Linux as an operating system

Linux is one of the most widely used operating system in the world. It has been modeled after the UNIX and POSIX like environments. It is one of  the largest open source projects that still is being worked upon!

The creator of Linux is Mr.  Linus Torvalds who had created Linux in 1991. Linux is a multi-user and multi-tasking operating system.

Come to think of it 94% of the worlds organizations use Linux for their work! Linux now is not only confined to our home systems but also runs on mainframe systems and even supercomputers. Thus, Linux finds widespread acceptance. Linux supports various platforms, irrespective of the underlying hardware architecture.

The beauty of Linux is that it’s source code of it’s kernel, which  is modified by thousands of people around the world. The source code is still under constant development. Come to think of it a new kernel is released every 2-3 months! A kernel is an interface between the hardware and applications in an operating system.

The Linux kernel is divided into 3 families as

• Debian which includes Ubuntu and Linux Mint
• Fedora which includes CentOS and Oracle Linux
• SUSE    which includes OpenSUSE

Most Linux distributions (or families) support various programming languages. These programming languages include

• PHP
• Ruby
• C++
• Python
• Haskell etc.

Linux includes  specific-purpose programming languages targeted at specific applications like scripting, processing of text, configuring the system and management in general. Linux also supports shellscript, awk, sed and make as well.

Some of the  applications where Linux is used widely are

• Web Serving
• Networking
• Databases
• Scientific Computing
• Home Computing

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