC only applies to businesses but how much is your time worth to you?

It's open source - so what? The kernel alone contains 13.5 million lines of code (v2.6.36). Version 2.6.38 has 14,294,439 lines. Mess up the wrong line and it may not boot - how many people do you know can edit kernel code? I personally know just 2 and i've been messing around with computers for a very long time.

By way of comparison Windows 7 probably has around 50 million lines of code and OS X 10.4 about 86 million. One thing that crops up now and then on Linux fanboy sites is it uses less code than Windows as it's better coded, in which case OS X must be written by monkeys and absolute crap - which it isn't.

It's more secure - it is, only because it's got less than 3% of the market share - who's going to write viruses for such little return? One thing it does though, which Windows should do, is not use the admin account by default.

It must be better because companies use it on servers - 80% of companies run Windows servers, 50% run Linux (some companies run both which is why 130% not 100%) - http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/idc-鈥?/a>

Linux comes with everything I need - it's true, most distros come with everything except the kitchen sink, whether you want or need it. Like both Windows and Macs you can limit what gets installed though.

Linux doesn't crash - yes it does, and so do Macs

Over the years I've regularly used Windows, Macs and Linux. I run my own Linux webserver, I even like using Linux, but it's just an operating system and not worth getting my knickers in a twist over.

One thing I really do like about Linux is the update system where all the installed software is updated from the repositories.

One really bad thing about Linux is that you have to be careful about what hardware you buy. Although it's getting better hardware support is still way behind Windows and Macs.
It's free. It's small. It's fast. It's free.



Did I mention it's free?



Other than those, it's very easy to get things set up in Linux. Rarely will you ever need to restart your computer, even after an upgrade/update. It's great for development, because everything is easy to use, and it just 'makes sense'.



Here's my view on the Big 3 OSs:



Mac: Multimedia (Argue with me, why don't you)

Windows: Gaming, spreadsheets (:D)

Linux: Development, safety
Linux is open source software which means anyone can freely access, use and modify it under a General Public License at no cost.