What is Linux?

If you have been living in a cave in the furthest outpost of Mongolia without a computer, television, access to newspapers or any other forms of information it is just possible that you have never heard of Linux.

However even if you have heard of Linux it is almost certain that unless you are a very dedicated computer geek that you couldn’t actually honestly say what Linux is if you are asked to describe it, over and above making a stab at mentioning stumblingly that Linux is an operating system or OS (operating system). An operating system is the system which helps your computer to function.

But Linux is more than that, just recently for example the mighty cash rich Microsoft Corp. described Linux as a threat to its business, not in a terrorist type of way but as a potential competitor, this was the first time that the Microsoft Corp. had recognized Linux as a competitor and that of course means that Linux is getting popular at last.

Why at last? Well the answer to that is simple Linux would you believe has been around since 1991 and became a functioning operating system in 1994.

So why has it taken so long for Linux to become a threat to the mighty Microsoft Corp., well the difference between all of the main operating systems Vista or whatever Windows is called these days, the Mac OS X and Linux is that Linux was first developed as a hobby project by a student called Linus Torvaids while he was at the University of Finland and it is free.

Initially Linus Torvalds worked on a small UNIX system called Minix and developed that into the first version of Linux. Linux was released under the GNU General Public License and is free to all, even today the Linux operating system’s source code is free to all and is the foundation of any Linux system that others have developed and sell to users who need a more user friendly Linux experience and don’t have the skills or the time to use Linux in its basic form to develop Linux applications.

Linux is ‘developed’ or turned into user friendly applications and operating systems by a number of groups, companies and individuals to enhance its capabilities and functionality.

Typically the user groups produce applications which are free to all, the individuals in the user groups have embraced Linus Torvalds’ concept of an operating system to run your computer that is easier to use than the Microsoft Corp’s Windows and is free and so they work to develop these applications in the hope that they are reducing the price of computing for all.

Large computer companies including Dell, IBM and Hewlett Packard have developed Linux systems and applications using Linux to provide an alternative to the Windows and UNIX environment and this is has been so successful that some multinational computer companies are now offering a version of the Linux operating system on their netbook and notebooks instead of Microsoft’s Vista/Windows.

The main reason for this is that the Linux operating system costs a fraction of the cost of the Vista/Windows, each Vista/Windows installation on a new computer costs the manufacturer about $30.00 USD. This is a considerable cost when it is considered that some computer models only produce around $30.00 profit for the manufacturer.

The other reasons that Linux is now being used more extensively by multinationals include; Linux is easier to use than Vista/Windows, it has recently also proved itself to be more user friendly and stable than Vista/Windows and Vista/Windows has recently proved itself to be a very costly disaster to computer manufactures who had to configure their computers for a very short lived operating system and then change the that configuration for the latest edition of Windows and the computer manufacturers don’t want to repeat that disaster.

It is a little known fact that today there are a number of very useful applications that Linux is at the heart of these include the desktop management systems developed by KDE and Gnome and the amazing office suite called “Open Office” which was developed by OpenOffice.org and of course the most popular web browser Mozilla Firefox.

All of the above applications are free and are as good as or better than the Microsoft equivalents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Windows Internet Explorer 8.

Today Linux is constantly being refined and developed, Linus Torvalds heads a programming team working on the kernel (the heart of the Linux or indeed any computer software) while others work for the Free Software Foundation and organisation which supports the GNU General Public License components of the software and the applications that stem from it.

In addition to the two main developers of Linux and Linux applications above there are a range of developers which include large companies, multinational corporations and even hobbyists who add to the value and functionality of Linux in various forms and this is due to the fact that anyone can take a copy of Linux and develop it without paying for the privilege.

When developers program with Linux they can choose from a range of computer programming languages to use, the most common computer programming languages used to build and develop Linux applications are C, C++, Java, Fortran and Ada.

Though little used Linux will also support C# using the Mono project.

After a Linux based program has been written and complied most programmers will include support for a range of dynamic languages such as Ruby on Rails, Ruby, PHO, Perl and Python.

In addition to being used extensively as general a desktop application, super computers  and for servers some developers have developed Linux to perform other functions such as supporting computer architecture and embedded systems and when Linux is used to support these functions it adds great stability and security than other languages or operating systems.

Linux is a great success story and although currently as an operating system it only holds around 15% of the marketplace that not only represents nearly $38 billion dollars worth of revenue a year it is a market share that is growing and that is because of its easy of use and the fact that more and more people are tired of using Vista/Windows.