Komputery, systemy operacyjne… Kto się na tym zna?… 🙂 Są tacy i jest to temat dla wielu fascynujący! Dominik z klasy 3c opowie nam o Linuxie – mniej znanym, choć nie anonimowym, systemie. Artykuł pojawi się w letnim wydaniu magazynu AimHigh.
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Linux: A quiet „kid” among operating systems (os)
GNU/Linux, commonly referred to as ‘Linux’, is the OS Kernel and Operating System simultaneously. It isn’t very common, but is used by many people, that don’t know about it.
Linux is mostly used on servers, as statistics say: „96.3% of the top one million web servers are running on Linux”. Not only this, around 50% of software developers use Linux as their primary system, because it’s easier for them to code on Linux. They don’t need to reboot their OS after an update or after downloading some tools to code, also, Linux is free and open-source, so if they want, they can look at its code and hunt for bugs or backdoors to patch and contribute it to distribution they use. Around half of the globe uses Android on their phones, so they should realize they use Linux. Android is an OS designed for touchscreen mobile phones, based on Linux kernel. Unfortunately, operating systems on PCs are not as colourful as they may seem. There is a monopoly on the PC OS market. Windows is used by most people that use a PC, after Windows, there is MacOS (formerly OS X), and dead last is Linux with only 3% of all PC users. For me, Linux is great even for daily drivers (primarily used OS), and people should consider it when choosing what OS they want to use.
Firstly, Linux is free, so you don’t need to pay 530zł just to activate your OS. You can just download ISO from its distro (distribution) site, make a bootable pendrive with i.e. Rufus (an application that can make a bootable pendrive from ISO that was downloaded), plug it into your PC, reboot, install and it is ready to use.
Secondly, it’s open-source. It means that everybody can look through the source code of the chosen distro and patch bugs, maintain the distro and contribute to it (sometimes you can get money from it). This also means you’re free from apps that use your data, there are alternatives for apps that are on Windows, but these apps also are available on Windows, so before making a switch, you can try them for yourself.
Thirdly, Linux can run on any machine. Some distros are very lightweight when it comes to resources, unlike Windows. It doesn’t matter whether you are on a PC, Mac, or phone, even your dishwasher can run Linux. Older computers are getting new lives after installing Linux, because it works so fast, even tho it was laggy and was freezing on Windows. The funny thing is there were tests on where you can run Linux, most tests were positive on almost every device it was installed, yes, even on the earlier mentioned dishwasher.
Lastly, there are more than 400 distros (distributions) that you can choose from. At first, it may seem overwhelming, but it’s good because you can choose a distro that suits you the best out of the box. However, if you want to DIY, you can do this too! Some distros are meant to do it by yourselves i.e. Arch Linux, I don’t recommend it for beginners because it’s very very hard to even install, but if you want a challange then sure thing and it is the best to try. For beginners I suggest using Debian because it’s rock solid and can’t be broken, Linux Mint (mostly LMDE) when transitioning from Windows, and Pop! OS when transitioning from MacOS.
As you can see, Linux is not very popular, however is a very good OS to use. I believe that it’s worth making a transition from Windows/MacOS to Linux because it’s very lightweight, free, open-source and fully customizable. If still in doubt, why not try it out by yourself?
Dominik Wysocki 3c
