BACKGROUND OF LINUX

L I N U X I S T H E F I R S T T R U LY F R E E U N I X - L I K E O P E R AT I N G S Y S T E M . T H E
U N D E R LY I N G G N U P R OJ E C T WA S L A U N C H E D I N 1 9 8 3 BY R I C H A R D
S TA L L M A N O R I G I N A L LY TO D E V E LO P A U N I X - C O M PAT I B L E O P E R AT I N G
S Y S T E M C A L L E D G N U , I N T E N D E D TO B E E N T I R E LY F R E E S O F T WA R E .
M A N Y P R O G R A M S A N D U T I L I T I E S W E R E C O N T R I B U T E D BY D E V E LO P E RS
A R O U N D T H E W O R L D, A N D BY 1 9 9 1 M O S T O F T H E C O M P O N E N T S O F T H E
S Y S T E M W E R E R E A DY. S T I L L M I S S I N G WA S T H E K E R N E L .
LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM. OPERATING SYSTEM IS SIMPLY A COLLECTION
OF SOFTWARE THAT MANAGES HARDWARE RESOURCES AND PROVIDES AN
ENVIROMENTAL WHERE APPLICATIONS CAN RUN. THE OPERATING SYSTEM
ALLOWS APPLICATION TO STORE INFORMATION; SEND DOCUMENTS TO
PRINTERS, INTERACT WITH USERS AND OTHER THINGS.
LINUX IS ALSO A KERNEL. TYPICALLY, WHEN THE TERM ”LINUX” IS USED. IT REFERS
TO THE LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM AS A WHOLE. HOWEVER, IT CAN REFER TO JUST
THE LINUX KERNEL AS WELL. THE LINUX KERNEL IS THE CORE OR HEART OF THE
OPERATING SYSTEM. IT’S A LAYER THAT SITS BETWEEN THE HARDWARE AND
APPLICATIONS. SAID ANOTHER WAY, IT’S THE INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN SOFTWARE
AND HARDWARE. HOWEVER, TO HAVE A USEFUL OPERATING SYSTEM,YOU NEED
OTHER COMPONENTS IN ADDITION TO THE KERNEL. THESE COMPONENTS CAN
INCLUDE SYSTEM LIBRARIES, GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE, EMAIL UTILITIES, WEB
BROWSERS AND OTHER PROGRAMS
WHO INVENTED LINUX?
Linus Torvalds invented Linux itself. In 1991, Torvalds was a
student at the University of Helsinki in Finland where he had been
using Minix, a non-free Unix-like system, and began writing his own
kernel. He started by developing device drivers and hard-drive
access, and by September had a basic design that he called Version
0.01. This kernel, which is called Linux, was afterwards combined
with the GNU system to produce a complete free operating system.
A Linux distribution is the Linux kernel and a collection of software that
together, create an operating system. Each distribution has its own goals and
areas of focus. You have Linux distributions that are designed for server use,
others that are designed for desktop use, some that are focus on research
and science. There are others that are focused on multimedia production.
There are literally hundreds of Linux distributions.
MOST PUPOLAR LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS
 RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Fedora
Ubuntu
Debian
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
OpenSuSE
Linux Mint
WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM
Windows OS, computer operating system(OS) developed by Microsoft
Corporation to run personal computers (PCs). Featuring the first graphical
user interface (GUI) for IBM-compatible PCs, the Windows OS soon
dominated the PC market. Approximately 90 percent of PCs run some version
of Windows.
The first version of Windows, released in 1985, was simply a GUI offered as
an extension of Microsoft’s existing disk operating system, or MS-DOS. Based
in part on licensed concepts that Apple Inc. had used for its Macintosh
System Software, Windows for the first time allowed DOS users to visually
navigate a virtual desktop, opening graphical “windows” displaying the
contents of electronic folders and files with the click of a mouse button,
rather than typing commands and directory paths at a text prompt.
◦ Subsequent versions introduced greater functionality, including native Windows
File Manager, Program Manager, and Print Manager programs, and a
more dynamic interface. Microsoft also developed specialized Windows
packages, including the networkable Windows for Workgroups and the high-
powered Windows NT, aimed at businesses. The 1995 consumer release
Windows 95 fully integrated Windows and DOS and offered built-
in Internet support, including the World Wide Webbrowser Internet Explorer.
With the 2001 release of Windows XP, Microsoft united its various Windows packages
under a single banner, offering multiple editions for consumers, businesses, multimedia
developers, and others. Windows XP abandoned the long-used Windows 95 kernel
(core software code) for a more powerful code base and offered a more practical
interface and improved application and memory management. The highly successful XP
standard was succeeded in late 2006 by Windows Vista, which experienced a troubled
rollout and met with considerable marketplace resistance, quickly acquiring a
reputation for being a large, slow, and resource-consuming system. Responding to
Vista’s disappointing adoption rate, Microsoft in 2009 released Windows 7, an OS
whose interface was similar to that of Vista but was met with enthusiasm for its
noticeable speed improvement and its modest system requirements.
Windows 8 in 2012 offered a start screen with applications
appearing as tiles on a grid and the ability to synchronize settings
so users could log on to another Windows 8 machine and use their
preferred settings. In 2015 Microsoft released Windows 10, which
came with Cortana, a digital personal assistant like Apple’s Siri, and
the Web browser Microsoft Edge, which replaced Internet Explorer.
Microsoft also announced that Windows 10 would be the last
version of Windows, meaning that users would receive regular
updates to the OS but that no more large-scale revisions would be
done.
CONCLUSION:

Linux and Windows both Operating systems have their

advantages and disadvantages. Windows is simple to use but is
not a free and open source OS, whereas Linux is free, open
source, customizable and secure but kind of complex for the
users having no programming background. Linux is more
reliable than windows.