Introduction to Linux:
The Linux kernel, pronounced 'linnuks' is the heart of many Linux operating
systems. A kernel is an important part of any operating system, providing the communication bridge
between hardware and software.
Linux was brought to life in 1991 by a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds.
At the time, it would run only on i386 systems, and was essentially an independently created
clone of the UNIX kernel, intended to take advantage of the then-new i386 architecture.
Nowadays, thanks to a substantial amount of development effort by people all
around the world, Linux runs on virtually every modern architecture.
The Linux kernel has gained an ideological importance as well as a technical
one. There is an entire community of people who believe in the ideals of free software and spend
their time helping to make open source technology as good as it can be.
People in this community gave rise to initiatives such as Ubuntu, standards
committees that shape the development of the Internet, organizations like the Mozilla Foundation,
responsible for creating Mozilla Firefox, and countless other software projects from which
you may have certainly benefited in the past.
The spirit of open source, commonly attributed to Linux, is influencing software
developers and even average users everywhere to drive communities with common goals.
Linux is the name usually given to any Unix-like computer operating system that
uses the Linux kernel. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source
development; typically all underlying source code can be freely modified, used,
and redistributed by anyone.
The name "Linux" comes from the Linux kernel, started in 1991 by Linus Torvalds.
The system's utilities and libraries usually come from the GNU operating system, announced in 1983
by Richard Stallman. The GNU contribution is the basis for the alternative name GNU/Linux.
Predominantly known for its use in servers, Linux is supported by corporations
such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Novell, Oracle Corporation, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems. It
can be used as an operating system for a wide variety of computer hardware, including desktop
computers, supercomputers, E-book readers, video game systems such as the PlayStation 2,
PlayStation 3, Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii, several arcade games, and embedded
devices such as mobile phones and routers.
Linux is a modular Unix-like operating system. It derives much of its basic design
from principles established in Unix during the 1970s and 1980s. Linux uses a monolithic kernel, the
Linux kernel, which handles process control, networking, and peripheral and file system access.
Device drivers are integrated directly with the kernel.
Much of Linux's higher-level functionality is provided by separate projects which
interface with the kernel. The GNU userland is an important part of most Linux systems, providing the
shell and Unix tools which carry out many basic operating system tasks. On top of the kernel, these
tools form a Linux system with a graphical user interface that can be used, usually running in the
"X Window System." For more Linux information, click here
Why Linux is Better:
Viruse Protection:
If your computer shuts itself down without asking you, if strange
windows with text you don't understand and all kinds of advertisements appear when
you don't ask for them, if emails get sent to all your contacts without your knowing
it, then your computer probably has a virus. The main reason for this would be
because it runs Windows.
Linux hardly has any viruses. And that's not like "Oh well, not
very often, you know". That's like "If you've ever heard of a real Linux virus,
please tell me". Of course, a Linux virus is not impossible to get. However,
Linux makes it very hard for this to happen, for several reasons:
1. Most people use Microsoft Windows, and pirates want to do as much damage
(or control) as possible: therefore, they target Windows. But that's not the
only reason; the Apache web server (a web server is a program located on a
remote computer that sends web pages to your browser when you ask for them),
which is open source software, has the biggest market share (against
Microsoft's IIS server), but it still suffers from much fewer attacks/flaws
than the Microsoft one.
2. Linux uses smart authorization management. In Windows you (and any program
you install) usually have the right to do pretty much anything to the system.
If you feel like punishing your PC because it just let your precious work
disappear, you can go inside the system folder and delete whatever you want;
Windows won't complain. Of course, the next time you reboot, trouble begins.
But imagine that if you can delete this system stuff, other programs can,
too, or just mess it up. Linux doesn't allow that. Every time you request to
do something that has to do with the system, an administrator password is
required (and if you're not an administrator on this system, you simply
can't do it). Viruses can't just go around and delete or modify what they
want in the system; they simply don't have the authorization for that.
3. More eyes make fewer security flaws. Linux is open source software, which
means that any programmer in the world can have a look at the code (the
"recipe" of any program), and help out, or just tell other developers "Hey,
what if blah blah, isn't this a security flaw?".
System Stability:
Have you ever lost your precious work because Windows crashed?
Do you always shut down your computer the proper way, or do you sometimes just
switch it off because Windows has gone crazy and doesn't let you do anything
anymore? Have you ever gotten the "blue screen of death" or error messages telling
you that the computer needs to be shut down for obscure reasons?
Of course, no operating system is perfect, and people who tell
you that theirs can never ever crash are lying. However, some operating systems
can be so stable that most users never see their systems crash, even after several
years. This is true for Linux. Here's a good way to see this. When a system crashes,
it needs to be shut down or restarted. Therefore, if your computer can stay up
and running for a long time, no matter how much you use it, then you can say
the system is stable. Well, Linux can run for years without needing to be
restarted (most internet servers run Linux, and they usually never restart).
Of course, with heavy updates, it still needs to be restarted (the proper way).
But if you install Linux, and then use your system as much as you want, leaving
your computer on all the time, you can go on like that for years without
having any trouble.
Why Should You Still Need to Go Through Installing More:
When you get Linux (such as Fedora, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Mandriva, etc., these are
different "flavors" of Linux), you also get, without installing anything more:
1. Everything you need to write texts, edit spreadsheets, make neat presentations, draw, edit equations.
2. A web browser (e.g. Firefox) and an email program
(e.g. Thunderbird, or Evolution).
3. An image editor (GIMP) nearly as powerful as Photoshop.
4. An instant messenger.
5. A movie player.
6. A music player and organizer.
7. A PDF reader.
8. Everything you need to uncompress archives (ZIP, etc.).
etc., etc., etc.
You can just start working right away.
Need New Software? Don't Bother Searching the Web:
If you want to check out a new piece of software in Windows, you'll need to:
1. Search the web to find which piece of software suits your needs.
2. Find a web site that allows you to download it.
3. Maybe pay for it.
4. Actually download the software.
5. Install it.
6. Sometimes reboot your computer.
Whew, that's a lot of work to just try out something new!
With Linux, everything is much simpler. Linux has what is called a "package manager"
each piece of software is contained in its own "package". If you need some new software,
just open the package manager, type a few keywords, choose which software you want to
install and press "Apply" or "OK". Or you can just browse existing software (that's a
lot of choice!) in categories.
Here I just typed "mine game" to search for a mine sweeper (actually, I already had one coming
with my Linux, but anyway). If I want to install a new program, I'll just tick the checkbox on the left,
and click "Apply" ("Appliquer" in French - which is greyed out for now, since there is nothing to
be installed yet.)
So, 1: No more surfing. 2: No more downloading and installing software yourself. And 3: More
time to actually try out the software.
Better for the Environment:
How can Linux be different from Windows when it comes to environment, you might ask?
After all, they're both just pieces of software with little impact on pollution or climate change.
Well, choosing Linux can actually have an influence on the environment:
1. Windows and Mac OS are sold in boxes. This means that massive amounts of paper
and plastic need to be manufactured before the boxes get to your nearby store's shelves
(and be disposed of after you buy them). Linux is freely downloadable from the Internet;
no amount of plastic or paper is involved.
2. Proprietary applications for Windows or Mac OS are also, most of the time, sold in local
stores, in boxes, whereas you can download the vast majority of software for Linux from the
Internet, for free (again, a whole lot of saved paper and plastic!).
3. As the hardware requirements for Windows or Mac OS get higher and higher, a lot of
computers are made obsolete, and would need to be disposed of... but since Linux runs
pretty well even on very old machines, they can be recycled for various purposes (storage,
internet access, multimedia box, etc.) instead of being thrown out!
4. Millions of CDs are pressed to hold Windows or Mac OS boxes and are sold to customers.
Linux also needs to be burnt on a CD before installation (in most cases at least -- installation
from the network or from a hard disk is also quite common). However, most people choose to
burn it to a DVD, rewritable CD ("CD-RW"), which can be reused for other purposes after the
installation is over (unlike proprietary operating systems, you don't need to keep the CD around
after you've installed the software, you can always download it again later).
Don't Pay $300 or More for Your Operating System:
You're probably saying to yourself: "Oh, I didn't pay for
Windows". Are you absolutely sure? If your computer came with a copy of Windows,
then you paid for it, even if the store didn't tell you about that. The price
for a Windows license amounts to an average of one fourth of each new computer's
price. So unless you obtained Windows illegally, you probably paid for it. Where
do you think Microsoft gets its money from?
On the other hand, you can get Linux completely free of charge.
That's right, all these guys all around the world worked very hard to make a neat,
secure, efficient, good-looking system, and they are giving their work away for
everybody to use freely (if you wonder why these guys do such things, drop me an
email and I'll try to explain the best I can :) ). Of course, some companies are
making good business by selling support, documentation, hotline, etc., for their
own version of Linux, and this is certainly a good thing. But most of the time,
you won't need to pay a cent.
Let Your Old Computer Have a Second Life:
Windows requires more and more hardware power as its version
number increases (95, 98, 2000, Me, XP, Vista, etc.). So if you want to keep running
Windows, you need to constantly buy new hardware. But I can't see any good reason
for so fast an evolution. Of course, many people need a lot of computer power and
new hardware and technologies are really helping them. But for most users, who surf
the web, read and write emails, write text files and slides, what's the point of
buying a new computer every 2, 3 or 4 years, apart from letting computer vendors
earn more money? What is exactly the profound reason why your computer can't do
any more of what it did perfectly well 5 years ago?
Linux runs perfectly well on older hardware, on which Windows
XP would probably even refuse to install, or let you wait 20 seconds after each
click, and Vista would probably run the same if not worse. Of course, Linux won't
make a race-winner out of your 12-year old computer, but it will run very well on
it and allow you to perform usual tasks (surfing the web, writing documents, playing
music & simple games, doodle, etc.) just fine.
Linux Protects Your Computer:
Viruses, Trojans, Adwares, spywares... Windows lets all these enter
your computer pretty easily. The average period of time before a Windows PC (connected
to the Internet and with a default "Service Pack 2" installation) gets infected
is 40 minutes (and it sometimes takes as little time as 30 seconds).
So you can either 1) install a firewall, 2) install an anti-virus
program, 3) install an anti-Adware program, 4) get rid of Internet Explorer and
Outlook (replacing them with Firefox and Thunderbird), and 5) pray that pirates
aren't smart enough to overcome these protections and that, if a security flaw is
discovered, Microsoft will take less than a month to make an update available
(and this doesn't happen very often). Or you can install Linux and sleep soundly
from now on.
As we have already said in the "virus" section, open source
software (e.g. Linux) means more eyes to check the code. Every programmer on
Planet Earth can download the code, have a look, and see whether it might
have security flaws. On the other hand, the only people allowed to look at
the Windows source code (its "recipe") are people working for Microsoft.
That's hundreds of thousands of people (maybe millions) versus a few thousand.
That makes a big difference.
But actually, it isn't exactly a matter of how many flaws a
system has, compared to the others. If there are many flaws, but nobody has
discovered them yet (including pirates), or they are minor (they don't compromise
an important part of the system), pirates won't be able to do great damage. It
is really a matter of how fast a security flaw can be solved once it has been
discovered. If a security flaw is discovered in an open source program, anyone
in the open source community can have a look and help solve it. The solution
(and the update) usually appears within a few days, sometimes even a few hours.
Microsoft doesn't have that much manpower, and usually releases security patches
within about a month after the flaw has been discovered (and sometimes published)
that's more than enough for pirates to do whatever they want with your computer.
Tux (Linux logo)
Tux is the Linux Mascot created by Larry Ewing, and chosen by Linus Torvalds as the
Linux mascot, because of the endless possibilities of showing Tux. He, unlike Apple's
Macintosh logo or Microsoft's Windows logo, is under GPL and is much cooler. People have
the right to show Tux in anyway without legal complications, meaning being able to
show how awesome he is.
In closing:
When you switch to Linux via the official Linux website and/or other websites,
or through our service, you help the environment, get a more stable system experience, avoid
Viruses, Trojans, Adwares, Spywares, etc., and it just opens a whole new door to the way you
use computers.
A thanks to www.whylinuxisbetter.net;
if you would like even
more reading on Linux please, click here
If you're looking for a highly comprehensive
Linux website, please
click here.
|
The Linux Logo (Tux or the Linux mascot) is the property of: Larry Ewing, Simon Budig
and Anja Gerwinski, and they allow anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright
holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use
is permitted. |
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