Introduction to Linux

LINUX : The Future of Operating systems

If you have working in the tech field for a while or are interested in technology and computers then you might have came across people talking about linux. People have varying thoughts on linux and you are free to share your thoughts in the comment section. So today i would be giving a intro to linux and how i entered the world of linux and opensource. 

A brief introduction to linux and other operating systems

You are most probably viewing this page using your mobile phone or laptop or desktop which has an operating system installed on it. Now the actual work of the operating system in the most basic sense is linking your softwares with the hardware and making everything work. So its clear that without the operating system you would be left with just your bare-metal machine(pretty unusable). Hence the os plays a major role in your computational life. Now linux is not "just another operating system" , its different and infact every os is different as a whole. Why linux is different is described in the rest of the post below keep scrolling.

A bit of History

Now the operating systems that we use today didn't came out suddenly, previous to these their were tons and tons of operating systems, you can read about them here. The revolution in operating systems came after the introduction of the Unix operating system created by Dennis Ritchie and his coworkers at Bell Labs. It was a great step towards inclusion of computers in various fields.Since then many other operating systems have emerged, but the macintosh was the first one with the personal computing as its main motto and then came windows.Traditionally macintosh was based on BSD( berkeley software distribution which was again based on unix).Linux was the younger brother of these operating systems.Linus torvalds the creator of the linux kernel created linux as he didn't had the money to buy unix and was bored using MSdos. After some time one of torvalds friends proposed him to make his project opensource and he agreed to that. Since then numerous changes have been made to linux and it has finally reached this stage where it powers all of the top 500 supercomputers in the world ;-)

so its lot of history not possible to explain in this one post, so lets dive directly into the topic.

Linux : Features

Previously linux was not as user friendly as it is now. In the olden days people regarded linux users as tech savvy and geeky and it was true since most of the work was done via the powerful command line (terminal).Still today system administrators use the command line to manage huge servers of huge companies.But frankly speaking the UX of linux has changed a lot it has got some similar click and point features like mac and windows but the powerful terminal is still there which attracts millions of user till date.The windows command propmt or cmd stands nowhere near the powerful linux terminal.

listing some of its features:

• On its own linux is extremely secure but that does not mean it cant be hacked.Everything is hackable nothing is super secure, but linux provides better security than most of the operating systems in the market. Take a simple example , if you have to install a software in windows you will probaby go to the site of software and download your software but you cant be sure that your browser is not compromised and someone might be doing a MITM (man in the middle attack) attack on you, thus serving you malware instead of the legitimate software.But in linux its pretty easy just, just fire up your terminal and  write a or two commands and the package manager of your os will fetch that software for you isnt that cool.
• Second most probable reason of shifting to linux might be its cost.And good news its free. Its not only free but its opensource, that means you can fork it and modify it at your please.
• After using linux for a considerable time you will understand that linux gives a closer look to your computer.You will come across things which you might have ever known using windows or mac.Its true that using linux is a bit harder in the beginning but once you get started nobody can stop you.
• With linux you have the complete rule over your computer you can tinker with it to make it your very OWN computer.Linux doesn't binds you to the defaults or rules, you are on your own.But remember with great power comes great responsibility, so don't panic your kernel otherwise it will give you a pain in the butt.
• there are plenty more reasons to shifting to linux the list is never ending.. 
  

So if you have made your mind to shift to linux then checkout this.

If you are still reading then i think you want to know more about linux, so lets dive straight into it 

You can go and have a look at this site which has got plenty of posts related to linux.

The learning curve of linux might be a little steep but things have changed a lot than it used to be years ago, the present state of linux OSes is pretty good and easy to learn, many things which were done previously via the linux terminal can now be done using simple GUI. Inspite of this the main attraction of linux operating systems is its Terminal with which you can do almost anything and everything and sometimes more efficiently than the GUI.Another good fact is that its opensource that means you can modify it to your needs and nobody is gonna stop you, Even you can install linux from scratch (LFS) that is your system would be your very own system free fom bloatware and unnecessary stuff but its not recommended for complete beginners since it could scare them off from the beautiful linux world even theres a popular saying that Pushing Newbies towards arch linux(an advanced linux operating system) is SIN. 

So thats all about saying rest is all dependent on the user and as i always say use the things that keep you productive throughout the day.  ;-)

have a nice day,