Introduction to Linux

Center for Information Technology

Hussaini Adamu Federal Polytechnic

PMB 5004 ,Kazaure

Jigawa State

 

By:

Murtala Lawal

Who is this Guy ???Professional

BSc Comp.Sci (UDUSok)CCNA (BUK/USA)CTech CI (IIKzr/USA)Member ngNOGMember ngICT ForumMember ISOCAdvocate of FOSS

PrivateMarried (One Child)Prolific Hausa WriterProgressive

What are your expectations ???At the end you will ……….

Operating System ?OS is the interface between hardware and userAll computers need an OSOSes are used to run applications and control hardwarePopular OSes include Linux, Mac OSX and Windows

What is Linux?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

History of Linux Inspired by the UNIX OS, the Linux kernel was developed as

a clone of UNIXGNU 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

Linux User InterfaceLinux User InterfaceCan be controlled through command-line (CLI) or Graphical

User Interface (GUI)GUI run through Desktop Environments (DE)KDE, GNOME, Xfce, E17 are popular DesktopsThe GUI interface is easy-to-use and much like that of

Windows and Mac OSXThe CLI is similar to that of UNIX/BSD

Programming in LinuxModern languages are cross-platform, like Python, Ruby,

Perl, JavaMost Linux distros support these languages and have their

runtimes pre-installedGTK+ and Qt are widely used to design applications for

Linux IDEs like NetBeans, Anjuta, KDevelop, MonoDevelop,

Eclipse are available for Linux too

Linux on the Desktop 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 softwaresThe modern Linux interface is user-friendly and makes the

interaction with computer easy

Running Windows software on Linux It is possible to install/run Windows software on LinuxWine helps run a wide range of Windows applicationsCedega helps run huge number of Windows games

flawlessly

Linux on Servers and Supercomputers Linux is the most used OS on servers5 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

Linux on Embedded Systems16.7% of smartphones worldwide use Linux as OS Linux poses a major competition to the most popular OS is

this segment – SymbianNokia, Openmoko supply Linux on their select smartphones

Linux on other devicesLinux 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…

Adoption of Linux 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

Adoption by GovernmentsGovernments 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

Linux in EducationThe widely popular OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)

Project’s XO Laptop runs on LinuxUniversities in countries, like USA, Germany,

Netherlands, Philippines, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland, India, use Linux on their workstations and servers

Why should you use Linux? 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

Forget about viruses.Security has always been the number one priority

with LinuxLinux has a robust security systemThere do not exist viruses for the Linux platform

Is your system unstable ?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

Linux is FreeLinux is free and always will be as compared to

the very costly Windows and Mac OSXUsing pirated Windows is a bad thing

Linux comes with software built-inWhen 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

Updating in a single clickJust like Windows’ Update tool, Linux has a more

better alternative to it to update all your system in a few clicks

Linux does not get slowAs 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

Linux does not need defragmentationIf 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.

Linux can run on older hardwareWindows 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

Add new software in a few clicksWith 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.

Linux is extremely customizableDue 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

ConclusionSo, what OS a user should opt to choose?The answer depends on user’s own choice.

QuestionsN

Comments

ShukuranNagode

Thank you