You would think that Windows, Microsoft's ubiquitous operating system, is used by more computers around the world than any other, and you'd be wrong. Windows certainly dominates the desktop PC market, but when we view computers as a whole: phones, tablets, mainframes, servers, appliances, cars, and robots (yes, robots), Microsoft doesn't hold a candle to Linux.
Linux, first released in 1991, is the most used operating system on earth. It is based on a platform called Unix, what Apple is based on. The man credited with writing Linux is Linus Torvals of Helsinki, it's name a take off his his own. Important to Torvals was keeping the new OS free and open. As a result Linux, the basis of Google's omnipresent Android OS, is the most important operating system in the world. It can be said Linux runs the world. From mainframes, servers, super computers, routers, wifi, aircraft navigation systems, embedded products of all kinds, network switches, televisions, video games, spacecraft, mobile phones, watches, PCs and, relevant to our field, NAS and music servers, Linux touches everything. We hear much about Windows and Apple's IOS, but PCs are only a fraction of the computers in use today.
Linux is popular because it's free, but that's only part of the story. Linux runs everything because much of the world is involved in making it better. And once you employ the world to program your product, you have far more resources than a few thousand programers in Redmond or Cupertino.
The subject of the next day's posts is the NAS (Network Attached Storage) and Linux runs all NAS. So, when I start to write of the OS (Operating System) of a NAS, you'll know it is Linux. Oh, and NAS connect over LANs (local Are Networks) and LANs (our home networks) run on Linux as well.
Thanks Linus, Linux is a gift that keeps on giving in a free an open world. Bravo!
