1.Introduction:-
Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds, a intelligent computer science student, in 1991. He created it as an open-source, Unix-like operating system kernel and released it under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Linux has since become a widely used and influential platform, powering a vast range of devices from servers and smartphones to embedded systems and supercomputers.
More then 71% of smartphones worldwide are running Android operating system (which is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel). Every Supercomputer Runs On Linux! Yes. Linux runs on all 500 of the world’s fastest supercomputers. It’s a default choice when it comes to Supercomputers. Not just the above, Cars, Watches, Stock Exchanges, companies like Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM, NASA, Robots, Submarines, Bullet trains, Home Appliances, Home Desktops, Enterprise Servers etc. everyone uses Linux.
Linux is everywhere!
2. Reasons:-
- It’s FREE – There is no cost for using Linux OS aka Kernel (Desktop or Server distro) and related applications.
- It’s Open Source – Yes! you can see the Linux kernel source code and modify it as per your requirements. It’s easy to locate bugs, explore vulnerabilities etc.
- It’s Reliable – You won’t have to reboot it frequently, not sluggish in nature at all. Other Operating systems such as Windows requires a reboot almost after every software update, uninstallations etc.
- It’s Secure – The way this operating system has been built makes it secure by design. Be it Access controls, Package installations, Process management. The malicious attachments can’t be executed as they could have on Windows. The open source nature of Linux makes this possible as so many reviewers are there to find and fix the bugs for you.
- It Performs better – Linux based system’s performance is always better than Windows OS’es because here you have complete control over system or application’s configuration files which you can tune as per requirements. You have better control over process management than any other OS’es.
- More choices – You can’t beat Linux here. There are over 600 Linux distros and about 500 in active development. You can chose one as per your requirements.
- Developers Friend – Developers love Linux. It supports almost all the major programming languages you can think of. A rich set of native libraries, A powerful and far better Linux terminal than Windows CLI.
3. Linux in DevOps and Cloud
Linux is the perfect choice when you need to run highly available, reliable, and critical workloads in a cloud computing environment. A wide support to devices, varied use cases and systems.
DevOps, Cloud and Linux all three goes hand in hand. As they all are focused on two major aspects –
- Customization -> As you have more freedom and control over Operating system functionality and can tune it accordingly it becomes the preferred choice for DevOps and to all Cloud providers.
- Scalability -> Linux Operating system can accommodate larger workloads without hampering the system performance beyond acceptable levels. As it successfully supports the concepts such as clustering, multiprocessing, and load balancing. The basic functionality remains same (such as terminal, tools, configuration, automation, code-compatibility) irrespective of platforms where you are using it. It can can process the huge amounts of memory as well.
- Containerization -> Linux laid the foundation of the modern container platform rise. All the major concepts of container ecosystem such as packaging and orchestration relies on Linux namespace and isolation mechanisms in order to operate.
