If you are going to switch to Linux for the first time, there are some things you should know. This guide contains important information to help you get started using it.
You will learn what Linux is, why you should use it, what distributions are, how to install them, how to use the terminal, how to configure the hardware, and many other key aspects.
Linux is the operating system used in many systems, from light bulbs to weapons, from laptops to large data centers.
Everything works on Linux, from your phone to your smart refrigerator.
In a consumer environment, Linux is an alternative to commercial operating systems such as Windows.
Why use Linux instead of Windows?
There are many reasons why you should use Linux over Windows, and here are just a few of them.
- Linux OS is supported on older computers. Although Windows XP will still run on older hardware, it is no longer supported, so there are no security updates. There are a number of Linux distributions that are built specifically for older hardware and are regularly maintained and updated.
- Certain Linux distributions and desktop environments are now more familiar to regular computer users than Windows 8 and Windows 10. If you like the look and feel of Windows 7, why not try Linux Mint for example.
- The size of Windows 10 is huge. A typical Linux distribution is just over 1 gigabyte, although some may be as small as a few hundred megabytes. Also Windows requires at least DVD-level bandwidth.
- Linux comes with free software, and you can modify and use this software as you see fit.
- Linux has always been more secure than Windows because there are very few viruses for it, although the Internet of Things has been under threat lately.
- Linux performs better than Windows in many ways, and you can squeeze every last drop out of it on older, limited hardware.
- Confidentiality. Windows regularly collects data from Cortana and search in general. While this is not a new thing, as Google does the same thing, you can be more than sure that Linux does not do this, especially if you choose a free distro.
- Reliability. When a program freezes on Linux, you can close it quite easily. When a program freezes on Windows, even when you try to start Task Manager to close that program, it doesn't always work.
- Updates. Windows is very intrusive with its update policy. How many times have you turned on your computer to print concert tickets or other important information to see the update 1 of 450 installation screen?
- Variability. You can make Linux look, feel, and behave exactly the way you want. With Windows, the computer behaves the way Microsoft thinks you want it.
If you're still undecided, read this guide to help you decide if Linux is right for you.
Which Linux distribution should you use?
The first question to ask is "what is a Linux distribution?" It's just that the Linux kernel is like an engine. A distribution is actually a vehicle that contains an engine.
So which Linux distribution should you choose? Here are the main ones:
- Linux Mint: Requires no advanced computer experience, easy to install, easy to use, and has a familiar desktop for Windows 7 users
- Debian: If you are looking for a truly free Linux distribution with no proprietary drivers, firmware or software, then Debian is for you. An old man among distributions.
- Ubuntu: a modern Linux distribution that's easy to install and use
- openSUSE: a stable and powerful Linux distribution. Not as easy to install as Mint and Ubuntu, but a very good alternative nonetheless
- Fedora: the most up-to-date Linux distribution with all new concepts included at the earliest opportunity
- Mageia: rose from the ashes of the once great Mandriva Linux. Easy to install and use
- CentOS: Like Fedora, CentOS is based on the commercial Linux distribution, Red Hat Linux. Unlike Fedora, it's built for stability
- Manjaro: Based on Arch Linux, Manjaro strikes a great balance between ease of use and modern software
- LXLE: Based on the lightweight Lubuntu distro, it is a fully functional Linux distro for old hardware
- ArchThe: rolling release distribution means you don't have to install new versions of the operating system because it updates itself. Harder for a new user to learn, but very powerful
- Elementary: Linux for people who like a Mac-style interface
You can read more about the best distributions for newbies in.
What is a desktop environment?
A typical Linux distribution has several components.
There is a display manager that is used to help you log in, a window manager that is used to manage windows, panels, menus, main interfaces and applications.
Many of these elements are combined together to create what is called a desktop environment.
Some Linux distributions come with only one desktop environment (although others are available in the software repositories), while others have different versions of the distribution for different desktop environments.
The most common desktop environments include Cinnamon, GNOME, Unity, KDE, Enlightenment, XFCE, LXDE and MATE.
- Cinnamon Is a more traditional desktop environment that is similar to Windows 7 with a bottom bar, menus, system tray icons, and quick launch icons.
- GNOME and Unity pretty similar. They are modern desktop environments that use the concept of launcher icons and dashboard-style displays to select apps. There are also core applications that integrate well with the general theme of the desktop environment.
- KDE Is a fairly traditional desktop environment, but it has a huge number of features and a core set of applications that can be easily customized with a lot of settings.
- Enlightenment, XFCE, LXDE and MATE - fairly lightweight desktop environments with panels and menus. They are all highly customizable.
How to connect to the internet
While internet connectivity is different for every desktop environment, the principle is the same for everyone.
- Somewhere on the panel is a network icon. Click on it and you will see a list of wireless networks.
- Click on the desired network and enter the security key.
The best system for web browsing
Linux has all the best browsers including Chrome, Chromium, Firefox and Midori.
It doesn't have Internet Explorer, but who needs it? In the browser Chrome has everything you might need.
Are there decent office suites for Linux?
There is no doubt that Microsoft Office Is a premium product and it is a very good tool that is difficult to replicate and surpass the qualities of this product.
For personal use and for small and medium businesses, you can argue that Google docs and LibreOffice are good alternatives and at lower cost.
LibreOffice comes with a text editor with most of the functionality you'd expect in a text editor. It also comes with a decent spreadsheet that is also full featured and even includes a basic programming engine, although it is not Excel VBA compatible.
Other tools include presentations, mathematical calculations, databases and drawing packages, which are also very good.
How do I install programs on Linux?
Linux users don't install software the way Windows users do, although the differences are getting smaller and smaller.
Typically, if a Linux user wants to install a package, he runs a tool called a package manager.
The package manager accesses repositories that contain packages that can be installed.
A package management tool usually provides a way to find software, install software, keep software up to date, and uninstall software.
As technology advances, some Linux distributions introduce new package types that are self-contained just like Android apps.
Each distribution provides its own graphical tool. There are common command line tools used across different distributions.
- For instance, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Debian use a package manager apt-get.
- Fedora and CentOS use a package manager yum.
- Arch and Manjaro use Pacman.
You can learn more about installing applications on Linux from.
Linux Command Line
No matter what Linux users say, it is the need to use the terminal that prevents the system from becoming massively popular. However, this is a useless discussion.
While it is helpful to learn basic Linux commands (the same can be said for DOS commands in Windows), there is no need to do so.
The first thing you need to know is, of course, how to open a terminal, and of course there are many ways to do this.
Why is it called a terminal? Terminal is actually a short name for a terminal emulator, and it goes back to the time when people logged in on physical terminals. Now, all you need to know is that the terminal is where you enter Linux commands.
Once you open a terminal, you should really be good at it. First you need to know about the rights. You can read more about this in.
The team that users usually recognize early on is the team sudo, but don't start mindlessly typing commands with sudowithout realizing what she is doing, because it could all end in disaster.
While you are working in the terminal, you should also understand about switching users using the command su.
Essentially, the command sudo allows you to elevate privileges so that you can run commands as a different user. By default, the other user is the user root.
Command su switches the context so that you are running as the specified user. A number of commands can be executed on behalf of this user.
Some more facts about Linux
- Live Linux DVD or USB lets you run Linux without installing to hard drive. This allows you to test your Linux disk before switching to it, and is also good for the casual user.
- Each Linux distribution is installed with its own installer, which is a program that helps you configure and install Linux.
- When a user installs Linux, he can either install it on a single system, or install it along with Windows.
- Linux takes the lead when it comes to playing audio files. There are dozens of great audio apps and you can choose one or more that you like.
- Unfortunately, there is no Outlook on Linux.
- The great thing about Linux is that you can make it look and feel just the way you want it.
- Each Linux desktop environment works a little differently, and so it will take some time to get to know all the bases.
Summary
In this guide, we have told you what Linux is, why you should use it, what Linux distributions are and how to choose from them, how to try Linux, how to install it, how to set up Linux, how to navigate Linux, told about the best applications, how install applications and how to use the command line.
This should give you a good foundation to move forward.
Found a typo? Select the text and press Ctrl + Enter
In January of this year, the FAS admitted that Microsoft dominates the market of operating systems (OS) for personal computers (PCs) in Russia. According to the 2015 data, which FAS operated, 95.6% of desktops and laptops were Windows. Apple held 2.5% of the market, but its Mac OS is not easy to install anywhere other than Mac computers. Microsoft's real competitors, the most serious of which are Linux, only had 1.9% of the market.
It would seem that the project to create a free operating system has failed. In fact, he is rapidly conquering the world. “A lot of people don't even know they are using Linux,” its founder, Finn Linus Torvalds, said in an interview with Linux magazine. Pick up your smartphone - if it's Android, it's built on the Linux kernel. Climb the sites of giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook or some small unknown companies - they use Linux. Linux powers the International Space Station, powers most supercomputers, and was taken over by the New York Stock Exchange in 2007. Tens of thousands of programmers around the world are working for free to continually improve the free system.
Employee Microsoft once told Torvalds that his portrait was being used in their office as a darts target. Steve Ballmer, while he was the CEO of Microsoft, publicly attacked Linux. Hardly because he was indifferent to her. After leaving, he admitted in an interview with Fortune: Linux poses an increasing threat to Windows and is already "looming in the rearview mirror." Ballmer's successor Satya Nadella went the other way: he launched the Microsoft Loves Linux initiative to adapt software to each other.
But Apple, on the contrary, at the end of last year banned the installation of Linux and other operating systems, except for Mac OS and Windows 10, on its new computers. And before that, Steve Jobs offered Torvalds to become one of the developers of the Mac OS and introduce into the process the same unusual development principles as Linux. But the Finnish programmer refused. “I think [Jobs] was pretty surprised that his argument about Apple's market share didn't work,” Torvalds recalled.
He has his own views on what is open source software and what is his role in the computer world, Torvalds. He created software that is free and on which he did not expect to make a cent (though he ended up making millions). But even when money was tight in the late 1990s, Torvalds gave up the $ 10 million he would have received for joining the board of directors of one of the nascent Linux companies.
In January of this year, Torvalds started development of the 5th version of the Linux kernel. “The change in the number does not mean something special. If you need an official reason - I ran out of fingers and toes, so "4.21" turned into "5", - he is quoted by InternetUA.
Mesmerized by the calculator
Linus Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki and should have become a journalist - like almost all of his relatives. My father was a radio journalist, my mother was an editor at a news agency, my uncle worked for Finnish television, my grandfather was the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, and my sister, an employee of a news agency, opened her own translation agency, specializing in the translation of news reports.
A family legend says that Linus's great-grandfather, journalist and writer Ernst von Wendt, fought for the Whites in 1917 and was held captive by the Reds. Father Niels, on the other hand, was an ideological communist. Some children were even banned from playing with Linus, and he himself was teased at school because of his father's radicalism. When the parents divorced, the children did not notice it too much: the father lived in Moscow for a long time.
A rare exception to the family profession was the maternal grandfather Leo Waldemar Ternqvist, professor of statistics at the University of Helsinki. The grandson really enjoyed watching him work on a calculator. Unlike modern ones, those calculators needed time to calculate, and they blinked lights. The sight fascinated young Linus. In 1981, instead of a calculator, my grandfather bought the first computer, the Commodore VIC-20.
The rarest surname
In the biography “Just for Fun. The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary "(M .: Eksmo-press, 2002) Linus Torvalds, who belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, talks about the origin of his surname:" Father's grandfather, Torvalds<...> made it himself, using his middle name as an improvised material. At birth he was named Ole Torvald Alice Sachsberg. He was born without a father (Saksberg is his mother's maiden name) and then received the surname Karanko from the man my great-grandmother had married. Farfar (as the Finns call their paternal grandfather - “Vedomosti”) did not like his stepfather so much that he changed his surname: he added the letter “c” to the name Torvald to give the surname a more solid - as it seemed to him - sound. The name Torvald means "the domain of Thor". It would be better if he created the surname from scratch, and did not engage in alterations: the addition of "s" deprives the word of its original meaning and confuses both Swedes and Finns, who cannot understand how to pronounce this surname. It’s not the Torvalds who want to write it, but the Thorwalds. There are only 21 Torvalds in the world, and we are all relatives. We all face this family problem. "
Torvalds recalls that he was not an outcast at school and was quite dexterous - he was willingly taken on the team in the Finnish version of bouncers. But at the same time he was a typical nerd: "He looked like a beaver, wore glasses, dressed tasteless, most of the time my hair looked bad, and on other days it was terrible." Unsurprisingly, he became interested in the computer. This craze did not go away when he got older. Because of the Finnish weather, the country has nothing to do but program, have sex or drink, Torvalds joked. With the second, he did not work out very well - hackers in those years had not yet become fashionable, he did not particularly like to drink. It remains to write the codes.
Computer investment
When grandfather passed away, his computer was taken over by Linus by default. Then he bought Sinclair QL. The family did not boast: Torvalds recalls how his mother periodically pawned the only value - a share of the Helsinki Telephone Company (given to each owner of a phone) worth about $ 500. Having become famous, he will make the only exception for this company and will enter its board of directors.
In 1990 Torvalds entered the University of Helsinki. He bought a computer with an Intel 386 processor, for which he had to get a loan for several years. It was worth it: it was a powerful machine for its time.
The university had a Unix operating system. On Torvalds's computer - the free Minix OS. Torvalds didn't like how she connected from home via a modem to the university network, nor how she worked with the hardware of his computer. For example, Minix was designed for 16-bit processors, while Intel 386 was 32-bit.
Torvalds wrote several programs to solve these problems. But they required other programs: for example, his solution to work with the institute's network did not know how to write files to disk. In the end, so many additional functions were created that Torvalds realized: he had a replacement for Minix in five minutes. But he still worked with Minix until he accidentally messed it up: he wrote a command that damaged the hard drive in the place where the OS was written. Then Torvalds began to use his Linux as the main OS.
Free software ideologues
It cannot be said that Torvalds created an operating system from scratch. He created the kernel of the system, that is, that which connects programs with the hardware of the computer and allows them to work. This is a base on which you can hang many different add-ons. There is no one Linux operating system similar to Windows 10 - there are many operating systems based on the Linux kernel, some of which use the word Linux in their name.
Torvalds himself, to create a full-fledged OS on his own kernel, used a set of third-party programs under the auspices of the General Public License (GPL), developed by Richard Stallman. Torvalds reverently calls him "the god of free software."
Stallman began working on a free alternative to Unix in 1984. "Free" was the key word. His task was to prevent anyone from taking over the source codes and demanding payment for them. Stallman created the ideological and legal framework for such software, the Free Software Manifesto, and wrote the General Public License (GPL) with his lawyers. It says that if a programmer has used code licensed under the GPL, then he must provide everyone who wants the source code of the resulting product, the right to modify and distribute it. The next programmer will have to do the same, using GPL-licensed software for their programs, etc.
Torvalds, using Stallman's work, also licensed his kernel under the GPL. Therefore, in 2001, the CEO Microsoft Ballmer swore, “Linux is a cancer that devours all the intellectual property it touches. According to the license rules, if you use any open source software components, you must open the source code of all the software you have ”(Cnet quote).
Why Linux is popular
Initially, Torvalds did not want to distribute his work. But he boasted of his successes on the Internet forum and, so that he would not be considered a talker, posted the code.
His creation captivated other programmers, who began to install it on their computers and suggest improvements. Perfection was indeed very far away. One day Torvalds received a letter, the author of which praised Linux for a long time, and at the end said that there was a bug in the drive driver that had just destroyed his hard drive.
The system became more and more popular. By then, Torvalds hadn't been working on Linux alone for a long time. More and more people understood the code and offered their improvements, and they did it absolutely free. There is a system that allows volunteers to work on a new version of Linux with other developers, see changes made by others, and revert to previous versions of files in case of errors. Linux once had 10,000 lines of code. Now the bill goes to tens of millions. In 2017, about 80,000 improvements for Linux were proposed, 90% of them were paid programmers, and 30% of them worked for Intel, The New Yorker wrote.
Torvalds knows Linux so well that the proposed changes are often accepted or rejected at sight: "It's like looking into a book and not seeing individual letters or words, but grasping the whole sentence" (quoted by Bloomberg). But if the changes are serious, then he needs 10-25 minutes to test them. Although Torvalds has many helpers who filter out suggestions, he sometimes has to look through 30 changes a day.
Thanks to this system, Linux has attracted the attention of major players. The first among large companies to install Linux-based software on their equipment was Sun Microsystems, then IBM, Informix, Oracle ... Small companies were also interested. The rise of online commerce in the 1990s created the need for server software. Previously, you had to spend thousands of dollars on it, now you could bet it for a penny by adapting Linux. Anyone could open their own business online.
Torvalds believes that the key to Linux's success is that it doesn't have a niche. Once Unix relied on the supercomputers of the military, banks, financial institutions, he says in his autobiography “Just for Fun. The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary ”. This software cost a lot of money. Then she came Microsoft with its relatively inexpensive prices and began to work everywhere. “But imagine a liquid organism that floods any space it finds. If one of the niches is lost, it doesn't matter. The body fills the whole world, flowing into all holes. The same is happening with Linux now. She finds herself wherever there is interest in her<...> It can be found on supercomputers in all sorts of cool places like the National Laboratory. Fermi and NASA. But there it flowed from the server space. And into it, in turn, I got from the world of desktop computers - here I started. At the same time, Linux is on embedded devices, from anti-lock brakes to clocks. See how she fills the world. "
Of course, another reason for popularity is the image of Robin Hood. On the one hand, a monster corporation Microsoft , rumors about surveillance of users, etc., and on the other - free software and a humble Finn.
How Torvalds became a millionaire
“I had a hard time scraping together the money for the monthly payments for my computer, which were calculated for three years,” Torvalds recalled in his biography. But he thought it was wrong to charge for Linux. The reason for this is Finland, with its attitude to greed, and a stubborn communist father, and the unwillingness to make those who helped him make the program better pay, Torvalds argued.
On the Internet there are so-called harem pants (from the English shareware) - free software that asks: "If you like me, send money to the author." In Linux there was no such request, but many wrote to Torvalds that they would gladly support him financially. At that time, a letter from the "maximum repost" series was circulating on the Internet: allegedly the boy Craig was dying of cancer, but he could be encouraged by sending a postcard. Torvalds jokingly asked for a couple of lines instead of currency. When the mailbox began to burst with postcards from all over the world, the family suspected that Linus was doing something important. He himself did not talk much about Linux, despite all the reproaches that his modem was constantly on the phone line.
Torvalds lived and dined with his mother. It had about $ 5,000 in student loans, about $ 50 a month went on loan for a computer, and some money was needed for beer. The loan problem resolved itself: a friend announced on the Internet a subscription to pay for Torvalds' computer, and he accepted the money as an exception. And he paid off the rest from his salary. Finland has a Swedish-speaking minority, to which the Torvalds belong. In 1992, a computer science assistant was needed for a course in the Faculty of Computer Science. He spoke Swedish and knew about computers. There were only two of them in the faculty.
Three years later, Torvalds became a staff scientist at the university: he received money for research, which, by and large, boiled down to improving Linux.
Thanks to teaching, Torvalds got married. A kindergarten teacher and six-time Finnish karate champion Tove signed up for his special course “Introduction to Computer Science”. The first assignment was to send an e-mail to the teacher - it was not as easy as it is now. In a letter, Tove invited him on a date. At first, they did not part at all, and Torvalds even abandoned programming.
In 1997, Torvalds moved to the United States with his family to work for Transmeta, a low-power processor company. One of the co-owners of this company is Paul Allen, who together with Bill Gates founded Microsoft ... Torvalds' job was to maintain the project's Linux infrastructure.
Torvalds never had more than $ 5,000 in his bank account - until the turn of this century, when he became a millionaire overnight. If Linux is free, that doesn't mean you can't make money on it. Even when the project was just in its infancy, the kernel could be downloaded free of charge from the Internet - or bought from enterprising guys its recording on a floppy disk or CD. You can make money on Linux installation services, you can customize Linux for a fee to the needs of a particular company. The latter is handled by Red Hat, which went public on August 11, 1999. And before that, as a token of gratitude, she gave Torvalds an option on a block of shares.
On the very first day of trading, quotes doubled. But he had the right to sell the papers not earlier than 180 days later. Fortunately, all this time they grew (in 2009, Red Hat will enter the S&P 500), and the cost of Torvalds' package reached $ 5 million.
Soon after, another company, VA Linux, entered the stock exchange and gave Torvalds an option in the same way. In the wake of optimism, the shares immediately rose 10 times to $ 300. But it turned out to be overkill, and the dot-com bubble was beginning to deflate. From $ 300, the shares began to fall, and at a minimum a year later they were given $ 6.6 for them. Torvalds recalls how awful it was for 180 days to watch your package get cheaper and you can't sell it.
With the money raised from the shares, the family (now the author of Linux has three daughters) bought a house in America, and Torvalds became addicted to keeping in the garage, in addition to the family Pontiac, a convertible, usually yellow.
In 2012, Torvalds won the Millennium Technology Prize, the world's largest technology award. He shared the prize of 1.2 million euros with another laureate of that year, Japanese stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka.
But Torvalds' main source of income after he left Transmeta in 2003 was the Linux Foundation (in those years it was called the Open Source Development Labs). His job is to evaluate other people's suggestions for improving Linux: “I haven't written any code myself in years. Everything I write is just fixing other people's mistakes, I make changes in one or two lines, my contribution is to combine different pieces of code ”(quoted from The Register). The fund is being funded with donations, including from companies using Linux. According to The New Yorker, in 2017 his budget was $ 50 million, and Torvalds received $ 1.6 million from the fund in 2016.
Responsibility for a rude person
“When I manage a project with hundreds of thousands of developers, I act exactly the same as in my student days: I don’t assign anything to anyone, I just wait for someone to call,” Torvalds said in his biography book. - I approve or reject their work, but for the most part I let events go their own way. If two people are heading in similar directions, then I accept the work of both, to see who will be used. Sometimes both are used, but they start to develop in different directions. Once there was a lot of competition between two people: each of them insisted that his patches be used, which conflicted with the opponent's patches. I stopped accepting patches from both until one of the developers lost interest. This is what King Solomon would have done if he had run a kindergarten. "
This approach has proven to be effective across Linux. But when Torvalds was instructed by Transmeta to manage a department of 15 employees, he showed his complete unsuitability. Three months later, he was quietly demoted back to programmers.
But as the main Linux coordinator, not everyone likes him, since the style of his communication with colleagues for many years remained "student": the programmer did not restrain himself in expressions.
In 2013, one of the developers even wrote a letter to Torvalds asking him not to offend or intimidate colleagues. “If you want me to 'act professionally,' I can tell you that I'm not interested,” Torvalds replied. - I sit at home in the study, wearing a robe. I am not going to start wearing a tie, and in the same way I am not going to engage in false politeness, deceit, office politics and hooking, passive aggressiveness and other fashionable words. Because THAT is what it means to “act professionally”: people resort to all kinds of unpleasant things because they have to follow their usual promptings in an unnatural way ”(quoted by The New Yorker).
In 2015, Torvalds' closest associate, programmer Greg Kroah-Hartman, wrote the Conflict Resolution Code, in part to shield others from harsh language. Torvalds approved the innovation, but did not hold back. At the end of that year, Sarah Sharp and Matthew Gareth withdrew from the Linux kernel development team due to harsh treatment. “I am actually an unpleasant person. Some think I'm so cute and some are shocked to see otherwise. I'm not a nice person and I wanted to spit on you. I'm worried about the technology and the core, ”Torvalds reacted (quoted from The Register).
Last October, kernel developers were scheduled to attend the Linux Maintainer Summit. Torvalds visited her for 20 years in a row. But this time he confused the date and planned a vacation with his family. This was revealed ahead of time, but he refused to change plans for the summit and left for Scotland. Then its participants decided to gather not in Vancouver, but in Edinburgh, closer to Torvalds, so that he could nevertheless join them for a short time. The story was vigorously discussed in programmer circles, and The New Yorker reporters made a meeting with Torvalds and asked him questions about the incident and his relationship with colleagues. In September 2018 - even before the article was published - Torvalds apologized for his behavior, promised to think about how to change it, and announced that he would be temporarily removed from Linux coordination.
In the same month, a new code of conduct for Linux developers was released, and in October Torvalds returned to the team (he also attended the forum).
Now the community lives by new rules. In the past, being spontaneous and straightforward in expressing opinions was considered natural and beneficial in open source software development. Now the criticism needs to be presented constructively, and after hearing it, you need to carefully consider. Derogatory comments, personal attacks, expressions with sexual connotations are prohibited. Torvalds is still trying to hold back.
Oh, how interesting it is to learn the details and details of something that is already ordinary, which you don't even pay attention to as a matter of course. But when it was not. Once it was someone who began to create and invent!
Here's an interesting story , however, under the cut you will find a lot of text :-)
Taking a closer look at the past, we will see that the place of the dominant OS on the market could well be taken by UNIX, moreover, performed by the same Microsoft corporation. However, due to a number of circumstances, events developed according to a different scenario: CP / M -\u003e QDOS -\u003e 86-DOS -\u003e MS-DOS -\u003e Windows.
The Linux “genealogy” line looks different: Multics -\u003e UNIX -\u003e Minix -\u003e Linux. Hardly many people know that a secret IBM project, code-named Chess, is to a large extent "to blame" for the current dominance of Windows - a project to create an IBM PC based on the Intel 8086 processor with the working name Acorn.
The historic contract between IBM and Microsoft was signed on November 6, 1980. In accordance with it, Microsoft had to prepare an operating system and four programming systems (Basic, Fortran, Cobol and Pascal) for the first industrial 16-bit PC in the shortest possible time.
Why was Microsoft chosen? The main driving force behind IBM's management was Microsoft's impressive sales of programming systems across a very wide range of platforms. By 1979, about 1 million copies of Microsoft's BASIC alone had been sold. Oddly enough, both IBM and Microsoft viewed the operating system for the new computer as something secondary, assigning it a supporting role. Everything was done in a terrible haste. To understand how Microsoft bluffed in the fall of 1980, promising IBM by January 1981 (!) To prepare the first version of its DOS with a working BASIC interpreter, suffice it to say that Microsoft did not have any OS writing experience at that time. In February 1980, Microsoft, as part of its fight against Digital Research for the programming language market, just in case, acquired a UNIX license from AT&T Corporation (later Microsoft's dialect of UNIX was named Xenix). But there were practically no developments for UNIX either - the basic platform of Microsoft products was then the CP / M OS.
If we compare Windows and UNIX in terms of development, then Windows was built as a commercial product created in conditions of tough time pressure and market bluffs, UNIX grew in a calm environment, in the quiet of university and research centers. The commercialization of the project had a far less favorable impact on UNIX, while Microsoft wasted no time and directed the full potential of its specialists to improve the quality of the Windows implementation. Be that as it may, the development of both operating systems went on different paths.
Linux is born
Linus Benedict Torvalds was born in Helsinki in 1970. At the age of 10, he started programming, actively working on his home computer, the Commodore VIC-20. In 1989, as Linus was getting ready to go to university, at the Usenix conference in Toronto, AT&T announced a new pricing system for UNIX System V: about $ 40,000 per processor ($ 7,500). for educational institutions). It was a lot of money. University of Amsterdam professor Andrew Tanenbaum responded by writing Minix, a stripped-down version of UNIX that could run on a PC.
In the spring of 1991, already a student at the University of Helsinki, Linus Torvalds took on the rework of Minix, rewriting the kernel and adapting it to work on i386. He decided to figure out how the OS works by simply rewriting it. Here is the title of the historic post that kicked off the Linux era. ——- Begin post from Linus ——— From: [email protected] (Linus Benedict Torvalds) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: What would you like to see most in minix? Summary: small poll for my new operating system Message-ID: Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT Organization: University of Helsinki The message began with the words: “Hello everyone who uses Minix! I am making a (free) AT clone operating system based on 386 (486) processors. It's just a hobby, not something big and professional like GNU. " Further, Linus urged everyone who likes it or not to respond to his work. (See the full text)
In January-February 1992, on the comp.os.minix newsgroup, there was an open discussion about Linux flaws between Tanenbaum and Torvalds. Professor Tanenbaum considered Linux an obsolete approach primarily due to Linus' abandonment of a microkernel in favor of a mono-kernel. “This is a huge step backward,” Tanenbaum wrote. "It's like taking a working program in C and rewriting it in BASIC." Linus agreed that a microkernel was a good solution, but he insisted that a mono-kernel, while being more efficient, does not seriously compromise portability.
The progenitor of UNIX, the legendary Ken Thompson, spoke more harshly in 1998: “I see Linux as something that does not belong to Microsoft. This is a retaliation for the Microsoft team - nothing more, nothing less. I don’t think he will have much success. I have seen the source code, there are both quite decent components and useless ones. Since a variety of random people took part in the creation of these texts, the quality of its individual parts is significantly different. From my own experience and the experience of some of my friends, I can say that Linux is a rather unreliable system. Microsoft doesn't make very reliable software products, but Linux is the worst of its kind. This Wednesday won't last long.
If you use it on one computer, it's one thing. The software for using Linux in firewalls, gateways, embedded systems, and so on, still needs a lot of work. ” So it was not the technological excellence of the project, but the very atmosphere of enthusiasts' work on a useful project and the free distribution and use of source codes that became the basis of the Linux phenomenon. In 1998, the authoritative American magazine Forbes, under the heading "Icons of the Net", published the names of the most influential people who made a huge contribution to the development of the Internet:
Linus Torvalds (28) is the creator of Linux.
Richard Stallman (45) is the founder of the Free Software Foundation.
Tim Berners-Lee (43) is a developer of the World Wide Web.
Rob Glaser (36) is the founder of RealNetworks.
Jerry Yang (29) - Founder of Yahoo! The first place was given to Torvalds not by chance. The flaws did not stop Linux from radically changing the software industry. Thanks to its availability in tandem with the Apache server, this OS has occupied the entire Internet. The statistics speak for themselves. According to a Netcraft report (www.netcraft.com/survey/) in November 2000, Apache had a 59.69% share of all Web servers. It is followed by Microsoft Internet Information Server with 20.08% and Netscape Enterprise with 6.74%.
Torvalds is currently working at Transmeta on an ambitious project, which until recently was classified. Its important elements are the release of an OS and a VLIW processor, code-named Crusoe, capable of executing x86 commands and intended for embedded systems. It's funny that one of the owners of Transmeta is none other than Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Linux standardization and distributions Linus Torvalds did not develop the OS itself, but only its kernel, plugging in the existing components created within the framework of the GNU project, and above all the emacs editor and gcc compiler. Third-party companies, seeing good prospects for the development of their business, soon began to saturate the OS with utilities and application software. These include Red Hat Linux 6.2, GNU / Linux 2.2 from Debian, Linux-Mandrake 7.0, SuSE Linux 6.4, TurboLinux 6.0, OpenLinux 2.4 from Caldera, Conectiva Linux 5.1, Corel Linux OS Second Edition.
The disadvantage of these "set meals" is the lack of a consistent and well thought out procedure for installing the system, and this is still one of the main constraints to the wider adoption of Linux. In addition, developers of applied "boxed" software have to test their programs for several popular distributions at once, which makes life much more difficult. Standardization is always a painful process, and if it is carried out in the community of “free artists”, it is all the more difficult. But the first steps have already been taken. In October 2000, the Free Standards Group's Linux Development Platform Specification was published, and it immediately sparked polarizing assessments. By the way, the head of the standardization group, David Quinlan, like Torvalds, works at Transmeta. Large corporations' attitude to Linux Giants such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Oracle and several other major players in the computer market have significantly increased their support for Linux in the past two years. In 2001, IBM plans to invest $ 1 billion in the development of Linux. What is the reason for such an unusual generosity of corporations who decided to release, mostly free of charge, serious commercial products for "hobbyist" Linux? Why are they willing to spend energy and money to develop an alternative and far from the most technologically advanced branch of UNIX to the detriment of their dialects: AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, etc.?
The first thing that comes to mind is the desire to use Linux as a battering weapon capable of breaching the gates of Microsoft's heavily fortified kingdom. This is obvious, but is this the only point? Another reason may be the emerging trend in the development of a very profitable field of training and consulting. The complexity of technologies is increasing, and with it the gap between the quality of the offered products and the level of consumer demands is growing. Customers must be prepared to pay big bucks for smart service. Another possible reason is the cost-effective execution of large-scale projects, in which the inevitable costs of purchasing hardware and applications could be offset by the low cost of system software.
In a recent interview with VARBusiness Magazine (November 2000), IBM President Sam Palmisano highlighted IBM's stance on Linux development: “I hope that our engagement in bringing Linux into a world of reliable and secure computing with high transaction flows and also working with the open source community will be fruitful for both IBM and the industry as a whole. This is especially noticeable for companies providing turnkey solutions, who will see the potential that Linux has in itself. " One of the latest big steps of IBM was the Lawson project - installation by March 2001 in a network of Japanese shopping centers 15,200 Linux-servers (RedHat distribution kit), which provide operation of IBM eServer xSeries.
In late 2000, Hewlett-Packard also joined IBM. Both giants intend to support the execution of Linux applications in their UNIX dialects (we are talking primarily about IBM AIX and HP-UX, as well as about IBM Dynix / ptx). Here's another answer to the question of why leading corporations need to support someone else's free UNIX dialect with their own commercial one. Two birds with one stone are killed at once - first, some of the clients are pulled away from Windows in Linux, and then they are clearly shown how the latter is inferior to the UNIX dialects developed by this giant. This technique can be called the effect of distraction-attraction. Linux is not alone Speaking of Linux, do not forget that this OS is not so unique and inimitable. There are no less interesting and thoughtful non-commercial operating systems, even if we talk only about the Intel platform and UNIX dialects. Let's name just a few: FreeBSD (FreeBSD Core Team based on BSD4.4-Lite), NetBSD (NetBSD Foundation, BSD4.4-Lite + Mach kernel), OpenBSD (Theo de Raadt, BSD4.4-Lite), 386BSD (BSD4. 3 Reno), Hurd (Free Software Foundation, BSD4.4 + Mach 4.0).
New programming philosophy The Linux phenomenon has sparked speculation that a new programming philosophy has been born that is fundamentally different from what came before. Indeed, a product can be commercial or free, and its production process is artisanal or industrial. It can be occupied by both individuals and teams, amateurs and professionals. But in any case, consciously or unconsciously, they all follow the traditional stages of the software product life cycle: requirements analysis, specification development, design, prototyping, source code writing, debugging, documentation, testing and maintenance. The main thing that distinguishes this approach is the centralization of management of different stages and predominantly "top-down" development (constant detailing). However, Linux was built differently. The finished working layout was constantly improved and developed by a decentralized group of enthusiasts, whose actions were only slightly coordinated.
There is an anarchic nature and "bottom-up" development: the assembly of ever larger blocks from the previously created small ones. Another thing can be noted here. Traditional development is based on design and writing, while development a la Linux is based on prototyping, debugging and testing. The first two stages are difficult to parallelize, but with debugging and testing, the situation is easier. Two years ago, in an interview with Computer magazine, UNIX creator Ken Thompson stated that he was a proponent of bottom-up programming: “Looking at a building, I can't imagine the details of the constructor it was built from. When I come across a 'top-down' description of a system or language that contains endless libraries describing one level after another, I get the feeling of some kind of quagmire. " Thompson even suggested an interesting term: "computer Darwinism." In other words, Linux-like development is a trial and error method built on intensive testing. At any stage, the system should work, even if it is a mini version of what the developer is striving for. Natural selection leaves only the viable.
There has been a long debate about whether programming is a science, an art or a craft. And if the basis of traditional software development is primarily a craft, then when developing using the method of computer Darwinism it is undoubtedly an art. It is easy to see that "bottom-up" development characterizes the so-called exploratory programming, when the system is built around key components and programs that are created in the early stages of the project, and then constantly modified. At the end of 1999, the acclaimed book The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Raymond was published by O'Reilly & Associates. Its author is the main ideologue of the open text movement. In the book, he expounds the idea of \u200b\u200bself-organizing anarchic programming, which he called "bazaar", opposing it to the traditional centralized, called "cathedral". Using Linux and other similar developments of originally non-commercial software, originating in the GNU project, Raymond tries with the reader to comprehend the nature of a new phenomenon called the open source movement. Lack of a clear plan, minimal project management, a large number of third-party geographically remote developers, free exchange of ideas and codes - all these are attributes of new programming. Quite often the "new" turns out to be well forgotten old. All this (albeit not on such a scale) has long been used in programming. However, the Linux phenomenon has given rise to a new faith, helping to recruit a growing number of adherents. Many articles have been written about the features of exploratory programming. So, the Swiss professors A. Kiralf, K. Chen and J. Nivergelt highlighted the following important points: * the developer clearly understands the direction of the search, but does not know in advance how far he can move towards the goal; * there is no way to foresee the amount of resources to achieve this or that result; * development does not lend itself to detailed planning, it is carried out by trial and error; * such works are associated with specific performers and reflect their personal qualities. The main advantage of the new philosophy is the organization of remote collaboration of large teams of third-party programmers on important projects, where the Internet and the right to freely dispose of a joint product play a key role.
In this regard, one cannot fail to mention the rapidly growing company VA Linux. She maintains an online open source repository called SourceForge (). There are already several hundred projects in it, primarily related to the development of Linux. Among them are the Berlin Project (graphical system) and the new generation of the Perl programming system. In addition to Linux, the SourceForge repository tracks projects for Windows, Mac OS, BeOS, PalmOS. One of VA Linux's own projects is MySQL, which has received the status of free software, distributed under the GPL (General Public License, www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html). VA Linux is not alone in promoting collaborative programming. Its competitors here are OpenAvenue and Asynchrony. Returning to Raymond's book, we can say that the metaphors of "cathedral" and "bazaar" may not be well chosen. But is it a matter of metaphors?
Regardless of the skepticism of Linux critics and the rampant euphoria of its admirers, this operating system was a significant milestone in the late 1990s, defining the way the industry developed at the beginning of the new century. Can the success of Linux be replicated, and where is a new technological leap of this magnitude lurking? Here is what Ken Thompson says about it: “Any innovation will become a reality only through the kind of revolutions that UNIX has made. Nothing threatened IBM until something appeared that made its systems unusable. They completely occupied the mainframe market, but I'm sure it just turned out to be unnecessary. The same is happening with Microsoft: until something appears that can make its products unnecessary, it will be extremely difficult to overcome the price threshold to go to market and it will be impossible to displace them. "
Well, catching up, 22 reasons to switch to Linux. Controversial reasons? Surely ...
1. The first reason is the main one. As a free system, Linux is available to users for free. You can easily download "Axis" from the Internet or order a disc or box by mail at a very trivial price. One copy of the operating system can be installed on an unlimited number of computers without any conditions.
2. Since the Linux code is open source, the system can be freely modified and redistributed, even on a commercial basis. The ability to freely experiment with the source code of the operating system, based only on its own purposes, has made Linux such a useful and effective solution for a number of large companies such as Google.
3. Linux users do not have any special problems with technical support either, since the answer to your question on the operation of the OS can be freely obtained on forums or network conferences. Many users claim that this kind of technical support is no worse than what you can get for money. Of course, there is also paid Linux tech support. Such services include thorough system tuning, installation and upgrade of new programs in order to protect against hackers, fix bugs. Fortunately, the latter are rare in Linux.
4. There is almost no chance that Linux technical support will ever end, because open source attracts a huge number of users: many of them will be happy to help their "co-penguins" solve the problems that have arisen. In addition, there will always be people who will help with advice professionally, i.e. for money.
5. Don't be afraid that Linux will become obsolete in the future. The fact is that UNIX, on which the OS was built, has been tested and optimized for 35 years, proving its extreme efficiency, reliability and safety. Work on Linux does not stop for a second, and new versions of the operating system, as they say, "keep the brand."
6. Users of "Linux" are not subjected to totalitarian pressure from the owner of the operating system, because he - this very copyright owner - does not exist. As an opposite example, we can cite the actions of Microsoft: the company deliberately stops supporting old OS versions, thereby forcing users to buy new ones (sometimes it happens that you have to buy new "hardware" due to an unplanned OS update). In addition, new versions of Linux are also distributed free of charge.
7. Everything connected with the transition to a new version of the OS will cost the user a mere penny. The new version itself is free - this time. Secondly, tutorials, installation, etc. are inexpensive. Thirdly, Linux is not very demanding on the computer's power, so upgrading the equipment - if it is required at all - will not pull a lot of funds from the budget either.
8. Companies with hundreds of thousands of computers, having switched to Linux, remember like a bad dream what it is to monitor the compliance of the license of each of the software components on each machine. Indeed, in order to check this very compliance of the software license for all points of the EULA (End-User License Agreement), you need to have full-time staff and, oddly enough, pay them money for this. In addition, these companies are no longer afraid of sudden "raids" of BSA employees (Business Software Alliance - Alliance of software manufacturers for commercial organizations; created in 1988 by Microsoft), who need to check the license for MS Windows, MS Office, etc. ... Having found the slightest inconsistencies - and they will find them - they will forget about impressive fines.
9. Linux has long been famous for being less susceptible to viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware and other malware. The secret of the developers' success lies in the fact that they initially focused their efforts on system security, and did not think about it when the real problems appeared. For example, here is one of the original protection methods: a Linux user is not authorized in the system as an administrator, thereby protecting vital system files even in the event of an intruder. In addition, the most popular versions of Linux come with a built-in firewall, which has shown very high performance during this time. Finally, the non-exhaustive topic of open source again plays into our hands: thousands of people around the globe are busy looking for OS vulnerabilities, and there are absolutely no problems with patches.
10. Linux almost never crashes, after which you have to restart your computer. If we remember about large companies, then here they are also in unconditional gain, because literally a couple of minutes of inactivity of the entire connected system can result in huge losses. The reason is not difficult to guess again: from the very beginning, the developers tried to make the OS as stable and convenient as possible, and we can say with confidence that they have achieved their goal.
11. So far, Linux cannot compete with Windows in terms of the number of created and well-debugged programs. However, a lot of people are busy rectifying the situation. In the future, more and more programs will appear for a wide variety of needs. Not only that most programs for Linux are distributed free of charge, but in terms of functionality, reliability and power, some of them are not inferior to their counterparts in the Windows environment. It is worth getting rid of the stereotype, they say, "you won't find anything under Linux!"
However, it is necessary to make a remark: people who are professionally involved in working with music, photos or videos are unlikely to switch from Mac OS or Windows to something else, at least not yet.
12. The choice among Linux distributions is impressive - several hundred versions, each endowed with its own specific characteristics. Moreover, all systems are compatible with each other. All this allows the user to choose the version that suits him best. In addition, if one of the Linux vendors leaves the game, then this will not bring tangible damage to the distribution of the operating system - in addition to it, there are still many vendors. It is impossible not to point out the fact that this situation creates healthy competition, which is reflected in the improvement of quality and productivity. Of course, for many, it will be difficult to choose the right distribution from several hundred. In this case, choosing one of the most popular versions, like Red Hat or SuSE, you won't go wrong.
13. Another feature of Linux is the possibility of very fine tuning. Contrary to popular belief, customizing Linux for yourself will not cause any problems for a more or less experienced user. During installation, you can specify a variety of options to help you choose the configuration that's right for you. Whether it's a purely business computer, media center, laptop, web server, storage server, or even a network router. From the inquisitive user, the settings for the appearance of the operating system are not hidden, which can be customized in thousands of variations. Dreaming of an Apple Mac or still nostalgic for Windows? In Linux, all of this can be recreated visually. All this thanks to open source, which provides the user with truly endless possibilities.
14. In Linux, as in all other free software, the file format used is open. Unlike proprietary files, they comply with generally accepted standards and can be used by any software developer to create programs compatible with them. Thanks to the use of open formats, the problem of software isolation is solved, when files have a closed extension and can only be used by certain software. In addition, the user no longer has to worry about the loss of valuable data if the developers who created the software go out of business or stop supporting their early products.
15. Linux is renowned for its excellent compatibility with other operating systems. For example, "Pinvgin" can read, write, copy, erase and perform other actions with files located on partitions of the hard disk where Windows is installed without any problems. In addition, in Linux, you can use Windows clients and even work directly with programs that are sharpened mainly for OS from Microsoft. And Windows is not only unable to work with HDD partitions on which other operating systems are recorded, but also cannot format these disks for the subsequent installation of another axis. By the way, Linux can boot just like a Live-CD - i.e. installation, in fact, does not require any.
16. If this could in any way affect your choice, there has never been a single case in the United States where antitrust lawsuits have been filed in Federal courts against the "treacherous" use of Linux. On the contrary, the antitrust agreement was created to regulate the activities and completely destroy economic monopolies for the sake of free competition in the market. Linux, as we already understood, is not a monopoly at all, because it does not impose itself on anyone: everything is of its own accord
17. When using Linux, you don't have to seriously upgrade your hardware if you decide to install a more recent version. Even on older computers, thanks to very well-written code, Linux will work flawlessly.
18. "Linux" scales well and can work on systems not only based on solutions from Intel or, say, AMD. It can be installed on almost all electronic devices, from supercomputers and robots to medical equipment, mobile phones, and even wristwatches.
19. For technical universities, Linux is becoming a real godsend. The openness of the code provides tremendous opportunities for learning about the structure of a computer, not just how to work with it. Many educators do believe that it is much more useful for students to learn the basics of computing, which will serve to build more and more advanced computers in the future, rather than practice in programs such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint, which change with each new version, and after a few years are becoming obsolete.
20. For government agencies, Linux, like other free software, is provided by the so-called. transparency of software, since information in Linux is stored in open formats that comply with generally accepted standards. In contrast, there are, respectively, closed formats used by many commercial programs. In general, such transparency of the software means that there is no hidden data in the company, and absolutely all users have access to all information, and they do not need to use expensive programs that can understand the required formats.
21. It is believed that in many paid programs there are certain "holes" through which hackers of a competing company or even a government organization can get hold of valuable data. So, it probably won't be loudly said that Linux is a real headache for hackers, because it is almost impossible to get into the system through loopholes due to the fact that the source code of the system is completely available for scanning in case of hacking.
22. Linux, unlike Windows, does not require disk defragmentation. Even if this process is not so complicated and expensive to perform, since it does not need to be carried out very often, but the fact is, for a well-debugged operating system, like Linux, defragmentation is not needed.
So we have listed all the stated 22 reasons why you should change your operating system. The choice is always yours, but whether Linux will leave it to you is another question;)
sources
I would also suggest that you remember what was
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 number. But in fact, here everything can be grouped and presented in the form of a holistic 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 by the Linux operating system. Some Linux operating systems use the Linux kernel unchanged, others modify it to provide more 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 are currently in existence.
All systems in this list are arranged in random order, so if a system is in last place, 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 Deb 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 patches 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 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. Currently, the RPM package management system is used by such distributions as CentOS, Fedora, Red Hat, OpenSUSE and others less popular.
3. Arch Linux and based on it
After a while, several more distributions appeared that did not use either Deb or Rpm. One of these distributions is ArchLinux. It uses its own package manager pacman, which allows you to do everything the same as deb, but in addition, a simple rolling release system is implemented. Thanks to her, the distribution kit always contains 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 to get optimization for their hardware. Therefore, a Linux kernel-based Gentoo distribution was created using the emerge package manager. Here you also get rolling releases, as well as the ability to relatively easily compile your operating system on your computer. The emerge batch manager already contains ready-made build scripts, so you don't have to add anything yourself.
5. Linux From Scratch
Not really a distribution, LFS is a set of tools that allows you to build your own Linux kernel based distribution. You just take the kernel, take the sources of the necessary programs, all programs from the init system and the command shell to the desktop environment, collect all this, configure and get your distribution kit.
6. ChromeOS
Still later, Google released its Linux-based netbook operating system. In fact, ChromeOS is based on Gentoo, but they are so different that they cannot be combined into one item. In this system, Google has implemented such an idea as the cloud operating system Linux. Your workspace is a browser. Here you have to do everything in the browser - edit documents, work with videos, and even the Linux terminal in the browser. Files are primarily stored in the cloud. But it's still Linux.
7. Android
Not everyone knows, but the most popular mobile phone operating system also uses the Linux kernel. From Linux, only the kernel and a few more points are left here, everything else Google has filled with its various frameworks, Java and so on. Linux capabilities are limited by the same Bionic security system, which prohibits loading 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 features not up to deb and rpm, dependency resolution is not supported, and commands for removing and installing packages are in different utilities.
9. OpenWrt and based on it
OpenWrt is the 2017 Linux 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 IoT
Linux kernel based operating system designed for various TVs, smartwatches and other smart gadgets. The system is being developed on the basis of the Linux kernel by Samsung and is already being used quite often. There are applications and SDKs 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 requirements. Of the 500 most powerful supercomputers, 498 run on Linux and two more run on UNIX like IBM AIX.
Traditionally, at the end of each year, CRN publishes the 25 best "captains" of the US IT business. In 2004, this list includes the most entrepreneurial channel leaders, executives from a number of leading vendors, as well as the people who are the idea generators, visionaries who help their companies 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 board. He has no managerial status. It wasn't until 2003 that he first agreed to take a paid position in the Linux industry he had created.
But, according to CRN, it is Torvalds, a 34-year-old programmer from Finland, the creator of the Linux kernel, who deserves the title of the most influential leader in 2004. He earned this title after almost 15 years of selfless work on his brainchild. Last year was a watershed year 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 this OS to the next level, making it suitable for corporate use, forcing Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and other OS vendors to radically rethink their sales models.
Much has changed in Torvalds' life lately: he finished work on the Linux 2.6 kernel and for the first time received official status in the Linux developer community, becoming an employee of the Open Source Development Labs (open source software development labs, OSDL). The organization is vendor neutral and has been initiated by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Computer Associates International, Intel and NEC.
Torvalds now has a position and a business card that confirms his official status. But all this did not affect his usual way of life. Torvalds' departure from microprocessor company Transmeta and the OSDL allowed him to devote all of his time to developing the Linux kernel, as well as to his family, since he works from home.
“Initially, I planned to take a year off from Transmeta at my own expense - to focus only on working on version 2.6 and not be distracted by anything else,” says Torvalds. "The OSDL position has proven to be a great way to maintain health insurance, get paid, and remain independent from the providers."
This event played an important role for the open source community. Linus' decision to gain official status at a difficult time for Linux developers - during a period of sharp criticism of open source and constant reviews, the reason for which was the lawsuit of the SCO Group against IBM - instilled in his followers confidence in the future. This once again proves Torvalds' enormous influence on the fate of Linux.
Last June, Linus left California with his wife Tove and three daughters (three, six, and seven years old) and settled in a quiet suburb of Portland, Oregon. He lives in a new house, furnished quite simply, without frills, with elements of Danish Art Nouveau. Torvalds does not attach much importance to clothes either: he greeted the crowd of photographers who violated his privacy in frayed jeans. He seems to be amused by all the excitement around him.
Linus's home office has a separate entrance at the back of the house, there is a small kitchen and shelves for books not yet filled to capacity. The office windows overlook the backyard, where Torvalds is building a toy house for his daughters. Further, a view of the forest opens. In this environment, which is not disturbed by any business problems or office routine, the sacred rite takes place - work on the Linux OS.
Usually Linus sits in front of the monitor and, like a child, plays on the keyboard - almost like in 1991, in Helsinki, when he was just conceiving the kernel of his OS. But today Torvalds conducts a worldwide orchestra of thousands of developers and piece together a masterpiece that undermines the entire software establishment, painfully hits Sun, revives IBM, and makes even Microsoft doubt its own immortality.
“Now, thanks to Torvalds' efforts, Linux is the most successful project in the open source world. It defies the foundations of the software industry, ”says the lead developer of another successful open source project.
“Linus is an example of how to establish yourself as a serious opponent of the strongest players in the industry by skillfully managing the developer community and fully dedicated to his cause. He has shown the way for many professional open source developers. It was thanks to him that JBoss started working in this direction, ”says Mark Fleury, general manager of JBoss, a developer of the J2EE application server.
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 survive and thrive, contrary to expert predictions. “Linus has an amazing sense of purpose. He has resisted immoderate ambitions that have 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 before Torvalds, but he managed to systematize it. "
For Torvalds, this work is simply a favorite thing: having all the rights to dispose of the Linux trademark, he does not receive a penny from them. This is paradoxical for an industry that breeds billionaires: having made a real revolution in the software business, absolutely not interested in the business.
“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 new for a long time. Perhaps even more important to have a commercial streak. And I have it? Yes, I least of all think about business. "
For all his modesty, Torvalds did a job that brought back to life the stale OS market and made society think about the philosophical and social aspects of the question of how and for whom software products are created. Many members 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 the entire society and be used for the benefit of society. There are also radicals who view the growing competition between Linux and branded operating systems as a struggle between good and evil, and Torvalds is considered the liberator of the world from the slavery of Microsoft Windows.
However, Linus sees it very differently. “I don't have a philosophical view of open source. I am more of a pragmatist in this regard. I truly believe that collaboration and open knowledge sharing result 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 \u200b\u200bthe 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 do not believe in this simply do not want to take off their blinders. "
Linus's passion for coding makes him the number one open source developer.
“Linus is not only a brilliant programmer: he has good taste,” says Dirk Hondel, director of Linux OS and open source strategies at Intel, and one of the first Linux kernel developers almost from the project's inception in 1991. “Torvalds finds simple and reasonable ways of solving problems, he knows how to "put everything on the shelves." He makes complicated things simple. In my opinion, this is the main difference between an excellent programmer and a good one. "
Andrew Morton, Torvalds' right-hand man and developer number two on the Linux project, is today also responsible for the Linux kernel in the OSDL. He says that Torvalds "holds the bar high", and this is also the key to the success of the entire project. “He managed to achieve such a state where everyone works without haste and in 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 whole project, ”says Morton.
This is no easy task, says Alan Cox of Red Hat, one of the key Linux developers. “Linus has two strong character traits: he is honest and he does not insist on his point of view if it turns out to be wrong,” says Cox. -Torvalds is able to lead, he has great intuition when choosing technical solutions and a reasonable approach to working with people. It is known that leading programmers is like “herding a herd of cats”. But Linus does a great job with it, without prejudice to anyone's interests. "
Torvalds is calm and natural, he is practically not interested in industry-wide problems, but for all his flexibility he always has his own point of view and is not afraid to express it aloud. He openly criticizes Microsoft Windows code, and describes SCO as a weakening company that takes credit for the credit.
Torvalds is proud of the Linux 2.6 kernel, which was completed in December 2003. This version is ready for enterprise use. 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 processing large amounts of data. Torvalds is proud of the formal search procedure he developed with Morton, which makes it easier to update and fix 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 OSDL. “He has absolutely no interest in being a senior advisor or vice president of technology,” Cohen said. - 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 doesn't like to be in the spotlight, but participates in industry events from time to time. Trying to be extremely precise in everything - both in creating the code and in defining his own role - Linus calls himself the main technical leader, not the main architect, since he does not so much write himself 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 OS 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, but suddenly disappeared just before entering the stage. Panic and confusion seized, but Torvalds' wife, who often travels with him with her daughters, intervened, and calmed him down, saying that he ran to the car for diapers.
This is all very typical of Torvalds, says Hondel. Despite the worldwide 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 an absolutely normal person and a good friend, says Hondel. - It is enough to see him once with the children - and you understand that he remained what he always was - just a good guy.
