Linux operating system for desktop developers
There are many operating systems available for personal computers, although the vast majority of them only have a small percentage of the market share. The Windows operating system by Microsoft is used by the huge majority of computer users, with the Apple Macintosh operating system being the only notable competition. The current Apple operating system is called OSX, and even it still trails a long way behind both Windows XP and Windows Vista. The only other operating system which has at least one percent of the market share is Linux – originally a server oriented system that is now making its mark on the world of desktop computing.
An operating system is the interface between the computer hardware and the end user, and is involved in all aspects of the management and coordination of computer resources and application hosting. Computer users spend the majority of their time using individual computer programs, each of which needs to be run through an operating system environment. Apart from the large commercial systems of Windows and OSX, most other operating systems are open source in nature, and many are freely available to use. Most open source operating systems are based on the Unix, including Linux and Solaris – the two largest open source systems.
Linux is becoming more popular all the time, and is available as one of a number of individual packages, of which most are free and others commercial in nature. While Linux server products have been around for a long time, widespread desktop use of Linux is much newer and growing all the time. Even though the Linux code itself is open source in nature, there is a commercial industry developing around the Linux community. Several large corporations sell and contribute to a particular Linux distribution, including Dell, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Nokia.
When trying to sell anything to do with Linux or any other open source software, it is crucial to have a well developed marketing plan. Sales are in many ways counter intuitive to the open source community, and many companies make money through back end operations such as charging for support, education, and even manufacturing Linux related merchandise. Linux is a fantastic operating system which can be used by a large majority of computer users, and it is only likely to become more popular in future years.