2. Linux is assembled under the
model of free and open source
software development and
distribution . It was made by
Linus Trovalds. Linux was
originally developed as a free
operating system for Intel x86
based personal computers. It is a
leading operating system
on servers and other big
iron systems such as mainframe
computers
and supercomputers more than
Linus Trovalds 90% of today's 500 fastest
supercomputers run some variant
of Linux, including the 10
fastest.

3. The History of Linux began in 1991 with
the commencement of a personal project
by student, Linus Torvalds, to create a new
operating system kernel.
Since then the resulting Linux kernel has
been marked by constant growth throughout
its history. Since the initial release of
its source code in 1991, it has grown from a
small number of C files under a license
prohibiting commercial distribution to its
state in 2012 of over 415 megabytes of
source under the GNU General Public
License.

4. The Unix operating system was
conceived and implemented in 1969
at AT&T's Bell Laboratories in
the United States by Ken
Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas
McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. It was first
released in 1971 and was initially
entirely written in assembly language,
a common practice at the time. Later,
in a key pioneering approach in 1973,
UNIX was re-written in the
programming language C by Dennis
Ritchie (with exceptions to the kernel
and I/O). The availability of an
operating system written in a high-
level language allowed
easier portability to different computer
platforms.

5. The GNU Project, started in 1983
by Richard Stalman, had the goal of
creating a "complete Unix-
compatible software system"
composed entirely of free software.
Work began in 1984. Later, in 1985,
Stallman started the Free Software
Foundation and wrote the GNU
General Public License (GNU GPL)
in 1989. By the early 1990s, many of
the programs required in an
operating system (such as
libraries, compilers, text editors,
a Unix shell, and a windowing
system) were completed, although
low-level elements such as device
drivers, daemons, and
the kernel were stalled and
Richard incomplete. Linus Torvalds has said
that if the GNU kernel had been
Stalman available at the time (1991), he
would not have decided to write his
own.

6. Berkeley Software Distribution
(BSD, sometimes called
Berkeley Unix) is a Unix
operating system derivative
developed and distributed by the
Computer Systems Research
Group (CSRG) of the University
of California, Berkeley, from
1the 1980s, BSD was widely
adopted by vendors of
workstation-class systems in the
form of proprietary UNIX
variants such as DEC ULTRIX
and Sun Microsystems SunOS
1977 to 1995.

7. MINIX is an inexpensive minimal Unix-
like operating system, designed for education in
computer science, written by Andrew S.
Tanenbaum. Starting with version 3 in 2005,
MINIX has become free and redesigned for
"serious" use.
In 1991 while attending the University of
Helsinki, Torvalds became curious about
operating systems and frustrated by the licensing
of MINIX, which limited it to educational use
only. He began to work on his own operating
system which eventually became the Linux kernel.
Andrew S. Torvalds began the development of the Linux
Tanenbaum kernel on MINIX, and applications written for
MINIX were also used on Linux. Later Linux
matured and further Linux development took
place on Linux systems. GNU applications also
replaced all MINIX components, because it was
advantageous to use the freely available code from
the GNU project with the fledgling operating
system. (Code licensed under the GNU GPL can
be reused in other projects as long as they also are
released under the same or a compatible license.)

8. Users operate a Linux-based system through a command line
interface (CLI), a graphical user interface (GUI), or through
controls attached to the associated hardware, which is
common for embedded systems. For desktop systems, the
default mode is usually a graphical user interface, by which
the CLI is available through terminal emulator windows or on
a separate virtual console. Most low-level Linux components,
including the GNU userland, use the CLI exclusively. The
CLI is particularly suited for automation of repetitive or
delayed tasks, and provides very simple inter-process
communication. A graphical terminal emulator program is
often used to access the CLI from a Linux desktop. A Linux
system typically implements a CLI by a shell, which is also
the traditional way of interacting with a Unix system. A Linux
distribution specialized for servers may use the CLI as its
only interface.

9. The popularity of Linux on
standard desktop computers and
laptops has been increasing over
the years. Many popular
applications are available for a
wide variety of operating systems.
For example Mozilla
Firefox, OpenOffice.org/LibreOffi
ce and Blender have downloadable
versions for all major operating
systems. Furthermore, some
applications were initially
developed for Linux, such
as Pidgin, and GIMP. In the field
of animation and visual effects,
most high end software, such
as Autodesk Maya, Softimage XSI
and Apple Shake, is available for
Linux. Softwares like Skype are
also available in Linux.

10. Today, Linux systems are used in
every domain, from embedded
systems to supercomputers, and
have secured a place in server
installations often using the
popular LAMP application
stack. Use of Linux distributions
in home and enterprise desktops
has been growing. Linux
distributions have also become
popular in the net book market,
with many devices such as
the ASUS Eee PC and Acer
Aspire One shipping with
customized Linux distributions
Linux being used on installed. Linux has many
versions of it like GNOME
Android phone4.0 "Ice Cream Shell, KDE Plasma Desktop,
Sandwich" Unity, Xfce and LXDE .

11. GNOME Shell is the core user
interface of the GNOME desktop
environment starting with version 3,
which was released on April 6, 2011.
It provides basic functionality like
switching between windows and
launching applications. It replaces
GNOME Panel and other software
components from GNOME 2 to offer
a user experience that breaks from
the previous model of desktop
metaphor, used in earlier versions of
GNOME.
GNOME Shell uses Mutter, a
compositing window manager based
on the Metacity window manager,
GNOME Shell Desktop and the Clutter toolkit to provide
visual effects and hardware
acceleration. According to GNOME
Shell maintainer. Owen Taylor, it is
set up as a Mutter plug-in largely
written in JavaScript.

12. Ubuntu is a computer operating
system based on the Debian Linux
distribution and distributed as free and
open source software, using its own
desktop environment. It is named after
the Southern African philosophy of
ubuntu ("humanity towards
others").Ubuntu is designed primarily
for use on personal computers,
although a server edition also exists.
Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based
company Canonical Ltd., owned by
South African entrepreneur Mark
Shuttleworth. Canonical generates
revenue by selling technical support
and services related to Ubuntu, while
the operating system itself is entirely
free of charge. The Ubuntu project is
committed to the principles of free
software development; people are
encouraged to use free software,
improve it, and pass it on.
Ubuntu Desktop

13. Unity is a shell interface for the GNOME
desktop environment developed by
Canonical Ltd for its Ubuntu operating
system. Unity debuted in the net book
edition of Ubuntu 10.10. It is designed to
make more efficient use of space given
the limited screen size of net books,
including, for example, a vertical
application switcher called the launcher.
Unlike GNOME, KDE Software
Compilation, Xfce, or LXDE, Unity is
not a collection of applications but is
designed to use existing GTK+
programs.[
Unity is part of the Ayatana project, an
initiative to improve the user experience
within Ubuntu. In addition to Unity, there
are Application Indicators and other
projects such as MeMenu, the notification
Unity Desktop system and the application NotifyOSD
gathered.

14. Plasma Workspaces is the umbrella
term for all graphical environments
provided by KDE. Plasma separates
components into "data engines" and
their visualization counterparts. This
is intended to reduce the total
programming effort when there are
multiple possible visualizations of
given data; and to make it easier for
the data engine and the workspaces
to be written independently.
Currently there are three workspaces
being developed: Plasma Desktop
for traditional desktop PCs and
notebooks, Plasma Net book for net
books, and Plasma Active for Tablet
PCs, Nokia N900 style smart phones
and similar devices.
KDE Plasma Desktop

15. Xfce is a free software desktop
environment for Unix and Unix-
like platforms, such as Linux,
Solaris, and BSD. It aims to be fast
and lightweight, while still being
visually appealing and easy to use.
It consists of separately packaged
components that together provide
the full functionality of the desktop
environment, but which can be
selected in subsets to create the
user's preferred personal working
environment. Xfce is mainly used
for its ability to run a modern
desktop environment on relatively
modest hardware.
Xfce is included as one of the
graphical user interfaces on the
Pandora handheld gaming system.
XFCE Desktop

16. LXDE is a free and open source desktop
LXDE environment for Unix and other POSIX
compliant platforms, such as Linux or BSD.
The goal of the project is to provide a
desktop environment that is fast and energy
efficient. The name LXDE stands for
"Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment".
LXDE is designed to work well with
computers on the low end of the
performance spectrum such as older
resource-constrained machines, new
generation net books, and other small
computers, especially those with low
amounts of RAM.[3] Testing on Ubuntu has
shown that LXDE 0.5 has the lowest
memory usage compared to GNOME 2.29,
KDE 4.4, and Xfce 4.6, and also consumes
less energy, which means mobile computers
with LXDE drain their battery at a slower
pace than those with other desktop
environments.
LXDE can be built on top of many Linux
distributions as well as BSD. It is the native
desktop environment of Knoppix, Lubuntu
and U-lite, among others.
LXDE Desktop

17.  Free software – No cost, no restrictions  May be difficult to decide which Linux
– complete freedom. flavor. The options are plenty and a
 Plenty of flavors optimized for ‘non techie’ user may be confused to
different tasks like multimedia, web choose the right distro. But Linux has
server, music creation. an excellent community and just ask
 Excellent community – Most of the your questions in the forums or user
Linux distributions (or simply called as groups. You can always find a Linux
a distro), especially Ubuntu has distro for almost all of your need.
excellent community support. So if  Unstable – While it is true that Linux
you ran into a problem, just seek help is one of the most stable and secure
from the community. operating systems, you might’ve
 Frequently updated – A good Linux experienced many crashes. Well, the
distribution changes its version at least culprit in most cases is the packages
twice every year. Compare that with which are not stable. For ex: popular
Microsoft Windows. How many years distros like Ubuntu comes bundled
in between the release of Windows XP with some unstable packages like
Compiz
& Windows Vista.

18.  Easy installation on standard hardware  Fusion, Awn etc. While these packages
(by ‘standard’ I mean, common and make Linux more eye-candy (Believe
popular) – You may be surprised here, me, you don’t want to turn it off, if you
but it is true. If you’ve standard enjoyed it once – even if it is unstable),
hardware, Linux is the easiest OS to it has a price to pay and that is
install. Some distros even allow you to stability. One solution to this is, one
play games while it is installing in the should always stick to stable packages.
background. For ex: Debian has an excellent stable
distro which comes bundled with only
 Easily updatable on a good broadband stable packages.
internet connection – To install a new
application, all you need is to search  Installation may be difficult if your
for the application in the distro’s hardware is not standard (less available
package manager and install it. All or less popular). You might need to
dependencies will be taken care of recompile the kernel to support your
automatically. hardware. This can become a
nightmare for an average user. But
chances are high that, the same
problem has occurred for another user
and the Linux community has already
solved this. So just Google around and
find the solution.

19.  More secure and stable – Well, this  Updating / Installing additional
depends on the distro you choose and package can be difficult if you do not
the packages (applications) you’ve have an internet connection. While it is
installed. But generally Linux is extremely easy to update/install
considered as one of the best stable packages if you’ve an internet
operating systems. connection, it may be very difficult if
 Works on low end machines – While you don’t have one because of the
some distros are recommended only possible package dependency issue. So
for high end machines, you can always you need to manually install all
find a distro which can make the best dependency packages before installing
out of your old hardware. your desired package.
 Targeted less by viruses & spywares  Lack of high quality professional
software – While it is true that, Linux
comes bundled with almost all
applications that you need for general
use, high end professionals may not
find an alternative for their needs. For
ex: though, there is GIMP for image
editing, professionals may not find it
as a real alternative for Adobe
Photoshop.

20.  Same is the case with Blender
for 3D modeling. It is not a real
alternative for Maya or 3D studio
Max. This is also the case with
games in general. Though we
can find some good open source
3D games, we can’t play high
end games like Crysis or Need
for Speed. But this is not the
problem of Linux. As the use of
Linux as a platform increases,
software companies will be
forced to release Linux versions.
But a question may arise – Won’t
this paid, proprietary softwares
violate the Linux motto of
"complete freedom"

22. Linux Windows Microsoft
 Price  Price
The majority of Linux variants are The majority of Linux variants are
available for free or at a much lower available for free or at a much lower
price than Microsoft Windows. price than Microsoft Windows.
 Ease  Ease
Although the majority Linux variants Microsoft has made several
have improved dramatically in ease advancements and changes that have
of use, Windows is still much easier made it a much easier to use operating
to use for new computer users. system, and although arguably it may
 Reliability not be the easiest operating system, it
The majority of Linux variants and is still Easier than Linux.
versions are notoriously reliable and  Reliability
can often run for months and years Although Microsoft Windows has
without needing to be rebooted. made great improvements in reliability
over the last few versions of Windows,
it still cannot match the reliability of
Linux.

23. Linux Windows Microsoft
 Software  Software
Linux has a large variety of available Because of the large amount of
software programs, utilities, and Microsoft Windows users, there is a
games. However, Windows has a much larger selection of
much larger selection of available available software programs,
software. utilities, and games for Windows.
 Software Cost  Software Cost
Many of the Although Windows does have software
available software programs, utilities, programs, utilities, and games for free,
and games available on Linux are the majority of the programs will cost
freeware or open source. Even such anywhere between $20.00 - $200.00+
complex programs such US dollars per copy.
as Gimp, Open Office ,Star Office ,
and wine are available for free or at a
low cost.

24. Linux Windows Microsoft
 Hardware  Hardware
Because of the amount of Microsoft
Linux companies and hardware Windows users and the broader driver
manufacturers have made great support, Windows has a much larger
advancements in hardware support for support for hardware devices and a
Linux and today Linux will support good majority of hardware
most hardware devices. However, manufacturers will support their
many companies still do not offer products in Microsoft Windows.
drivers or support for their hardware in
 Security
Linux.
 Security Although Microsoft has made great
improvements over the years with
Linux is and has always been a very security on their operating system,
secure operating system. Although it their operating system continues to be
still can be attacked when compared to the most vulnerable to viruses and
Windows, it much more secure. other attacks.

25. Linux Windows Microsoft
 Open Source  Open Source
Many of the Linux variants and many Microsoft Windows is not open source
Linux programs are open source and and the majority of Windows programs
enable users to customize or modify are not open source.
the code however they wish to.  Support
 Support Microsoft Windows includes its own
Although it may be more difficult to help section, has vast amount of
find users familiar with all Linux available online documentation and
variants, there are vast amounts of help, as well as books on each of the
available online documentation and versions of Windows.
help, available books, and support
available for Linux.

26. Thank
you
MADE BY-
VANSH SETHI
8-A