Linux: Is this the future?

    Linux, not an operating system but a kernal which connects the hardware to the softwares. But we refer it as an OS. In recent years, it is seen that the biggest linux haters are investing in it, but why? Why the companies, the so called tech giants are leaning more and more towards the open-source world. The answer is straight and clear, it is the future.

According to netmarketshare.com linux touched its all time high market share about 3.61%. And it is also seen that the increment of linux market share is almost equal to decrement of windows market share. So from this, one thing is clear people are migrating to linux from windows environment, but why? Because it is the future destination of today's tech world.

Screen Shot from netmarketshare.com

 

   

Many people who are not so much “tech savvy” may not know about linux. So for them, you can take it as an alternative to windows or OSX. You may not know but right now, you are using linux. The android phone which you are using to read this blog is a linux operating system. So, the big thing is why I am writing this blog, why should we care about linux, how much powerful is it... if these questions are popping up in your mind, then my friend, this blog is for you...

So the first question is, why should we care about Linux as Windows is occupying most of the market share and people are more familier with Windows? As an answer I can say, windows is dominating only the desktop pc market, in the server side, Linux is the dictator. We are surrounded by linux, we may not recognize that but linux is every where. In desktop part we have Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, Fedora etc. In the servers, the only thing we can see is linux. One amazing fact is that top 500 super-computers in the world is powered by Linux. The famous space agencies like NASA, ISRO etc. Uses different flavours of Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS etc. Many educational institutions use linux for teaching purpose. It has a good grasp on automobile industries also. The fully featured automobile vehicles are equipped with linux flavours for better driver-vehicle communication. Now a days, smart devices like refrigerator, TV etc. Are also loaded with linux and day by day more dumb things are getting smarter.

What makes linux so different from Windows and Mac os that it is being used from a very small machine to very big servers? To get the answer we have to dive into the ocean of linux and discuss some of its features.

1. Freedom: There is no one to tell you that you can’t do this things in linux or open-source world. Potentially you can do anything, even you can change the whole operating system according to your need. You need not to spend a single penny to use it. If you are a normal user you can easily access it for day to day tasks. If you are king of technical person you can modify the underlying technology according to your wish, even create your own flavour of linux and redistribute it and no one is going to claim copyright for that.

2. Security: Few years back, in 2017 the biggest virus attack took place and 300000 windows computers were infected. The virus was a ransomware called WannaCry and the attack continued for 4 days.

Screen Shot from Wikipedia

In linux, there is no notable cyber attack. If we don’t consider Android operating system, the biggest virus attack on linux caused about 0.001% infection all over the world. The architecture of linux operating system makes it less vulnerable to cyber attacks. Any file can not access the core system files, it requires root access to do so. That is why, if you don’t give the root access to the virus by yourself, it can not harm your system.

3. Performance: It is often seen that Linux outperformed Windows or Mac os having the same hardware configuration. This is due to its architecture and clean codes. Linux uses a monolithic kernel and it is completely written in C programming language which gives it more granular control. Where as Windows uses a hybrid kernel which is difficult to patch. Many Windows specific softwares running on linux competed head to head or even better to the same app running in Windows environment.

4. Gaming: Thanks to ProtonDB, many Windows games runs exactly equal it not better in linux. It is also seen that, on AMD hardware, most of the time linux outperforms Windows. So, linux has the potential to replace Windows in gaming sector also.

5. Software Availability: In this section Windows is still the king. Windows has the largest software base. But, the senario is changing rapidly after the introduction of universal software packages like snap, flatpak and appimages. Especially, the snap packages are disclosing the linux world more and more to the software vendors. Many big tech companies like Microsoft, Jetbrains are adapting snaps to deploy their products in linux.

Screen Shot of Snap Store

Unlike windows, where we hace to go for a hunt for the right executable over the internet, then double clicking, next, next, next, install, finish etc. Linux very much simplified the process. All you have to do is fire up a terminal and type “sudo apt install <appname>” for Debian based systems or “sudo dnf install <appname>” for fedora or redhat based system, and boom.... you are good to go. Or, if you are afraid of using the terminal then you can go to the software centre of your distribution and hit install. Linux has cut down all those hassle for you. So, do you still think, Linux is not user-friendly?

Windows and Mac OS both are good operating systems, but if we can get all the good things of both but don’t need to spend a single penny, doesn’t it seem a more appealing deal? It is more powerful than both the operating systems, it is free and secure too, then the question remains why barely anyone uses this OS? The simple answer is, it is a little young in comparison to Windows or Mac OS. First Linux os released in 1991 where as first Windows released on 1985 and Mac OS on 1984. That’s why Windows got a better grip on the market. Another cause of linux having os small market share may be misconceptions about it, Linux was a potential threat to Microsoft back those days, so, once it framed Linux as “Cancer”. But now a days, I think every tech giant has realized that linux is “Inevitable”, it is the future.