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Linux

History

GNU Project • Linux kernel (history • portability and supported architectures) • Naming controversy • Windows and Linux • Adoption • Linus's Law • Tux • SCO and Linux

Distribution

Linux distribution (list • comparison) • Linux package formats • LiveDistro (list • comparison) • Live USB • Mini Linux

Applications

Server • Desktop • Embedded • Gaming • Thin client This box: view • talk • edit

Linux adoption refers to the uptake of the Linux operating system by homes, organisations and governments. Linux migration refers to the change over to Linux from other operating systems. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... Image File history File links Tux. ... The GNU logo, drawn by Etienne Suvasa The GNU Project was announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. ... The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. ... Tux, the Linux mascot The Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. ... Originally written for Intels i386 processor, very early in its history, the Linux Kernel was re-coded for easy portability. ... The GNU/Linux naming controversy is a dispute between members of the free and open source software community relating to the normative branding of the computer operating systems commonly referred to as Linux. ... Comparison of Windows and Linux (two computer operating systems) has become a common topic of discussion among their respective users. ... Linus Law can refer to two notions, both named after Linus Torvalds. ... The concepts behind Tux, the Linux mascot, were developed in email exchanges on a public mailing list. ... The SCO-Linux controversies are a series of legal and public disputes between the software company SCO Group (SCO) and various Linux vendors and users. ... A Linux distribution, often simply distribution or distro, is a member of the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems comprising the Linux kernel, the non-kernel parts of the GNU operating system, and assorted other software. ... This page provides general information about each of the notable Linux distributions in the form of a categorized list. ... The many Linux distributions differ for various reasons including technical, organizational, and philosophical. ... Linux package formats are the different file formats used to package software for various GNU/Linux distributions. ... Gnoppix 0. ... This is a large list of LiveDistros. ... LiveDistro is a generic term for an operating system distribution that is executed upon boot, without installation on a hard drive. ... A live USB is a USB flash drive containing a full operating system which can be booted from. ... The standard MiniLinux logo The term Mini Linux (or Mini Linux Distribution) refers to any Linux distribution that fits on memory card or a small number of floppies, usually one or two. ... The acronym LAMP refers to a solution stack of software programs, commonly open-source programs, used together to run dynamic Web sites or servers. ... Desktop Linux, also Linux on the desktop (LOTD) is the application of the GNU/Linux operating system on a desktop computer. ... Embedded Linux is a Linux based embedded operating system used in cell phones, personal digital assistants, media player handsets and other consumer electronics devices. ... Vega Strike, a space flight game. ... Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is an add-on package for Linux that allows many people to simultaneously use the same computer. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... An operating system (OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. ...

History

• 1983 (September): GNU project was announced publicly
• 1991 (September): first version of the Linux kernel was released to the Internet
• 1999: Linux is the most popular Internet serving OS, counted by domain name, with 28.5% of market (Zoebelein)
• 2001: Linux in use by 35.5% of Japanese corporations (Impress Corporation)
• 2001 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 15% annual growth rate IDC
• 2002 (July): Linux and Microsoft (Windows XP and CE combined) have 30% share each in terms of developer use for future embedded projects (EDC).
• 2002: 25% of servers and 2.8% of desktop computers running Linux (IDC)
• 2002: Linux in use by 64.3% of Japanese corporations
• 2002 (October): 59% of developers expect to write Linux applications in the next year (EDC)
• 2004 (second quarter): Linux server unit shipments at 40% annual growth rate (IDC)
• 2004: Linux shipped on approximately 50% of the worldwide server blade units, and 20% of all rack-optimized servers. (IDC [1])
• 2004: Linux deployments in retail increased 34 percent over 2003 (IHL)
• 2004 (February): 1.1 million developers in North America working on F/OSS projects^{[citation needed]}
• 2007: Dell announces it will ship select models with Ubuntu pre-installed.[2]

The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. ... IDC is an initialism that can stand for: International Datacasting Corporation, provides solutions for digital content distribution, located in Ottawa, Canada. ... IBM HS20 blade server. ... Equipment mounted in several 19-inch racks A 19-inch rack is a standardized (EIA 310-D, IEC 60297 DIN 41494 SC48D) system for mounting various electronic modules in a stack, or rack. ... Free and Open Source Software, also F/OSS or FOSS, is software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. ... Dell Inc. ... Ubuntu (IPA pronunciation: , or in North America) is a widely used[4] Linux distribution predominantly targeted at personal computers. ...

Power users

The high level of access granted to Linux's internals has led to Linux users traditionally tending to be more technically-inclined than users of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS^{[citation needed]}. Linux's roots in the Unix operating system mean that in addition to graphical configuration tools and control panels available for many system settings and services, it is often either easier or necessary to use plain-text configuration files to configure the OS. While user access to these files and utilities is controlled by the system administrator, and in theory the user does not need to worry about them, in practice the administrator and user are often the same person on a desktop system. Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Government

As local governments come under pressure from institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the International Intellectual Property Alliance, some have turned to open source software as an affordable, legal alternative to both pirated material and expensive computer products from Microsoft, Apple and the like.^{[citation needed]} This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The International Intellectual Property Alliance was created in 1984 by a variety of private firms in the copyright-based industries of the United States. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Apple Inc. ...

The spread of free software affords some leverage for these countries when companies from the developed world bid for government contracts (since a low-cost option exists), while furnishing an alternative path to development for countries like India and Pakistan that have many citizens skilled in computer applications but cannot afford technological investment at "First World" prices.

• Brazil's PC Conectado program
• City of Munich has chosen to migrate its 14,000 desktops to Debian-based LiMux [3]
• US Department of Defense, use and develop open source software
• City of Vienna, has chosen to start migrating its desktop PCs to Debian-based Wienux [4]
• Spain has been noted as the furthest along the road to Linux adoption [5], for example with Linux distribution LinEx
• State owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is rolling out Linux in all of its 20,000 retail branches as the basis for its web server and a new terminal platform. (2005) [6]
• In 2005 the Peruvian government voted to adopt Open Source across all its bodies. The 2002 response to Microsoft's critique is available online [7].

In the preamble to the bill, the Peruvian government stressed that the choice was made to ensure that key pillars of democracy were safeguarded: "The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law."

• In January 2006, Venezuelan open source law goes into effect, mandating a two year transition to open source in all public agencies. [8]
• In April 2006, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced that it had completed a migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in one third of the scheduled time and saved 15 million dollars.[9]
• The government of Pakistan established a Technology Resource Mobilization Unit in 2002 to enable groups of professionals to exchange views and coordinate activities in their sectors and to educate users about free software alternatives. GNU/Linux is an option for poor countries with little revenue available for public investment; Pakistan is employing open source software in public schools and colleges, and hopes to run all government services on GNU/Linux eventually.
• The Ministry of Defense in Singapore began switching its computers from Microsoft to free software in 2004, while South Korea, China and Japan agreed to cooperate in creating new Linux-based programs.
• The French Parliament have switched to using Kubuntu on desktop PCs.

PC Conectado, or Computador para Todos, is a tax-free computer initiative launched by the Brazilian government. ... Munich (German: , pronounced  ; Austro-Bavarian: Minga [2]) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria. ... Debian is a project based around the development of a free, complete operating system through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ... LiMux project in municipal administration of Bavarian capital Munich (1. ... The United States Department of Defense (DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the military. ... Vienna (German: , see also other names) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... A Linux distribution, often simply distribution or distro, is a member of the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems comprising the Linux kernel, the non-kernel parts of the GNU operating system, and assorted other software. ... GNU/LinEx is a Linux distribution based on Debian, with GNOME as desktop. ... Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) (Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōngguó Gōngshāng Yínháng) is the largest of Chinas Big Four state-owned commercial banks, the other 3 banks being the Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank, and one of the... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... “FAA” redirects here. ... Red Hat Enterprise Linux (often abbreviated to RHEL) is a Linux distribution produced by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market, including mainframes. ... The Technology Resource Mobilization Unit, also known as TReMU or Linux Force, is part of an effort to overcome proprietary computer technology in Pakistan. ... Kubuntu is an official derivation of the Ubuntu Linux distribution using the KDE environment instead of GNOME. It is part of the Ubuntu project and uses the same underlying system. ...

School and education

• The Children's Machine (previously called the $100 laptop), is an inexpensive laptop running Linux, which will be distributed to millions of children as part of the One Laptop Per Child project, especially in developing countries.
• Macedonia deployed 5,000 Linux desktops running Ubuntu across all 468 public schools and 182 computer labs (December 2005) [10]
• Italian schools in Bolzano have switched to a custom distribution of Linux (FUSS Soledad GNU/Linux), which will be used by the 16,000 students in the area when they return on 12 September 2005. [11]
• Brazil has around 20,000 Linux desktops running in elementary and secondary public schools.
• The Netherlands has an initiative called "Open Source en standaarden in het onderwijs", in English "Open source and standards in education". [12]
• Government officials of Kerala, India announced they will use only free software, running on the GNU/Linux platform, for computer education, starting with the 2,650 government and government-aided high schools. [13]
• 22,000 students in the U.S. state of Indiana were using Linux as of 2006[14]

Linux is often used in technical disciplines at universities and research centres. This is due to several factors, including that Linux is available free of charge and includes a large body of free/open source software. To some extent, technical competence of computer science and software engineering academics is also a contributor, as is stability, maintainability, and upgradability. IBM ran an advertising campaign entitled "Linux is Education" featuring a young boy who was supposed to be "Linux".^{[citation needed]} The Childrens Machine, or 2B1, is an education project for creating an inexpensive laptop computer intended to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. ... First working prototype of $100 laptop One Laptop Per Child is a non-profit organization set up to oversee the $100 laptop project. ... Ubuntu (IPA pronunciation: , or in North America) is a widely used[4] Linux distribution predominantly targeted at personal computers. ... Bolzano (Italian Bolzano; German: Bozen, archaic Botzen; Ladin: Bulsan; Latin: Bauzanum; many of the regions Italian languages/dialects use Bolzan or Bulsan) is a city in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of Italy. ... September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: Je Maintiendrai (Dutch: Ik zal handhaven, English: I Shall Uphold) Anthem: Wilhelmus van Nassouwe Capital Amsterdam1 Largest city Amsterdam Official language(s) Dutch2 Government Parliamentary democracy Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Beatrix  - Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende Independence Eighty Years War   - Declared July 26, 1581   - Recognised January 30, 1648 (by Spain... , Kerala ( ; Malayalam: കേരളം; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India. ... Official language(s) English Capital Indianapolis Largest city Indianapolis Area  Ranked 38th  - Total 36,418 sq mi (94,321 km²)  - Width 140 miles (225 km)  - Length 270 miles (435 km)  - % water 1. ...

Embedded systems

• Sony's PlayStation 3 comes with a hard disk (20GB or 60GB) with Linux designed to be installed easily on the system. Due to the large penetration of the PlayStation platform, (200 million units worldwide in 10 years) Linux will have a great penetration possibility with PS3. [15]

PlayStation 3 , trademarked PLAYSTATION®3,[7] commonly abbreviated PS3) is Sony Computer Entertainments third video game console. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... The Sony PlayStation ) is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ...

Business

Linux is also used in some corporate environments as the desktop platform for its employees, with commercially available solutions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, and Linspire. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (often abbreviated to RHEL) is a Linux distribution produced by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market, including mainframes. ... SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED), formerly Novell Linux Desktop is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution supplied by Novell and targeted at the business market. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

• Ernie Ball, the guitar string manufacturers known for their famous Super Slinky guitar strings, have used Linux as their desktop operating system since 2000. [16]
• Google, the search engine, uses several different Linux distributions on the desktop and a customised version of Red Hat Linux on over 100,000 servers[17].^{[citation needed]}
• Novell is currently undergoing a migration from Windows to Linux. Of their 5500 employees, 50% were successfully migrated as of April, 2006. This is expected to rise to 80% by November.[18]
• Australian hotel booking site Wotif.com migrated from Windows to Linux servers in order to keep up with the growth of their business.[19]
• California's Union Bank Migrates to Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• European car maker Peugeot plans to deploy up to 20,000 copies of Novell's Linux desktop, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, in 2007.

Roland Sherwood Ernie Ball (1930 - September 9, 2004 in San Luis Obispo, California) was a pioneer maker of guitar strings used over the past 40 years by such guitarists as Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, Slash, Matthew Bellamy of Muse, Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold, Daron Malakian of System of a... Google, Inc. ... Red Hat Linux was a popular Linux distribution assembled by Red Hat until the early 2000s, when it was discontinued. ... Novell Inc. ...

Motivations

The primary driving forces behind Linux adoption can be summarized as:

• Security
• Reputation
• Technological one-upmanship

Other reasons cited are:

• Open source - it is visible what is being done with data, how the program works, and that it does what it is said to do.
• Lack of vendor lock-in - data can usually be ported more easily because there is often less incentive to make this difficult than with proprietary software.
• Long term usability (reduction in duplication and/or built in obsolescence) - open source software packaged with Linux usually lasts longer because repeated rollouts and "must have" updates are not part of the marketing model.
• Low cost - most of the popular Linux distributions are available as a free download over the Internet, while Windows, depending on version and how it is purchased, costs between $199 and $299 per seat. The MacOS costs $129 per seat, or $199 the family pack (5 licenses), and runs only on Apple hardware.
• Core packages run across more platforms, and are often more standards compliant and interoperable. Major proprietary software tends to be compliant with, and interoperable with, its own manufacturer's software only, and is often hard to port to other platforms or systems.
• At a professional level, Linux is configurable and robust.
• Many of its core services, including expandability, and functions such as clustering, stability, and supercomputer-creation, are easier with Linux than many alternative common systems.
• Upgrades are issued and problems fixed more quickly.
• Other factors include the large number of languages Linux's interfaces are available in, the flexibility to customise it to local needs, and high quality remote management.

Companies are engaging in Linux adoption and F/OSS because: In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in, lock-in, or the Pottersville pattern, is a situation in which a customer is so dependent on a vendor for products and services that he or she cannot move to another vendor without substantial switching costs, real and/or... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... Obsolescence is a made up word referring to the state of being which occurs when a person, object, or service is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order. ... A supercomputer is a computer that led the world in terms of processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation, at the time of its introduction. ... Free and Open Source Software, also F/OSS or FOSS, is software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. ...

• it is the dominant trend in software production
• to cause market disruption
• customers are demanding it, and
• to move the value-adding to different areas.

The use of Linux on desktop PCs in corporations is being driven by employees requesting it, and by corporations seeing competitors successfully deploying Linux. [20]

In government, self-determination and vendor independence are valued, as well as the local software industry development that may surround the adoption of Linux.

In the developing world, recent WTO agreements have encouraged organizations to look to Linux as an alternative to using copyright-infringing software. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

(For more details see Peruvian congress letter to Microsoft detailing the advantages it sees in Linux that influenced its 2005 Linux adoption decision)

Barriers to adoption

According to a 2005 survey by OSDL^[2], the largest inhibitors of adoption of Linux in business are: lack of support for proprietary applications such as Photoshop, PageMaker, AutoCAD, and Quicken; difficulty users have of installing and managing peripheral devices such as USB devices and network printers; and the need to train end-users to become comfortable with the Linux interface. Adobe Photoshop is a bitmap graphics editor (with some text and vector graphics capabilities) published by Adobe Systems. ... PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the Apple Macintosh but soon after also for the PC. It relies on Adobe Systems PostScript page description language. ... AutoCAD is a suite of CAD software products for 2- and 3-dimensional design and drafting, developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc. ... Intuit Logo Intuit, Inc. ...

Other barriers include legal scares such as the SCO cases - though legal scares for an operating system are not uncommon, such as the Microsoft Anti-Trust trial and subsequent conviction. The SCO-Linux controversies are a series of legal and public disputes between the software company SCO Group (SCO) and various Linux vendors and users. ...

Advocacy

• Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux in the enterprise
• Desktop Linux Consortium, non profit organization
• iFOSSF International Free and Open Source Software Foundation, nonprofit organization based in Michigan, USA accelerating and promoting the adoption of FOSS worldwide through research and civil society partnership networks.
• Open Invention Network, is intended to protect vendors and customers from patent royalty fees while using OSS
• IBM's Linux Marketing Strategy
• Linux User Groups
• Asian Open Source Centre (AsiaOSC)
• Brazil government, under Luis Inácio Lula da Silva [21]
• Software Livre Brasil, a Brazilian organization promoting Linux adoption in schools, public department's, commerce, industry and personal desktops.
• One Laptop Per Child
• FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan.

Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) was founded in 2000 and has investment backing from Computer Associates, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC and others. ... The Desktop Linux Consortium (DLC) is a non-profit organization which aims at enhancing and promoting the use of the GNU/Linux operating system on the desktop. ... The Open Invention Network (OIN) is a company that plans to acquire patents and offer them royalty free to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux operating system or certain Linux-related applications (Press release of November 10, 2005 [1]). Based in... Open source software is computer software whose source code is available under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. ... International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. ... A Linux User Group (LUG) is a private, generally non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for Linux users, particularly for inexperienced users. ... Motto Ordem e Progresso(Portuguese) Order and Progress Anthem Brazilian National Anthem Capital Brasília Largest city São Paulo Official languages Portuguese Demonym Brazilian Government Presidential Federal republic  -  President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva  -  Vice President José Alencar Gomes da Silva Independence from Portugal   -  Declared September 7, 1822... Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (born October 6, 1945) is a left-wing Brazilian politician. ... First working prototype of $100 laptop One Laptop Per Child is a non-profit organization set up to oversee the $100 laptop project. ...

See also

• Diffusion or adoption (business)
• Technology acceptance model
• Technology lifecycle
• Disruptive technology
• Open source vs. closed source
• Comparison of Windows and Linux
• Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD)

Diffusion is the process by which a new idea or new product is accepted by the market. ... The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an information systems theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology. ... Most new technologies follow a similar technology lifecycle. ... A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a technological innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or product in the market. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Comparison of Windows and Linux (two computer operating systems) has become a common topic of discussion among their respective users. ... Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) is a sales or marketing strategy of disseminating negative (and vague) information on a competitors product. ...

External links

• O/S market share monthly estimations, based on internet trafic
• LinuxWorld: What's Driving Global Linux Adoption?
• OSDL Desktop Linux Client Survey (pdf)
• Canadian Provincial Medical Association To Use Open Source Platform For EMR Project
• IDC: Latin America Linux Migration Trends 2005
• OSDL Claims Linux Making Major Gains in Global Retail Sector
• Munich delays switch to Linux
• Government of Peru representative rebutts Microsoft's corporate stance in the Windows/Linux debate
  (full detailed letter from Peruvian congressman to Microsoft's representative, describing basis for adoption)
• Linux Advocacy mini-HOWTO