What is Linux? Linux is a Unix-like, open-source, and community-developed operating system (OS) for computers, servers, mainframes, mobile devices, and embedded devices. It is supported on almost every major computer platform, including x86, ARM, and SPARC, making it one of the most widely supported operating systems. How is the Linux operating system used? Every version of the Linux OS manages hardware resources, launches and handles applications, and provides some form of the user interface. The enormous community for developers and wide range of distributions means that a Linux version is available for almost any task, and Linux has penetrated many areas of computing. For example, Linux has emerged as a popular OS for web servers such as Apache, as well as for network operations, scientific computing tasks that require huge compute clusters, running databases, desktop and endpoint computing, and running mobile devices with OS versions like Android. The Linux OS can be found in many different settings, supporting many different use cases. Linux is used in the following ways: • Server OS for web servers, database servers, file servers, email servers, and any other type of shared server. Designed to support high-volume and multithreading applications, Linux is well-suited for all types of server applications. • Desktop OS for personal productivity computing. Linux is an open-source and freely available desktop environment for users who prefer it to commercial OSes. • Headless server OS for systems that do not require a graphical user interface (GUI) or directly connected terminal and keyboard. Headless systems are often used for remotely managed networking servers and other devices. • Embedded device or appliance OS for systems that require limited computing function. Linux is used as an embedded OS for a variety of applications, including household appliances, automotive entertainment systems, and network file system appliances. • Network OS for routers, switches, domain name system servers, home networking devices and more. For example, Cisco offers a version of the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) that uses the Linux kernel. • Software development OS for enterprise software development. Although many development tools have been ported to Windows or other OSes, Linux is home to some of the most widely used open-source software development tools. For example, git for distributed source control; vim and emacs for source code editing; and compilers and interpreters for almost every programming language. • Cloud OS for cloud instances. Major cloud computing providers offer access to cloud computing instances running Linux for cloud servers, desktops and other services. Linux is highly configurable and depends on a modular design that enables users to customize their own versions of Linux. Depending on the application, Linux can be optimized for different purposes such as: • networking performance; • computation performance; • deployment on specific hardware platforms; and • deployment on systems with limited memory, storage, or computing resources To find out more about the Linux experience, go with Learncoz, This training will guide you more about Linux.
