HOW GOOD IS LINUX
To understand how cool the Linux O.S's (operating system) are, we shall compare it with the Windows O.S. We are going to compare them by certain parameters like their performance, security, cost, etc.
Let's Begin
1. Cost (Get a fast, reliable and stable OS for free)
Most of the Linux operating systems are FREE when compared to the Windows operating systems which costs around a range of (99-199)$.
2. Security (No virus has ever been found in Linux)
Windows operating system are worst affected by viruses. When you search things on web and try to download a software it doesn't seems to have anything wrong with it but it hides dangerous lines of code under the pretty looking images which could actually damage your computer.
But thanks to the levels of privilege in Linux operating systems which does not allow any malicious code to make your computer malfunction. Linux is also popularly known for its security and you will never have a headache of buying and installing anti-viruses as in Windows.
3. Size of operating system (Linux OS can be as small as 50MB)
Windows operating systems are almost 4GB (ex: Windows 7,8) but most of the Linux variants(desktop versions) are one-fourth of Windows' size. Its size can also be made much smaller and suit to the type of products. For example Android is a Linux based OS and which is used in smart-phones.
Linux OS such as DSL(Damn Small Linux) can have size as small as 50MB which can sit inside a 50MB live CD. Also if the most popular and user friendly Linux OS is considered it is almost upto 1GB and it includes the basic necessary softwares like C and Java compilers, Bit torrents, browsers such as firefox etc. due to which the size of OS increases but still is much lesser than that of Windows.
4. Open Source (Yeah! Freedom with Linux whereas Windows forces you to use what it has)
The most important thing about linux is that it is open source. Anyone can download and install it for free. You can even customize, change and then reuse it commercially. We can change the lines of code of the operating system and customize the OS to suit with our needs. So this way you don't have to depend only on the OS vendor's(like Windows) to make your system work and look better.
Because the system code in windows cannot be changed as it is proprietary you will not be able to do any modifications in Windows and also have to rely on vendors updates which can take years to update.
5. Support (From governments, people across communities and Individuals across the globe)
Linux is built by people across the world by programmers from multinational companies (like IBM, Sun(now oracle) etc ), by communities and by individuals. Therefore the rate at which OS is build is very fast and therefore gets OS updates faster compared to any other operating systems. Almost 10,000 new pieces of code goes into the newly released Linux OS.
Since windows is proprietary and therefore only windows organization can build it. So the number of workers are less and requires lots of time to even fix smaller bugs, release system updates.
Over 1,000 developers, from at least 100 different companies, contribute to every kernel release. In the past two years alone, over 3,200 developers from 200 companies have contributed to the kernel--which is just one small piece of a Linux distribution.
6. Performance (Linux is the best)
In all of the cases Linux operating systems have a lot better performance than the windows operating systems. For example consider older machines with disk size 80GB and RAM upto 512MB can run Linux much better than windows.
Sometimes specs can be so low that windows cannot be installed Linux can even run on such systems smoothly. Linux also runs on super computers. Linux can run for days and years without any problem when compared to windows, so it is much reliable.
7. Softwares
All of the softwares present in Linux are also free and most of the required softwares like C and Java compiler, comes with the OS itself. So we don't have an headache of installing softwares.
Since Windows was a monopoly earlier and dominated the desktop OS industry, many softwares has been built for it. Linux is a really fast emerging operating system and since presently has less number of users it has less number of softwares, but most of the popular and required softwares can be found on Linux databases.
Where is Linux used
- Google, IBM, Panasonic, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc all use Linux.
- 9 out of 10 supercomputers use the Linux operating systems.
- The biggest success in consumer market for Linux is the Android operating systems for smartphones.
- United States Department of States, French Parliament etc.
- State Owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Largest of banks in china).
- Newyork Stock Exchange, Pakistan schools and govt.,
- Tommy Hilfiger, Toyota Motor Sales,
- Sony play-station 3, Netbooks etc.
- NASA, CERN etc....
- You can even run Linux on PC's with 3MB of RAM
- It runs on embedded systems like Rasberry Pi,etc
