Linux and me.
If I were to ask you what your favorite distribution of linux was, I would expect one of two responses. Either, A very detailed reason for why you choose the distro that you did or “What the heck is linux?”.
If you are of the later than I want you to know, its ok. Linux just happens to be the odd duct in the operating system arena. Mac OS vs Windows has been the subject of mass debate for several decades. But what about the little penguin in the corner? Whats it doing?.
Before we get started with the history of Linux and its origins, its important to under stand what exactly a linux operating system is. The most common Linux environment is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is well curated package of tools, package managers, and a combination of usefully tools. It also runs a GUI(Graphical User Interface) called gnome. Now this package is most commonly refered to as GNU plus Linux package.
So what does GNU Linux mean? GNU and Linux are two separate components that make up the operating system. Linux is the Kernel and was created by Linus Torvald in 1991 and was designed to be a open unix system. GNU is a operating environment that contains an extensive collection of free software. GNU is a recursive acronym that stands for GNUs Not Unix. The combination of GNU and Linux has become ubiquitous to the name Linux. In a simple analogy you could think of Linux as the engine and GNU is the rest of the vehicle.
But then why are there so many different versions of Linux and what are these things called distros that linux nerds always talk about. To start its important to understand the two main types of linux distributions which are RPM based and Debian based.
RPM based linux was the original major distribution and it consisted of Red Hat and SUSE. These versions used a .rpm file format and were designed to be commercial releases. At a later time Red hat was split into a community release called Fedora and a commercial release called Red Hat enterprise.
List of popular RPM based Linux Distributions:
-Red Hat
-Fedora
-Cent OS
-Open Suse
-Unity OS
Debian Linux is a distribution that emphasizes free software and uses a .deb file format with a dpkg package manager.
List of popular Debian Based Linux Distributions:
-Ubuntu
-Backtrack / Kali
-Elementry
-Mint
Outside of the traditional RPM and Debian Based OS’s there are Independent distributions that offer a unique user experience and usually very bare bones distributions and have a much higher learning curve.
List of popular Independent Distributions
-Arch
-Gentoo
Aside from the software, each distribution has a very unique user experience. Things such as GUIs(Graphical User Interfaces), package, network, login, and file managers are different across each distribution. Each is , generally targeted towards a specific client. For example Kali linux is intended to be used by network security professionals and comes with a plethora of pen testing applications. It is a very light weight operating system intended to be installed on minimal hardware. While Ubuntu is marketed as a complete user package and thus has much much more power intensive applications.
Is Linux right for me? There are limitations to what a Linux user can do. If you are a graphic designer and rely on adobe or autodesk applications then Linux will not be your go to working environment. Yes there are alternative that you can find that will come close to reproducing those experiences but many enterprises will not want to sacrifice the trade off. If, you enjoy programming then yes Linux. If you enjoy knowing every bit of what your computer is doing, then yes. Do you like to customize your stuff? Yes, yes, yes, yes, Linux all the way. If you like all of the above, just partition your harddrive and dual boot them. Problem solved.
Now you could be asking yourself do people still use or need Linux? According to a study done by w3tech, Unix and Unix like operating systems make up about 67 percent of all web servers with 96.3 percent of the worlds top million most visited web servers were ran on Linux. The popular mobile operating system Android is ran from Linux. Googles desktop operating system Chrome OS is based on gentoo linux. Even the popular raspberry pi is a powered by Linux. So yes, linux may not be introducing you to the next big tech product like apple tries to. But they have a integral role in the tech ecosystem and with a large and dedicated community of users.
sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions
https://web.archive.org/web/20150806093859/http://www.w3cook.com/os/summary/
https://www.kali.org/
