2. OS is the interface between hardware and user
All computers need an OS
OSes are used to run applications and control hardware
Popular OSes include Windows, Linux, Mac OSX
3. Developed in 1991 by a University of Finland student Linus Torvalds.
Basically a kernel, it was combined with the various software and
compilers from GNU Project to form an OS, called GNU/Linux
Linux is a full-fledged OS available in the form of various Linux
Distributions
RedHat, Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, Debian are examples of Linux distros
Linux is supported by big names as IBM, Google, Sun, Novell, Oracle, HP,
Dell, and many more
DISTROS means A set of software components, often open source,
that have been packaged into a larger product or
component for distribution to end-users.
4. Inspired by the UNIX OS, the Linux kernel was developed as a clone of
UNIX
GNU was started in 1984 with a mission to develop a free UNIX-like OS
Linux was the best fit as the kernel for the GNU Project
Linux kernel was passed onto many interested developers throughout the
Internet
Linux today is a result of efforts of thousands of individuals, apart from
Torvalds
5. Can be controlled through command-line (CLI) or Graphical User Interface
(GUI)
GUI run through Desktop Environments (DE)
KDE, GNOME, Xfce, E17 are popular Des
The GUI interface is easy-to-use and much like that of Windows and Mac
OSX
The CLI is similar to that of UNIX/BSD
6. Modern languages are cross-platform, like Python, Ruby, Perl, Java
Most Linux distros support these languages and have their runtimes pre-
installed
GTK+ and Qt are widely used to design applications for Linux
IDEs like NetBeans, Anjuta, KDevelop, MonoDevelop, Eclipse are available
for Linux too
7. Linux is desktop computer ready
Large number of distros targeted at Desktop users are available
Linux desktop distros come with many commonly used pre-installed
softwares
The modern Linux interface is user-friendly and makes the interaction
with computer easy
8. Linux is the most used OS on servers
5 out of 10 reliable web hosting companies use Linux
Linux is the cornerstone of the LAMP server-software combination (Linux,
Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) which has achieved popularity among
developers
Out of top 500 supercomputers, Linux is deployed on 426 of them
9. 16.7% of smartphones worldwide use Linux as OS
Linux poses a major competition to the most popular OS is this segment –
Symbian
Nokia, Openmoko supply Linux on their select smartphones
10. Linux can be used on a wide range of electronic
devices, like PC, PDAs, Smartphones, iPods, MP3
Players, PlayStation 2 & 3, mission critical servers and
so on…
11. 1983 (September): GNU project was announced publicly
1991 (September): first version of the Linux kernel was released to the Internet
2001 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 15% annual growth rate
2004: Linux shipped on approximately 50% of the worldwide server blade units, and
20% of all rack-optimized servers
2005: Microsoft representatives accuse Brazilian college using Famelix of pirating
Microsoft Windows
2007: Dell announces it will ship select models with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed
2007: Lenovo announces it will ship select models with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
10 pre-installed
2007: HP announces that it will begin shipping computers preinstalled with Red Hat
Linux in Australia
2007: ASUS launches the linux-based ASUS Eee PC
2008: Dell announces it will begin shipping Ubuntu based computers to Canada and
Latin America
2008: Dell is shipping systems with Ubuntu pre-installed in China
2008: Acer launches the linux-based Acer Aspire One
12. Governments of many countries around the world are
shifting to Linux from Windows due to the many
benefits it offer
Countries like India, France, Pakistan, Czech Reppublic,
Brazil, Germany, USA, Austria, Spain, China, and Peru
already use Linux
13. The widely popular OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)
Project’s XO Laptop runs on Linux
Universities in countries, like USA, Germany,
Netherlands, Philippines, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland,
India, use Linux on their workstations and servers
14. No threat of viruses
Linux systems are extremely stable
Linux is Free
Linux comes with most of the required software pre-installed
Update all your software with minimum fuss
Linux never gets slow
Linux does not need defragmentation
Linux can even run on oldest hardware
Adding more software is a matter of a few clicks
Most Windows-only apps have their either their native version
or alternatives for Linux
With Linux, you get the highest degree of possible
customizability
15. Security has always been the number one priority with
Linux
Linux has a robust security system
There do not exist viruses for the Linux platform
16. Have you ever lost your precious work because Windows crashed? 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?
Crashes or freezes are not prevalent in Linux
17. Linux is free and always will be as compared to the
very costly Windows and Mac OSX
Using pirated Windows is a bad thing
18. When the system has installed, why would you still need to install
stuff ?
Common software such as music player, web browser, video player,
image editor, PDF reader, chat messenger, office apps
19. Just like Windows’ Update tool, Linux has a more better
alternative to it to update all your system in a few clicks
20. As Linux is impervious to viruses, trojans, spywares,
which are the main reasons to slow down the PC,
systems based on it do not get slower
Linux consumes lesser system resources
21. If you already know what fragmentation is, and are
already used to defragmenting your disk every
month or so, here is the short version : Linux
doesn't need defragmenting.
Whereas Windows-based system get fragmented
frequently and need attention in this regard.
22. Windows requires more and more hardware power as
its version number increases (95, 98, 2000, Me, XP,
etc.). So if you want to keep running Windows, you
need to constantly buy new hardware
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
23. 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.
24. Due to the various options available in Linux, like a lot
of DEs, themes, Window Managers, and the modular
nature of DEs, Linux is very customizable
The extent of customizability is clearly implied by the
fact that some people have gone as far as to customize
their Linux OS to make them look and feel like Mac
OSX and Windows
25. So, what OS a user should opt to choose?
The answer depends on user’s own choice.
