What is Linux?

What is Linux?

Linux, also known as GNU/Linux, is a free, UNIX-like operating system, developed originally for home PCs, but which now runs on practically every hardware platform available including PowerPC, Macintosh, DEC Alpha, Sun Sparc, ARM, Mainframes, and many others. Linux aims for POSIX compliancy to maintain maximum compatibility with other UNIX-like systems. With millions of users worldwide, Linux is probably the most popular UNIX-like OS in the world.
The Linux System

The central nervous system of Linux is the kernel, the operating system code which runs the whole computer. The kernel is under constant development and is always available in both the latest stable release and the latest experimental release. Progress on development is very fast, and the recent 2.6-series kernels are simply amazing on all counts. The kernel design is modular, so that the actual OS code is very small yet able to load whatever functionality it needs when it needs it. Because of this, the kernel remains small and fast yet highly extensible, in comparison to other operating systems which slow down the computer and waste memory by loading everything all the time, whether it is needed or not.

Linux systems excel in many areas, ranging from end-user concerns such as stability, speed, and ease of use, to serious concerns such as development and networking. Nowadays, Linux even offers a wide variety of free and commercial productivity packages such as the OpenOffice suite which can import and export files from other platforms, including Windows and MacOS.
Stability

Linux has long been praised for its stability--Linux boxes are known for running months or even years at a time without crashing, freezing, or having to be rebooted. Linux users sometimes poke fun at other, less stable operating systems, by way of screensavers like BSOD (Blue Screen of Death, which displays crash screens from various other platforms).

Linux is extremely secure compared to other platforms. Viruses and Trojan Horse programs are practically non-existent. Linux servers practically run the World Wide Web, so one cannot argue that there are so few malicious programs for Linux because it represents an insignificant number of target machines.
Speed

So much of the web is built on Linux that the acronym LAMP has emerged. LAMP represents Linux, Apache (web server), MySQL (database) and PHP (web application language). This acronym may need to be changed eventually due to the rapid growth of PostgreSQL, Ruby, and Java on Linux web servers.

Unlike some commercial operating systems, no free Linux distributions impose any artificial constraints on how you use the operating system. There are no arbitrary limits to the number of user accounts you can create, the number of simultaneous connections your Linux-based web server can handle, or arbitrary limits any other Linux resources.

Linux machines are known to be extremely fast, because the operating system is very efficient at managing resources such as memory, CPU power, and disk space. NASA, Sandia, Fermilabs and many others have built very powerful yet inexpensive supercomputers by creating clusters of Linux boxes running in parallel. Clusters of Linux systems have been responsible for rendering the graphics for movies like Shrek, Titanic, and many others.

Many high-profile organizations have adopted Linux. For example, visit the NOAA (the National Weather Service at www.srh.noaa.gov) and you can thank Linux for the weather reports you will see online.
Graphical Interface

Linux has dozens of different, highly configurable graphical interfaces (known as window managers) which run on top of Xorg, a free implementation of the X Window System. The most popular complete desktop environments at present are KDE (the K Desktop Environment) and GNOME (the GNU Network Object Model Environment). These offer the point-and-click, drag-and-drop functionality associated with other user-friendly environments (for example, Macintosh). Both can be configured to look and feel like other environments such as Windows or Mac, and KDE is remarkably extensible. Even complex tasks like system administration, package installation, upgrading, and network configuration can be done easily through graphical programs. Almost all programs that work with one window manager work with all the others, so you don't need to feel like you must pick your favorite desktop environment based on your favorite applications.

Xorg now supports 3-D windowing environments such as Beryl and Compiz for amazing visual effects, and most people won't have to upgrade their computers in order to take advantage of these enhancements.
Software Development

Programmers often find that the Linux development environment is second to none--a good thing for end users who depend on these software developers to provide free software. Nearly all development software for Linux is free and covered under the GNU Public License, which guarantees that it will always remain free. Linux systems come standard with C and C++ compilers and an assembler, and usually include Pascal, FORTRAN, compiled Java, Perl, Python, and BASIC implementations as well. In addition, modern languages like Ruby and classic languages like LISP are all available, fully functional and completely free.

Linux runs two of the most popular development environments, Eclipse and KDevelop, and you can use these environments to with just about any programming language available. These two development tools support web application development, but there are additional free/open source highly sophisticated development tools dedicated to building web applications.

In addition, the source code for nearly any Linux program is freely available (and often included by default). This not only means that bugs are discovered and corrected almost immediately, but development of software proceeds at a much faster pace than one finds even at extremely successful commercial software houses. This phenomenon is called Open Source and is the subject of much discussion and amazement in the business world, the computer world, and the press.

The Open Source nature of Linux also makes it ideal for embedded and specialized systems (routers, cell phones, multimedia entertainment centers, point-of-sale systems), because there's no limit to what you can do to customize Linux for your special needs.
Networking

Networking comes naturally to Linux. Probably all networking protocols in use on the Internet are native to UNIX and/or Linux, so one can expect that UNIX and Linux would network better than any other platforms. Setting up a network on a Linux machine is surprisingly simple, because Linux handles most of the work.

A large part of the Web is running on Linux boxes, especially because of the Apache Web Server which dramatically defeated its commercial competitors, proving the effectiveness and viability of the Open Source approach.
Productivity

Productivity software availability has exploded in recent years, and commercial developers have been producing excellent software for the Linux platform. The Firefox browser, Opera, and Mozilla are freely available (with some licensing restrictions) as well as the OpenOffice productivity suite, KOffice and a host of others, which often come standard on Linux distributions. Many distributors package commercial software with their distributions, and many commercial producers offer free downloads for Linux. Linux productivity packages can usually read and write files from productivity packages on other platforms; Linux has always been at the leading edge of compatibility and openness.

Linux happily coexists on the same machine as other operating systems including Windows or Mac OSX, and Linux easily accesses the files stored by other operating systems. You can use one of many virtualization techniques to run Linux and Windows or any other operating system (even another version of Linux) on the same machine, simultaneously. You can run many Windows programs on Linux via Wine, or commercial helper products such as Crossover Office or Cedega, both of which even support the popular game Word of Warcraft! There are countless Linux distributions which run beautifully from a CD or DVD without the need to install the operating system. This makes it possible for new Linux users to see if they like Linux without erasing their old OS or having to buy another computer.
Longevity

The open source nature of Linux guarantees it is here to stay, and the amazing growth of Linux over the past years bears that out. Best of all, as long as you stick with a truly free/open source operating system like Linux and truly free/open source applications, you can never get locked into depending on any particular vendor. Linux puts you in control of what you do with your software, how, when and if you choose to change or upgrade it.

Ubuntu

Installed UBUNTU two days back n now connected to internet via UBUNTU

What i am doing today

From Yesterdat i was at my Friend's home. N mmmmmmm today also playing with her computer n surfing the net with my portable usb modem---aashok

Suicide

I hate myself as i lost my girl friend and i want to die---SOMEOne Pleaseee help me--aashu3269@gmail.com

HavIng the Sagar Aliyas Jacky Look

When i started hearing the sagar aliya jacky reloaded mohanlal's new film i was in a verge to make the look like him-The COmplete actor our one n onlt Lalettan--coming after 20 years with the character-Sagar aliyas Jacky

Fresh Protests After Iran Elections

Fresh Protests is going on after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been reelected as the Iranian President. Protesters argue that the election process was an illegitimate one and all the controllers were appointed by Ahmadinejad himself

Pablo Picasso Biography

born October 25, 1881, Málaga, Spain—died April 8, 1973, Mougins, France) Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century and the creator (with Georges Braque) of Cubism.

The enormous body of Picasso's work remains, and the legend lives on—a tribute to the vitality of the “disquieting” Spaniard with the “sombre . . . piercing” eyes who superstitiously believed that work would keep him alive. For nearly 80 of his 91 years Picasso devoted himself to an artistic production that contributed significantly to and paralleled the whole development of modern art in the 20th century.

Life and career

Early years

Pablo Picasso was the son of José Ruiz Blasco, a professor of drawing, and Maria Picasso López. His unusual adeptness for drawing began to manifest itself early, around the age of 10, when he became his father's pupil in La Coruña, where the family moved in 1891. From that point his ability to experiment with what he learned and to develop new expressive means quickly allowed him to surpass his father's abilities. In La Coruña his father shifted his own ambitions to those of his son, providing him with models and support for his first exhibition there at the age of 13.

The family moved to Barcelona in the autumn of 1895, and Pablo entered the local art academy (La Llotja), where his father had assumed his last post as professor of drawing. The family hoped that their son would achieve success as an academic painter, and in 1897 his eventual fame in Spain seemed assured; in that year his painting Science and Charity, for which his father modeled for the doctor, was awarded an honorable mention in Madrid at the Fine Arts Exhibition.

The Spanish capital was the obvious next stop for the young artist intent on gaining recognition and fulfilling family expectations. Pablo Ruiz duly set off for Madrid in the autumn of 1897 and entered the Royal Academy of San Fernando. But finding the teaching there stupid, he increasingly spent his time recording life around him, in the cafés, on the streets, in the brothels, and in the Prado, where he discovered Spanish painting. He wrote: “The Museum of paintings is beautiful. Velázquez first class; from El Greco some magnificent heads, Murillo does not convince me in every one of his pictures.” Works by these and other artists would capture Picasso's imagination at different times during his long career. Goya, for instance, was an artist whose works Picasso copied in the Prado in 1898 (a portrait of the bullfighter Pepe Illo and the drawing for one of the Caprichos, Bien tirada está, which shows a Celestina [procuress] checking a young maja's stockings). These same characters reappear in his late work—Pepe Illo in a series of engravings (1957) and Celestina as a kind of voyeuristic self-portrait, especially in the series of etchings and engravings known as Suite 347