Thomas Alaimo
CISB11
07/10/2010
Linux
The
Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of
Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free
and open source software. A
Finnish student named Linus Torvalds in an attempt to create a new operating
system kernel developed it in Helsinki.
He was creating a terminal emulator so he could access to his
universities large UNIX servers, specifically to use his PC to access them
without using an operating system.
He later realized that he had written an operating system kernel.
Linux
Distributions are software applications that are built on the linux
kernel. They consist of word
processors, spreadsheet applications, media players, and database applications. Because the kernels and supporting
packages are all free and open source there are many variations from simple
floppy booting to full featured desktops and server operating system. Due to the low cost there are now
several hundred distributions available and the vast majority of them are
free. Knoppix is a popular live CD
player that plays from removable media without installation to a hard
disk. Also there is Ubuntu, which
is a desktop and server distribution.
Both of these are derived from Debian, a non-commercial distribution
developed by volunteers committed to free software principles.
The only two ways I could
find to get linux distributions are by either live CDs or by downloading
directly to the computer. The live
CD distributions boot directly from the CD-ROM so there is no need to download
the distributions to the computer.
This is useful for people looking to try them out without putting them
onto the computer or for people looking to use a computer with a crashed
operating system. The downside is
that they tend to run slower than fully installed distributions. The other way is to install them
directly to the hard drive or even have the computer boot up directly to them
so that they are instantly available.
They run much quicker this way and can be instantly downloaded over the
Internet.
One
of the suites that is made available to Linux users is the Openoffice
suite. It has the applications
that are very commonly used with computers. These applications are word processing, spreadsheets, presentation
managers, drawing, and databases.
This suite is available to almost any operating system including linux
and is totally free. Zimbra is
another open source application that is made available to linux users. It is an email and collaboration application
that consolidates many important computer functions into one downloadable
application.
The
biggest advantages to linux are that it is free and open source. The cost of Microsoft operating systems
is very high and use of linux can be a large cost saving measure. Also being open source can be very
useful to people that are familiar with computer programming that can twist the
operating system into what ever they want it to be with out having to worry about
breaking copy write laws. But with
Microsoft you are given an operating system and must work within its parameters
and guidelines for the most part.
The disadvantage being that there are a lot of programs that will be
unavailable to linux users because they are written for Microsoft software only. This may limit the things that can be
done on a linux computer.
