The uses to which the Linux operating system is put are as multifarious as goats in Greece or commuters in Connecticut. They just aren’t too obvious! For a start, when browsing the web, many of the websites you turn up are being run with Apache. Providing its open source in most cases is (yes, you’ve guessed) Linux.
Linux technology is the choice of many companies for running networks and is also a popular choice of storage solution for databases. As the operating system of choice for the PCs of a minority of private individuals, Linux continues to maintain, if not strengthen, its grip on this slice of the market.
There are shed loads of scientific purposes to which Linux is put too, including the rendering of computer graphics, metrological forecasts and statistical analysis.
Indeed, enterprising teams who are masters of IT wizardry have been developing Linux spin-offs ever since Linux’s inception. Ubuntu is an example: begun in 2004, it is now one of the most widely used desktops and comes pre-installed on a number of major manufacturer- machines.
While its share of the desktop market is small – in 2010 standing at less than 5% – the influence that Linux has is quite extensive. One example in the US is the supercomputer housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory which has as its operating system the Cray Linux Environment. The popular web browser Mozilla Firefox is powered by Linux, too. Linux crops up as the third operating system in almost all software descriptions found when one is considering and comparing software to install, amounting to accidental publicity. Its very nature ” differing from the market leaders in being Open Source ” is essentially the key to its ubiquity. Linux is everywhere! People in their thousands have done ” and continue doing ” the very thing for which Linux was intended: accessing its source codes, then making the modifications and alterations they want in order to get creative with their own versions of software, and going on to share, whether commercially or not, the fruits of their Linux-charged labors.