Operating Systems

Linux has now become a part of our life thanks to Linus Torvalds. Many of our systems use Linux in the backend and we are generally unaware e.g. Xbox,  Playstation, Web Servers, Cloud computing servers (e.g. Amazon), Android smartphones (Android OS is a linux), Backtrack/ Kali (the famous hacking OS's) etc.. So it is suggested to try atleast one of these flavors of linux from the wide variety available from the net.

As many of you have seen there has been a huge change in the computers we had in the 90's and in recent times. Moore's law is holding true so far that the number of transistors are doubling. Because of this fact our latest machines are capable to perform many tasks and give us a faster and better way to perform the tasks. Many processors came and came with them the operating system, our guides to the hardware. Generally there are 3 types of operating systems known to most users :

• Windows
• Mac OS
• Linux

Each have their pros and cons like Mac OS was designed to optimized performance and battery life same as that of Windows. It was battle between these two titans, until the arrival of Linux. I have used all the above operating systems and concluded the following:

• Anybody can use a Mac and it is good in terms of battery life. Windows however, the User Interface (UI) keeps changing with each version(windows XP, 7, 8, 10) so may be slightly hard to use and Battery life does not last more than three hours. Linux may be slightly tough for a beginner but once you get used to it you start to appreciate it however no improvement in battery life.
• Mac and Windows are proprietary OSs so one cannot just download the OS for free (legally). Linux on the other hand is supported by different organizations and is free for anyone to use as a server, as a desktop, as a cloud, etc.. So many organizations prefer to use Linux on their servers and networks
• "No one size fits all" .... So Linux comes in many different distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Backtrack, Elementry, etc.. are all different flavors of the Debian OS with slight tweaks depending on the way you like it.
• After Windows 8.1, the normal BIOS has been changed by UEFI which makes it slightly difficult to install another OS along side Windows 8.1 and above. You can only install those Linux OSs which do have support for UEFI like Ubuntu, Fedora, etc..
• There is no way you can try out Windows or Mac OS without installing them. Linux can be written into a CD / USB flash drive to make "Live" CD/ USB so that one can simply try out the OS before installing
• Windows is very easily susceptible to virus attacks so an anti-virus program is always required. Mac may not need anti-virus programs as it partially resembles a version of Linux. Linux does not need anti-virus programs.