When someone says Linux, most people will think of hackers, total geeks, and obscure software running somewhere. What would you say if you already have been around Linux and that it’s in more places than you think?
Are you reading this on an iPhone, iPad, or Windows machine? If not, then most likely you are using one of the many flavors of Linux. for instance, Android was once a fork of Linux, now is essentially another distribution of Linux. Yep, Android is Linux.
Ok, let’s take a step back, what is Linux? Linux is a Unix-like operating system that is open source, that is based on the Linux kernel, created by Linus Torvalds in late 1991. If you are not familiar with what a kernel is, don’t worry, what’s important for this discussion is that a guy in college decided one day to write his own operating system and here we are.
Roughly 90% of the Internet is run by Linux, in one shape or another, and Linux also runs on embedded devices, such as thermostats, fridges, smart tv’s, etc., as Android, Roku, WebOS, etc. So without knowing it, you are surrounded by Linux. Even NASA runs Linux, the same Linux that you have access to, the same Linux I am writing this on now!
So what is this distribution thing I keep talking about? A Linux distribution, often called a distro for short, is an operating system (OS) that is a collection of the Linux kernel and a package management system to install and maintain software. Unlike Windows, you don’t have to go out and find individual downloads for everything, usually it’s in the distro’s package management system. A package manager or package management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer’s operating system in a consistent manner. Windows does have a package management system called chocolaty, but it’s not used as much as it could be.
So how many distro’s are out there? Well, since anyone can make a distro and distribute it, there is an unknown amount of distros, but there is a finite amount of well-known distributions, one’s that I would say can be trusted to be used. Some distros even have derivative child distros, that can go several generations deep.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution#/media/File:Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg is a real good visual of this family tree, but for the short version there is four major ancestors of most Linux distros; Red Hat, Android, Slackware, and Debian. These four distros have by far the largest family tree of derivative distros.
So, why would one decide to use Linux instead of Windows? Well, Linux, for the most part, is Free, Open Source Software (FOSS), which means you do not pay to use it, ever. So you can run it on any hardware you want without worrying about paying crazy license fees or worrying about licensing the OS.
Second, Windows has become the enemy of itself. Because of it’s large use in business and home PC’s, it’s the most popular target for those that wish to do you harm, take your information or money, or just cause chaos. The other reason for this is with Windows being Closed Source, there’s is very few people looking for a fixing bugs, so things get through the cracks all the time in a major way, and when they do fix things, they often break other things. 2020 has not been a good year for Windows users and updates.
What’s this Open Source, Closed Source thing I’m talking about? Well, the core of any program, operating system, or kernel is source code. This is the programming language that makes the system function. In Open Source, the source code is open to the public to view, and one can ask to contribute to fixing code and adding new features. In this model, the source code of the kernel and OS is looked at by hundreds of thousands of eyes, making bugs easier to find.
With Closed Source, it’s just the opposite. Only a few people at Microsoft have access to the code to find and fix bugs, and introduce new features. This is an incredible amount of stress and things will be missed because deadlines must be met so that users will keep paying Microsoft. Here’s a deeper dive on the subject of Open/Closed Source, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_and_closed-source_software
One thing to note is that as time goes on, more and more Linux features makes it way into Windows, even to the point of being able to run an entire Linux distro in Windows natively using Windows subsystem for Linux (WSL).
What distro am I running? I have used Ubuntu for several years and like the ease that it offers, and since it is one of the most popular distros, there’s a lot of software and support for it, including direct partnership from Microsoft for software. Ubuntu, by the way, is a derivative distro of Debian. There are a ton of other distros based on Ubuntu itself, each with it’s own little pros and cons.
I am running Ubuntu on a couple of laptops, just about every server, and some embedded devices (Raspberry PI), and do just about everything I need to do on it. I don’t game mind you, that is still in the realm of Windows and Android for now, but for everything else, then I am covered. It’s like having ChromeOS (which is based on Linux) without the limitations. Ubuntu isn’t any more difficult than Windows to use, in some cases easier and others not so much, it’s more about being different and taking some getting used to.
I would say that if you want to try out Linux, you can grab a USB flash drive and run a LiveUSB version of the OS, which means you can run it without ever installing it. There’s ton’s of instructions out there on how to do that.
The last thing I will touch on is updates to the OS under Linux. Unlike Windows, it rarely requires a reboot! Yep, keeping your system up to date without having it randomly rebooting on you is a reality, just not under Windows. I have had my laptop running for about 3 months now with now issues and no reboots. Yes, 3 months straight, no reboots or out of date stuff.
I encourage everyone to take a look at Linux as an alternative OS to Windows. It’s fun, easy, and in most cases more secure than Windows hands down.