Category: Open Source Operating Systems

Popular Linux Distributions

MX Linux

It is elegant highly stable and has an efficient desktop that is the reason why why it is top in the famous list of Linux distributions. It has a very easy learning curve. It has a solid performance simple configuration and a medium-sized footprint. It is is a Linux operating system that is a mid-weight test of an oriented system based on Debian. All types of users and applications can be accessed by this. It has a certain amount of non-free software that is user-oriented and I’m sure that the system works out of the box. It is majorly disabled due to the controversies surrounding it but in reality, it is very unique because it ships system and service manager.

Manjaro

It is very advantageous because it has great features and power which is based on Arch Linux. For both the experienced and new users it provides a great experience and an amazingly pleasant installation. Graphical applications pre-installed desktop environments and multimedia codecs that play videos and audios are built-in with manjaro. It feels greats to have this because you will have a great experience working on it.

Linux Mint

Linux mint works on the concept of “from freedom came elegance”. This is based on Ubuntu that is powerful, stable, and complete. It is fast, amazing, and very useful for both the experienced and beginners. At the time of installation, you can choose the most distinguishing features that are ever mentioned from Linux mint. You are free to choose from a huge list of Desktop environments. Once you install it the rest options are completely assured. This installation will help to play the video and music files. These standard installations will provide great multimedia which looks like it is out of the box.

Ubuntu

Comparatively, distribution is the most famous and needs no introduction. The company which is behind Ubuntu has put in a lot of great efforts to make it widespread distro and also popular. It has been so successful that you can now find them in PCs, servers, cloud VPS, tablets, and also smartphones. Ubuntu is based on Debian and so it is the most popular among all the new users. This is the most prominent reason behind its sustainable growth over time. Xubuntu,  lubuntu, and Kubuntu are also based on Debian. Before installing this it will also provide you with a try Ubuntu feature which will let you drive Ubuntu even before the installation on your hard drive. This is a great feature to try before you install it.

Debian

Debian is a solid Linux distribution which is committed to free software and will remain free forever. It also accepts the user to install non-free software to improve the productivity of their machines. It can be used both on server and desktop computers. It also has a great infrastructure which runs on the clouds. It is one of the famous and oldest Linux distributions. Ubuntu and Kali Linux are the most popular Linux distributions. There are many packages available in the Debian repository for the current stable version.

Elementary OS

It is an open replacement for Windows OS. It is very well advertised by its developers as a great looking Ubuntu-based desktop which is also a Linux distro. It was first introduced in the year 2011 and currently, it is is on the fifth stable release which is named after Hera. The packages and repositories are compatible as the elementary OS is based on Ubuntu. It is the greatest looking desktop distro amongst all.

Solus

Solus is a Linux distro that is built from scratch designed for office and home computing. It follows the concept of no-clutter. It has many varieties of software that you can use for your regular applications without any hassles. It has amazing interesting features that include a custom Desktop Environment which is named as a budgie. It offers a great variety of development tools like compilers, programming languages, version control systems, editors, and many other virtualization Technology. It is also integrated so that it has the look and feel of the GNOME 2 desktop. It also has great customer reviews.

Zorin OS

It is one of the easiest to use and the best Linux desktop distributions which are currently available. It is one of the best alternatives for Mac OS and Windows. It is also called as the best Gateway into the Linux world. It is very popular since it is very clean, powerful, and provides a polished desktop. It offers the Zorin appearance app which lets the users customize the desktop and create the environment which they are familiar with. Zorin is very much famous because it is very easily customizable. It is loved because it is very flexible.

Fedora

A worldwide community of developers and volunteers is maintained and built by the Fedora project. It continues to be the best and one of the top used distributions for many years and also many years ahead to come. Cloud image server edition and workstation are the three main available versions that come along with the ARM-based version for typically headless service. The most unique and distinguishing characteristic of this distro is the integrating new package versions and also Technologies that are available in this distribution. Sent over an enterprise Linux are the new releases that are based on Fedora.

Deepin

This distro is formerly known as Linux depend or hiweed. It is is an Operating System that is derived from Debian and supported by Linux. This distro is also supported by desktop, laptops, and all in ones. The mission of this distro is to provide a safe, easy to use, a beautiful, and reliable operating system to international users. It comes with the deep in Desktop Environment and a pre-installed open-source software along with many local applications that can be used by the users. This enables you to experience a variety of recreational activities and also is functional to meet your daily needs. If you have any issues in using this distro then you can contact the deeping store and find out the right information.… Read the rest

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Ubuntu OS – A Good Linux Option?

What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is nothing but a Linux operating system. Ubuntu is freely available in both professional support and community support. The Ubuntu community is based on the ideas which are enshrined in this operating system. Some of the ideas are the software should be made available for free, the software tools should be made available in required local languages, and users should always be given the freedom for customization.

Ubuntu is available for free and users need not pay for enterprise edition as well. When it comes to accessibility and transition, Ubuntu is the best choice. The main intention is Ubuntu should be used by as many people as possible. The updates are available on a regular basis and there is new release every six months. Ubuntu is completely committed when it comes to open-source software development principles. So, the aim behind the release of Ubuntu is encouraging users to make use of this open-source software and they can make improvements to it if possible and then pass to other users.

Advantages of Ubuntu

Here are a few advantages of Ubuntu in comparison to windows.

Ubuntu is freely available

This is the benefit brought by Ubuntu and along with this; most of the applications used with Ubuntu are available free of cost. There are people who may not afford Windows computers. In this case they can make use of freely available, open-source Ubuntu. When you make use of Ubuntu, there is no compromise in beauty, productivity, or inefficiency.

High level of customization

Even though Windows 10 offers few components which can be personalized, these are very limited. But compared to the previous versions, customization is better in Windows 10. But it is not the case with Ubuntu. You can start the process of customization from then moment you install Ubuntu.

The latest version of Ubuntu makes use of the GNOME desktop environment. In this environment it is possible to perform the personalization on each and every element of UX. It can be popup style, notification sounds, system animations, fonts, or even workspaces you can personalize almost all elements.

Highest security

Even though compared to the previous versions Windows 10 shows better immunity towards Trojans, there is some malware for which it is not yet immune. Ubuntu is not at all immune to the security flaws but most important thing to note here is it is built from the kernel. The highest emphasis is given to the operating techniques and hence they cover highest recklessness of the users who are not tech-inclined. This is especially valuable to many web-based businesses. For example, any companies that operate apps or websites and grant access to various employees. Certain online business niches tend to be particularly vulnerable, such as anything related to adult entertainment, pornography, or online dating companies. Companies that operate in the gray market such as the Skip The Games’ escort site, a website and app that connects adult service providers and clients, gains particular advantage with the safety of an OS like this as they also allow access to users of their site creating vulnerabilities that must be mitigated.

No installation

If you want to use Ubuntu, you need not install it. It is possible to make use of this operating system even though a pen-drive. Hence users can carry their OS like they carry their work files. If needed they can boot their operating system on some other users’ workstation and they can work comfortably as they do it in their own PC. This is the level of comfortability Ubuntu brings.

Best choice for development

Ubuntu offers out-of-the-box support mainly for programmers and this comes with installation. Once the Ubuntu is installed they can start working directly on their projects. This is not the case with windows. Even after installing windows you may need other applications like Ruby, Python, text editor, office suite, and Java. So, when Windows is used, you need all these applications to get a good working environment. But Ubuntu comes with an office suite and text editor along with many other useful applications. Hence Ubuntu saves a lot of time.

Command Line

There is default support for Bash in Ubuntu. This is present in the command line and it also offers plenty of other commands which help to work with servers, local files, and development environment.

Updates

When you are updating Ubuntu, it can be done without restarting the computer. If every time you need to restart the computer after the updates, it eats a lot of time. Ubuntu achieves this by installing updates just in the background. This is the reason users will never get distracted from the project they are working on.

Open-source

Users can refer to Ubuntu’s source code anytime. If they wish to contribute something, they can do it. Through this, users can easily understand the inner workings of the operating system. This is not possible with macOS or Windows.

Bottom line

Along with these, there are many other benefits of Ubuntu. Ubuntu even supports the Window tiling. More than this, Ubuntu is resource-friendly when compared to other operating systems. Compared to Windows, Ubuntu runs well even on old hardware. Linux distros are always better and provide highest resource friendliness compared to Windows.

This is the reason Ubuntu is the right choice for users who cannot afford high-end desktops or laptops. They can even use Ubuntu on their very old workstations. Ubuntu shows the highest level of integration mainly with administrative tools. The best part is Ubuntu is more accommodating when compared to any other operating system.… Read the rest

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Purpose of an Operating System

With rapidly changing requirements, computer systems are also evolving to cater to these changes. Hardware is becoming all the more robust and is increasingly being able to perform complex functions. However, the equipment is nothing but firmly designed machinery. It is the software, namely the Operating System, that makes this machinery work.

Basic Concept of Operating System

  • An operating system is the component of the computer, which makes all the other components function.
  • It is a program that acts as an interface between the user and the hardware, i.e., the computer resources.
  • Components of a computer:
  1. The Hardware
  2. The Operating System
  3. The Application Program Routines (for instance, linkers, compilers, database management system, and such)
  4. Human-ware (Users)

While the hardware provides the necessary computing resources, the application program routines define the method in which the funds are used to solve the user’s instructions. The operating system controls, as well as coordinates the use of hardware and application programs.

Role of the Operating System

It provides certain services to programs as well as to the users of these programs. Some common functions are:

  • Execution of the program
  • Handling of the input and output operations
  • File system manipulation
  • Error detection as well as error handling
  • Resource allocation
  • Accounting
  • Information and resource protection
  • Proving the user interface

Parts of an Operating System

An operating system has two components, namely kernel, and shell. The core is responsible for handling and interacting with the hardware while the round deals with interacting with the user. The shell interprets the commands from the user and according to takes actions. Shell also provides user interfaces.

Need for Operating System

As we discussed earlier, the hardware is nothing but finely designed machinery. A computer is just a machine until it has its operating system telling it what it needs to do. The user of the laptop passes his/her order to the operating system, which then decides how to execute the order and carries it out.

The primary goal of the operating system is to make the entire system easy to use, and its secondary goal is to utilize computer hardware most efficiently. Thus, to summarize, an operating system acts as an interface between the computer resources and the user to do the following:

  • Provide convenient access to the hardware: By giving the facility to the user to interact with the system in their language while providing the best user-friendliness features.
  • Enhance the efficiency of the system: By managing various resources collectively, including the memory and CPU, among others, thereby giving optimal performance.
  • Providing security of the system: The system includes its programs, applications, hardware, and data. The operating system has numerous authentication and verification protocols in place to maintain the security and privacy of the system and its contents.
  • Emulate the features not available in the hardware: These include providing the impression of the presence of a feature that is not physically present in the system — for instance, having more memory, i.e., virtual memory.

Thus, to summarize, the operating system is required to carry out processor management, memory management, file management, device management, and providing a user interface.… Read the rest

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