How the creator of the free Linux operating system became a millionaire. OS Linux. What is Russian "Linux": description, characteristics and reviews Linux message

When people say “Linux”, they most often mean a group of operating systems developed on the basis of Linux. Although, in essence, Linux is only the core of the operating system, and various other tools and libraries of the GNU projects and other resources are used to develop a full-fledged operating system. In addition, more developers are using Linux to develop and run mobile applications; Linux plays a key role in the development of devices such as Chromebooks (portable devices running the Chrome operating system, which uses a hybrid of the Linux kernel and services developed by Google as its kernel).

Linux has become popular for the following reasons:

relevance of distributions and active support by developer communities;
the ability to run on a variety of hardware;
low requirements for resources;
the ability to install programs from existing repositories.

But the list of reasons, of course, is not limited to these; there are not only practical but also ethical reasons. For example, many developers see Linux as an expression of openness, self-expression, and accessibility.

Development history

The roots of Linux go to two other projects: Unix And Multics, which aimed to develop a multi-user operating system.

What is Unix?

Unix is a collection of cross-platform multi-user and multi-tasking operating systems.

It can be said right away that Unix systems are currently one of the most historically important operating systems. The influence of Unix extended to programming languages: the C language was developed during the development of Unix systems.

Unix was developed by Bell Laboratories Corporation - in 1969 they showed the first Unix system. The further, the more popular Unix systems gained - in the 70s they began to be installed on computers in educational institutions.

When creating Unix, the developers set themselves three main tasks:

Using the minimum number of features, keeping it simple.
Commonality: the same methods and mechanisms are used in different cases.
Combining programs to solve problems rather than developing new programs from scratch.

As for the distinguishing features of Unix, these are:

Almost constant use of the command line.
Using Containers.
System setup through the use of simple (often text) files.

Unix has its own philosophy. Programmer Douglas McIlroy, who developed the Linux pipeline, defined the following rules:

Write programs that do one thing and do it well.

Write programs that work together.

Write programs that support text streams because it's a generic interface.

One of the problems that has affected Unix is the existence of different versions and many programs that developers wrote to suit their needs; due to poor compatibility, programs running on one version of Unix might not work on machines running other versions. As a result, it was decided to create a common document that would specify the standards that developers should follow.

In 1983, the creation of GNU (GNU's Not UNIX), a Unix-like operating system, was announced. This happened under the influence of the idea of the founder of the project, Richard Stallmann, about the need to create a freely distributed operating system and, in general, open source software.

Richard Stallmann also founded the free software movement and articulated four rights that a user should have: he can run the program for any purpose, he can study the program and modify it to suit his needs, he can distribute the program to help others, and he can publish program improvements to help the community as a whole. All this, first of all, said that the source code of the program should be available to everyone.

It was this thought that inspired Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, to begin work on his operating system in 1991.Linux, like GNU, is a Unix-like system, that is, a system influenced by Unix.

In the future, it is the GNU / Linux system that will become the system that is now simply called Linux.

What is Multis?

Multics - or Multiplexed Information and Computing Service ("Multiplex Information and Computing Service") - is one of the very first operating systems in which a flat data storage model was implemented and the concept of files (segments) was clearly separated. The creation of Multics began in 1964. Bell developers worked on the system Laboratories - in a few years, part of the developers will begin work on the creation of Unix.

Multics was developed in order, firstly, to enable a large number of users to use computer resources at the same time; second, enable users to share data; thirdly, to ensure a good speed of working with data.

However, the main computational goals were not achieved when the first version of the system was released, and Bell Laboratories turned its interest to another project, as a result of which Unix was born.

History of Linux

The history of Linux begins in 1991, when the Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds began to develop the operating system kernel for his computer. He posted his developments on the server, and this became a key event in the history of Linux. First, tens, then hundreds and thousands of developers supported his project - by common efforts, a full-fledged operating system was born.

As already mentioned, Linux was significantly influenced by the Unix system, it can be seen even by the name. However, initially the project was called Freax - from the words “free” (free) and “freak” (strange), but later the name was changed to a hybrid of the name of the creator (Linus) and Unix.

The logo of Linux is Tux, a penguin drawn in 1996 by programmer and designer Larry Ewing. However, Linus Torvalds himself came up with the idea to use the penguin. Now Tux is a symbol not only of Linux, but of free software in general.

The first official version of Linux 1.0 was released in 1994; the second version went in 1996. The Linux trademark was registered a year earlier, in 1995.

From the beginning to this day, Linux has been distributed as free software under the GPL. This means that any user can see the source code of the operating system - and not only see it, but also modify it. The only condition is that the modified, modified code must also be available to everyone and distributed under the GPL license. This is important because it allows developers to use the code and at the same time not be afraid of problems due to copyright.

Linux owes much of its success to GNU: at the time Linux was released, there were already many freeware utilities from this project that could be used with the developed kernel.

In fact, Linux is still the kernel of a Unix-like operating system that performs various low-level tasks. At the same time, the GNU project needed a kernel - development by Linus Torvalds was very timely.

Now, due to its flexibility, Linux is used on many different devices, ranging from computers to servers and mobile devices.

Popular Linux distributions

A Linux distribution is the definition of an operating system that uses the Linux kernel and can be installed on a user's machine. Distributions usually contain not only the kernel and the operating system itself, but also useful applications: editors, players, database tools, and other software.

That is, as already mentioned at the beginning of the article, a Linux distribution is an operating system that consists of the Linux kernel and utilities that are developed under GNU.

The number of existing Linux distributions exceeds 600 varieties, more than 300 of which are constantly being improved and updated.

ubuntu - one of the most common distributions, easy to install and intuitive to use. Great for personal computers, laptops and servers. Developed and sponsored by Canonical Ltd, but also actively supported by the free community. The most popular operating system for web servers.

Debian is another popular GNU/Linux distribution that has had a significant impact on the development of all GNU/Linux operating systems in general. The main features of Debian: wide possibilities, the presence of many repositories, high quality versions - this is the most stable distribution kit of all.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint is a distribution based on Ubuntu and Debian. Linux Mint has a beautiful and user-friendly design and is suitable even for novice users. Therefore, it is often installed on home computers in order to have a simple and convenient system. The distribution has support for various multimedia formats, including proprietary programs (Adobe Flash), so it is well suited for working with multimedia.

Manjaro is a distribution based on Arch Linux. Thanks to a large number of pre-installed programs (for example, for office work), it is quite friendly to beginners, but at the same time it has the ability to fine-tune, many packages, and is stable in general.

Arch is a powerful distribution based on the principles of simplicity, modernity, pragmatism, flexibility and the idea that the focus should be on the user. However, the principle of simplicity does not apply to the use of the system, but to its internal organization (principles of KISS and Unix-way). Therefore, Arch is designed for advanced users who will independently configure and install the utilities they need.

Newcomers to the Linux world are often confused by the variety of Linux distributions. Often it is difficult for them to understand what it is and they are lost in their huge numbers. But in fact, here everything can be grouped and presented in the form of a coherent picture to make it easier to understand and navigate everything.

We have already talked about that in a separate article. In fact, this is the Linux kernel and a set of various software, we will mean the same under the Linux operating system. Some Linux operating systems use the Linux kernel unchanged, while others modify it to provide greater security or to implement necessary features. The advantages of a particular operating system on Linux depend on the set of software that it uses. In this article, we will look at the main types of Linux operating systems that currently exist.

All systems in this list are in random order, so if the system is in last place, then this does not mean that it is not worthy of attention.

1. Debian and other Deb systems

This group includes distributions based on Debian and others using the Debian package management system. This package system was developed for Debian and is now quite often used by popular distributions, these are Debian itself, Ubuntu, LinuxMint, AstraLinux, Elementary and many others. These distributions use the original Linux kernel with a few fixes that only fix bugs.

2. Red Hat and other Rpm systems

While the community was developing the Deb package management system, Red Hat created its own package manager, Rpm. Then all the traditional Linux distributions were divided into two camps - using deb and rpm. Now both package management systems are good and it cannot be said that it is worse than the other. You can read the details in the article at the link. Now the RPM package management system is used by such distributions as CentOS, Fedora, Red Hat, OpenSUSE and other less popular ones.

3. Arch Linux and based on it

After some time, a few more distributions appeared that did not use either Deb or Rpm. One such distribution is ArchLinux. It uses its own pacman package manager, which allows you to do everything that deb does, but in addition a simple rolling release system is implemented. Thanks to her, the distribution always has the latest software. Arch quickly gained popularity and several distributions were based on it - Manjaro, Antergos, Cinnarch and many others.

4.Gentoo

Many users wanted to be able to compile their system themselves to choose which software to install, as well as get optimized for their hardware. Therefore, a Gentoo distribution was created based on the Linux kernel, which uses the emerge package manager. Here you also get rolling releases, as well as the ability to compile your operating system on your computer with relative ease. The emerge package manager already contains ready-made build scripts, so you don't have to add anything yourself.

5. Linux From Scratch

It's not exactly a distribution, LFS is a set of tools that allow you to build your own distribution based on the Linux kernel. You just take the kernel, take the source of the necessary programs, all programs from the initialization system and the command shell to the desktop environment, collect it all, configure it and get your distribution kit.

6 Chrome OS

Still later, Google released its operating system for netbooks based on the Linux kernel. In fact, ChromeOS is based on Gentoo, but they are so different that they cannot be combined into one paragraph. In this system, Google implemented such an idea as a cloud operating system Linux. Your workspace is the browser. Here you have to do everything in the browser - edit documents, work with videos and even the Linux terminal in the browser. The files are mostly stored in the cloud. But it's still Linux.

7.Android

Not everyone knows, but the most popular operating system for mobile phones also uses the Linux kernel. From Linux, only the kernel and a few more points are left here, while Google filled the rest with its various frameworks, Java and so on. The possibilities of Linux are limited by the same Bionic security system that prohibits the loading of dynamic libraries, but in the terminal you can work with rebuilt Linux commands, and in a chroot environment you can run a full-fledged Linux distribution.

8 Slackware

A fairly old Linux distribution, which at one time was considered the most Unix "new. Previously, several distributions were based on it, such as Blacktrack, Slax, VectorLinux and others. But then it slowly lost its popularity. It uses its own package manager, which it lacks deb and rpm capabilities, it doesn't support dependency resolution, and the commands to remove and install packages are in separate utilities.

9. OpenWrt and based on it

OpenWrt is a Linux 2017 operating system for routers and routers based on the Linux kernel. In addition to the Linux kernel itself, it comes with a stripped-down version of the C library, standard Linux utilities, and BusyBox. The system takes up little space and is optimized specifically for routers. Most of the settings are done on the command line.

10. Tizen and other IoTs

An operating system based on the Linux kernel designed for various TVs, smart watches and other smart gadgets. The system is developed on the basis of the Linux kernel by Samsung and is already quite often used. There are applications and SDK for their development.

11. OS for supercomputers

As of 2017, Linux-based operating systems are most commonly used on supercomputers. Each company creates its own solution based on the core, which is optimized for its needs and needs. Of the 500 most powerful supercomputers, 498 run on Linux and two more run on UNIX like the IBM AIX system.

linux- the general name of UNIX-like operating systems based on the kernel of the same name and the libraries and system programs compiled for it, developed as part of the GNU project.
GNU/Linux runs on PC-compatible systems from the Intel x86 family, as well as IA-64, AMD64, PowerPC, ARM, and many more.

The GNU/Linux operating system also often includes programs that complement this operating system, and application programs that make it a full-fledged multifunctional operating environment. Unlike most other operating systems, GNU/Linux does not come with a single "official" bundle. Instead, GNU/Linux comes in a large number of so-called distributions, which link GNU programs with the Linux kernel and other programs.

Development

Unlike Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and commercial UNIX-like systems, GNU/Linux does not have a geographic development center. There is no organization that owns this system; there is not even a single coordinating center. Programs for Linux are the result of the work of thousands of projects. Some of these projects are centralized, some are concentrated in firms. Many projects bring together hackers from all over the world who know each other only by correspondence. Anyone can create their own project or join an existing one, and, if successful, the results of the work will become known to millions of users. Users take part in testing free software, communicate directly with developers, which allows them to quickly find and fix bugs and implement new features.

It is this flexible and dynamic development system, which is impossible for closed source projects, that makes GNU/Linux extremely cost-effective. The low cost of free development, well-established testing and distribution mechanisms, the involvement of people from different countries with different visions of problems, the protection of the code by the GPL license - all this has become the reason for the success of free software.

Of course, such a high development efficiency could not fail to interest large companies that began to open their projects. This is how Mozilla (Netscape, AOL), OpenOffice.org (Sun), a free clone of Interbase (Borland) - Firebird, SAP DB (SAP) appeared. IBM facilitated porting GNU/Linux to its mainframes.

On the other hand, open source significantly reduces the cost of developing closed systems for GNU/Linux and reduces the price of the solution for the user. This is why GNU/Linux has become the platform often recommended for products such as Oracle, DB2, Informix, SyBase, SAP R3, Domino.

GNU/Linux distributions

Most users use distributions to install GNU/Linux. A distribution kit is not just a set of programs, but a number of solutions for different user tasks, united by common systems for installing, managing and updating packages, configuration and support.

The most common distributions in the world:

ubuntu

A fast-growing distribution focused on ease of learning and use.

openSUSE

A freeware version of the SuSE distribution owned by Novell. It is easy to configure and maintain due to the use of the YaST utility.

Fedora

Maintained by the RedHat community and corporation, predates RHEL commercial releases.

Debian

An international distribution developed by a large community of developers for non-commercial purposes. Served as the basis for the creation of many other distributions. It has a strict approach to including non-free software.

Mandriva

French-Brazilian distribution, an amalgamation of the former Mandrake and Conectiva.

Slackware

One of the oldest distributions, it has a conservative approach to development and use.

Gentoo

A distribution built from source. Allows for very flexible customization of the end system and performance optimization, which is why it often calls itself a meta-distribution. Aimed at experts and experienced users.

archlinux

Focused on using the latest versions of software and constantly updated, supporting both binary and source installations equally, and built on the "KISS" ("Keep it simple, stupid" / "Keep it simple" philosophy), this distribution is aimed at competent users who want to have all the power and moddability of Linux without sacrificing maintenance time.

In addition to those listed, there are many other distributions, both based on those listed, and created from scratch and often designed to perform a limited number of tasks.

Each of them has its own concept, its own set of packages, its own advantages and disadvantages. None of them can satisfy all users, and therefore, next to the leaders, there are other firms and programmer associations that offer their solutions, their distributions, their services. There are many LiveCDs based on GNU/Linux, such as Knoppix. LiveCD allows you to run GNU/Linux directly from a CD, without installing it on your hard drive. Most major distributions, including Ubuntu, can be used as a LiveCD.

For those who want to thoroughly understand GNU / Linux, any of the distributions is suitable, however, quite often, the so-called “source-based” distributions are used for this purpose, that is, they assume self-assembly of all components from source codes, such as LFS, Gentoo or CRUX.

Application

The distribution area of Linux is huge, much more than that of all other operating systems. In addition to the fact that Linux works great on ordinary home and work computers and servers, there are adaptations of Linux to most modern processors, which allows you to use systems with a Linux kernel in network equipment, smart home appliances, robots, mobile phones, various portable devices, etc. other equipment that supports programmable operations.

Ultimately, such a wide range of supported devices means excellent software portability. For example, the same application can often be run with minimal effort on both a desktop computer and a Linux-based mobile phone. For example: Windows and its little brother Windows Mobile are completely incompatible platforms.

By tradition, at the end of each year, the CRN editors name the 25 best "captains" of the US IT business. In 2004, this list included the most enterprising channel leaders, CEOs of some of the leading vendor companies, and people who are the visionaries and idea generators that make their firms grow and thrive even in difficult times. The first on this list was Linus Torvalds, whose efforts the Linux project gained unprecedented power in 2004.

Linus Torvalds is neither the CEO nor the chairman of the company. He does not have leadership status. It wasn't until 2003 that he first accepted a paid position in the Linux industry that he created.

But according to CRN, it is Torvalds, a 34-year-old programmer from Finland who created the Linux kernel, who deserves the title of the most influential leader of 2004. He earned this title by almost 15 years of selfless work on his brainchild. The past year has been a turning point for Linux and for the entire open source community. And Torvalds played an extremely important role in this.

The creation of the Linux 2.6 kernel took the OS to the next level, making it suitable for enterprise use, forcing Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and other OS vendors to radically rethink their sales models.

Much has changed in Torvalds' life lately: he completed the Linux 2.6 kernel and for the first time received official status in the Linux developer community by becoming an employee of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL). The organization is vendor neutral and was initiated by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Computer Associates International, Intel, and NEC.

Now Torvalds has a position and a business card confirming his official status. But all this did not affect his usual way of life. Torvalds' departure from the microprocessor company Transmeta and his work at OSDL has allowed him to devote his time to developing the Linux kernel, and to his family as he works from home.

“Initially, I planned to take a year off from Transmeta at my own expense, so that I could focus only on working on version 2.6 and not be distracted by anything else,” says Torvalds. "Being with the OSDL has been a great way to keep health insurance, get paid, and be independent from providers."

For the open source community, this event played an important role. Linus's decision to go public at a difficult time for Linux developers - a period of sharp criticism of open source and constant scrutiny, prompted by the SCO Group's lawsuit against IBM - gave his followers confidence in the future. This once again proves the enormous influence of Torvalds on the fate of Linux.

Last June, Linus left California with his wife, Tove, and their three daughters (three, six, and seven) and settled in a quiet suburb of Portland, Oregon. He lives in a new house, furnished quite simply, without frills, with elements of Danish modernity. Torvalds also does not attach much importance to clothing: he greeted the crowd of photographers who violated his privacy in shabby jeans. He seems to be amused by all this excitement around him.

Linus's home office has a private entrance at the back of the house, with a small kitchen and shelves for books that aren't stocked yet. The office windows overlook the backyard, where Torvalds is building a toy house for his daughters. Then there is a view of the forest. In this environment, which is not disturbed by any business problems or office routine, the sacred rite takes place - work on the Linux OS.

Linus usually sits in front of the monitor and plays the keyboard like a child - almost like in 1991, in Helsinki, when he first conceived the core of his OS. But today, Torvalds conducts a worldwide orchestra of thousands of developers and piece by piece puts together a masterpiece that undermines the entire software establishment, hits Sun painfully, brings IBM back to life, and makes even Microsoft doubt its own immortality.

“Today, thanks to the efforts of Torvalds, Linux is the most successful project in the open source world. It challenges the software industry," says a lead developer on another successful open source project.
“Linus exemplifies how to set yourself up as a serious opponent of the strong players in the industry by skillfully managing the developer community and devoting yourself entirely to your business. He has shown the way for many professional open source developers. He is the reason why JBoss started to work in this direction,” says Marc Fleury, general manager of JBoss, a J2EE application server developer.

Eric Raymond, author of The Cathedral & the Bazaar, a treatise on the open source movement, believes that Torvalds' talent and organizational skills allowed Linux to not only survive, but flourish, contrary to experts' predictions. “Linus has an amazing sense of purpose. He withstood the unbridled ambitions that ruined more than one project of this magnitude, says Raymond. - An even more important factor was the introduction of a decentralized code development model. It existed even before Torvalds, but he managed to systematize it.”

For Torvalds, this work is just a favorite thing: having all the rights to dispose of the Linux trademark, he does not receive a penny from them. It's paradoxical for an industry that produces billionaires: having revolutionized the software business, not being interested in the business at all.

“I don't think I could be the Bill Gates of this decade,” says Torvalds. - To do this, you need to stand at the very origins of a new technical direction. OS is not something new for a long time. Perhaps even more important to have a commercial streak. And this is what I have? Yes, I think least of all about business.

For all his modesty, Torvalds did work that brought the stagnant OS market back to life and made society think about the philosophical and social aspects of the question of how and for whom software products are created. Many representatives of the open source community believe that software is one of the benefits of civilization, like electricity, and therefore should not belong to a handful of capitalists, but to the whole society and be used for the benefit of society. There are also radicals who see the growing competition between Linux and proprietary operating systems as a struggle between good and evil, and Torvalds is considered the liberator of the world from slavery to Microsoft Windows.

True, Linus sees it quite differently. “I don’t have a philosophical view of open source at all. I'm more of a pragmatist in this regard. I truly believe that collaborative work and open sharing of knowledge results in higher quality development. But sometimes, even with this style of work, you have to resort to licensing, because there will always be people who can calmly appropriate someone else's work. The idea of an open exchange of knowledge can be called "philosophy," but such an exchange actually exists, says Torvalds. - This is what distinguishes science from alchemy or witchcraft. I think those who don't believe it just don't want to take their blinders off."

The passion with which Linus writes codes makes him the number one open source developer.

“Linus is not only a brilliant programmer, he has good taste,” says Dirk Hondell, director of Linux OS and open source strategy at Intel, and one of the first developers of the Linux kernel almost from the project’s inception in 1991. “Torvalds finds simple and reasonable ways of solving problems, knows how to “sort things out”. He makes complex things simple. In my opinion, this is the main difference between an excellent programmer and just a good one.

Andrew Morton, Torvalds' right-hand man and number two developer on the Linux project, is now also responsible for the Linux kernel work in the OSDL. He says that Torvalds "keeps the bar high" and this is also the key to the success of the entire project. “He managed to achieve a state where everyone works without haste and under equal conditions. There is a self-organization of the entire community and the distribution of roles among its members ... when no personal differences can seriously harm the entire project,” says Morton.

But this is by no means an easy task, says Alan Cox of Red Hat, one of the key developers of Linux. "Linus has two strong personality traits: he's honest and he doesn't stand by his point of view when it's wrong," says Cox. -Torvalds is able to lead, he has excellent intuition when choosing technical solutions and a reasonable approach to working with people. It is known that managing programmers is like "herding a herd of cats." But Linus does a great job of it, without prejudice to anyone's interests.

Torvalds is calm and natural, he has little interest in industry-wide issues, but for all his flexibility, he always has his own point of view and is not afraid to express it out loud. He openly criticizes the Microsoft Windows code, and calls SCO a failing company that takes credit for others.

Torvalds is proud of the Linux 2.6 kernel, which was completed in December 2003. This version is enterprise-ready. In terms of performance, reliability and scalability, it is not inferior to commercial operating systems. It is suitable both for working with corporate applications and for any tasks related to the processing of large amounts of data. Torvalds prides himself on the formal search procedure he developed with Morton, which facilitates updates and fixes to the OS kernel.

At the same time, Linus prefers to keep a safe distance from any commercial and legal issues, says Stuart Cohen, general manager of the OSDL. “He has absolutely no interest in being a chief advisor or VP of technology,” Cohen says. - Torvalds already has enough to do. We try not to overload him, giving him complete freedom - he is free to do what he is interested in.”

Torvalds does not like to be in the spotlight, but occasionally participates in industry events. Trying to be extremely precise in everything - both in creating code and in determining his own role - Linus calls himself the chief technical officer, and not the chief architect, since he does not write himself so much as he supervises the work of other developers. And he is always ready to pay tribute to the programmers who played a prominent role in the development of open source, including the authors of the C language and the Unix operating system at Bell Labs - Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson.

Torvalds does not consider himself a hero, but according to his friends, he is far from the worst role model. Hondel recalls how Torvalds was preparing to give a speech at the LinuxWorld Expo one day, when he suddenly disappeared just before going on stage. Panic and confusion seized, but Torvalds' wife, who often travels with him with her daughters, intervened and reassured him, saying that he ran to the car for diapers.

This is all very typical of Torvalds, Hondell says. Despite world fame, Linus is completely devoid of consciousness of his own greatness and does not walk surrounded by a retinue of assistants, like many celebrities. “Torvalds is a madman, worse than that, he is an outstanding madman. But, fortunately, despite this, he is a completely normal person and a good friend, says Hondel. “It’s enough to see him once with the children - and you understand that he remains the same as he always was - just a good guy.”

The history of this operating system began in 1983, then Linux did not yet have its modern name, Richard Stallman began to work on it. Approximately eight years later, he had almost completed the development of all the system programs included in its composition.

In the 90s, a young hacker and programmer joined the work on the system Linus Torvalds, he developed the kernel for the operating system. And as can be seen from the name of this person, that the system got its name from him. By the way, the penguin, which became the emblem of the system, was before that a personal symbol of Linus, but to make this penguin a symbol of the operating system was invented by the programmer's wife, Tove.

In September 1991, Torvalds posted the source code on the Internet for the first time, anyone could download it. This immediately attracted the attention of hundreds of programmers who, having downloaded the source code, began working on it, adding their programs. From that moment, its free and free distribution began. In the first years, only individual programmers were engaged in this, but later entire companies joined the development. An interesting fact is that if now the development of such a system was taken up on a commercial basis, then about 11 billion dollars would be needed to work on it. Over 70,000 people have worked on it over the years to bring Linux to its current state. It was Linux that came out in 2012 in first place in terms of use in smartphones, which is used in them, which was created based on the Linux kernel, specifically for mobile devices.

Benefits of Linux

Nowadays, Linux itself, as such, no longer exists, but there are other operating systems developed on its kernel. If you write in Cyrillic, then these are Fedora, Ubuntu and Android, these are the most popular and widespread systems at the moment. Linux Fedora desktop example

First of all, of course, I would like to note one of its main advantages, that it is distributed for free. Therefore, if you install Linux on computers at the enterprise, then you can not be afraid of any checks. No one will accuse you of using pirated software. Every program you need to run on Linux is already available for both work and play. To whom and why to distribute free programs, we will not discuss.

Its second advantage is that Linux is open source. To many this does not mean anything, I will try to explain simply. Let's take Windows, after writing the kernel of this system, the code closes and it is impossible to open it, so nothing can be redone in Windows. Of course, we can change the design to some extent, but getting inside Windows will not work. With Linux, the situation is different, its code is open, so if you have the knowledge for programming, you can set up your own experiments, modifying and improving the system.

A couple more advantages and small disadvantages

And here are some more advantages and disadvantages of Linux. First, security, what it is, is that

that viruses that constantly surf the Internet in search of an unprotected computer have no effect on this system.

For example, if a virus enters a Windows computer, all folders on all drives will soon be infected. The system, and in most cases, only full formatting of the entire disk can save. With Linux it is a little different, it does not spread through folders, and therefore cannot harm the system.

Secondly, this is the availability of software for Windows, the further, the harder it is to find a good working free program. Licensed, very expensive, and free, no good. With Linux, the opposite is true, new programs appear, absolutely free, and in quality and functionality, often superior to their counterparts developed for Windows. And the installation of programs is simplified, by going to the distribution site, you select several programs, type the desired line on the command line, and the installation starts.

I would also like to note the speed of Linux, the design in it is simplified, so the system works much faster than Windows. Of course, if a person likes luxurious design more, or he has the opportunity to buy a supercomputer, then he may not like Linux. This system behaves well on budget models and computers, it is not demanding and therefore nimble.

Only one thing can be attributed to the disadvantages of this system, this is some delay in the release of drivers for the equipment. Time moves forward, everything is updated, first of all, professional programmers make drivers for Windows 7, and then for Linux. This is mainly due to commerce, in the first option you can make good money, and the second option is free. But, in the near future, this state of affairs will be corrected. Other disadvantages of this system are mentioned, but for the most part they are far-fetched, and in the end, each user decides for himself what to choose.