Category: Fedora

Linux Features

Please refer to our other article regarding an Introduction to Linux Operating Systems.

In this article, we are going to see what are the Linux features which makes it the first choice of developers as well as the best option for Server Management and Web Hosting.

  • Linux Features
    Linux Features
Graphical User Interface:

Basically, Linux is a command line based OS that allows converting to a GUI based OS by installing packages. It also supports Graphical Customization.
GNU/Linux is an OS allowing you to choose the GUI you like, for example from Arch Linux and install it on your system. You can change this GUI pattern any time you want.

Control Over the Entire Base System:

GNU/Linux is great when it comes to fixing errors related to any system package or tool. As the system is built with modular pieces, if any package breaks, you can either uninstall then re-install the problematic package via the Command Line or the graphical interface. Also, you can find a different tool as a replacement.

Packages:

Linux has its own software repository which allows users to download and install many applications. In Debian, there is the apt-get command that installs a program without compiling. The exact command is “apt-get install programname“. You can even use APT to install Chromium (a graphical application) if you wish. Similerly, Red Hat has yum, Arch Linux has pacman, etc.).

Multiuser capability:

More than one user can access the same system resources like memory, hard disk, etc. from different terminals.

Multitasking:

More than one function can be performed concurrently by dividing the CPU time intelligently.

Security:

It provides security in three ways i.e authentication, by giving user id with the username, authorization by giving permission to read, write and execute and encryption by converting files to an unreadable format.

Live CD/USB:

Almost all Linux distros provide live CD/USB so that users can run it without installing it.

Portability:

It supports different types of hardware.

File System: 

Files and directories are arranged in a hierarchical structure which is easy to understand by users.

Programmer-friendly: 

Linux comes with everything you need to compile both C and C++ programs out of the box, regardless of distribution. It supports different languages as well.

Introduction To Linux

Linux is a free and open source operating system released in 1991 for computers. But today, it works on computers, servers, mainframes, mobile devices, and embedded devices. Linux is one of the most popular versions of the UNIX Operating System. It was designed considering UNIX compatibility and thus it’s quite similar to Unix.

Linux-based operating systems are mostly used by developers to get their work done and develop something new. They are choosing a Linux distro for development because it’s easy to use as well as compatible with most of the programming languages i.e Java, PHP, HTML etc. Today, Linux is ideal for commercial network devices and enterprises who want to use it to customize their own network and data center infrastructure.

The following is a list of best Linux distributions for Development and Server Management:
  • Debian
  • Ubuntu
  • Fedora
  • CentOS/REDHAT
  • Raspbian
  • And more

Please check out our other article to get more information about these Linux distributions here.

Primary Components of Linux

These are the three primary components of this operating system:

Kernel

The kernel is a core part of the operating system. It performs all major activities. It consists of various modules and interacts directly with the internal hardware. The Main function of the kernel is to send instructions to the CPU, peripherals, and memory.

System Library

System libraries are the programs that allow application programs or system utilities to access the Kernel’s features. These libraries are responsible for executing most of the OS programs. They don’t have the kernel module’s code access rights.

System Utility

System Utility programs are responsible to perform specialized, individual level tasks. Beyond tthe operating system it has two modes such as Kernel Mode and User Mode. The system runs programs under one of these modes.

Kernel Mode vs User Mode

Kernel Mode has full access to all resources of the system. In kernel mode programs represent a single process. It executes in single address space and does not require any context switch. Because of which this mode is very efficient and fast.

User programs and other system programs run in User Mode. It has no access to system hardware and kernel code. User programs use system libraries to access kernel functions to get the system’s low-level tasks done.