Friday, October 25, 2013

CIS - Blog About It - Downie_Nick

Linus Torvalds is the Finish American software engineer and the top mind behind the Linux kernel. He attended the University of Helsinki between 1988 and 1996, graduating with his masters degree in computer science from NODES research group. During his first year of college, he joined the Finnish Army and selected an 11 month long officer training program. Torvalds did this to fulfill a mandatory military service requirement of Finland.He was a 2nd lieutenant in the Finnish Army and his role was a ballistic calculation officer. He was exposed to Unix for the first time in 1990 when he returned from the army. Linus has been programming for a while, so if the question is how long has he been programming, the answer would be since 1990 when he took his first c programming language class. If the question is how long has he been working for a company as a programmer, the answer would be since 1997 when he moved to California to work for the Transmeta Corporation.
Linux is a "Unix-like and POSIX-compliant computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution."(Wikipedia). the Linux kernel was released on October 5th, 1991. Programmers who use languages such as Ada, c, c++, java, FORTRAN and mot other programming languages.

Compared to Windows and Mac, Linux is free and can be distributed downloaded almost anywhere. There are paid versions but they are considerably cheaper than Windows or Mac. Another difference between the three is that Linux has the ability to be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, video games, consoles, supercomputers and mainframes.

There are many advantages to having Linux. The Linux operating system is very stable and rarely crashes. If it does indeed crash, the whole system doesn't go down with it. It is easier to install than Windows. Another benefit of Linux systems is that they are much less vulnerable to viruses. Most viruses are intended for Windows so the chance of getting a virus with Linux is greatly reduced. There are viruses out there but not nearly as many.

 With advantages, there are always disadvantages. A disadvantage of Linux is that some programs that work on Windows, do not work on the Linux operating system. Another disadvantage is that there are a limited number of peripheral hardware drivers for Linux.



 http://www.diffen.com/difference/Linux_vs_Windows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
 
http://www.linfo.org/linus.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 27, 2013 at 11:36 AM

    I have read many posts, and all of them talk about how Linux can't run many Windows based apps. I would have to agree that that is Linux biggest fault. There will always be a curve for anyone that tries to use Linux for the first time. Hopefully there will be a much more user friendly version in the the future that will either integrate these apps or replace them with much more versatile ones.

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    1. UnknownOctober 28, 2013 at 5:29 PM

      Chris, I agree with you, a lot of the blogs did mention the fact that Linux does not support many Windows based apps. This isn't the end of the world, however, it does drive off a large population of gamers and other serious computer users. I hope they come out with a more user friendly version in the future too. I like the idea that you have about the hopeful future version!

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  2. UnknownOctober 27, 2013 at 5:04 PM

    Nick, best blog I've read so far. You made a lot of good points that I totally agree with. Linux has a lot of advantages, but it also has a fair amount of disadvantages which goes along with all other things. A huge advantage I read about in your blog was that Linux gets less viruses than Windows based systems. In my personal opinion I would still choose a Windows based system over a Linux based system. Linux doesn't work with a pretty solid amount of programs that work on Windows.

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    1. UnknownOctober 28, 2013 at 5:34 PM

      Thank you for your complement, I appreciate it! I thought it was weird creating a blog on Linus Torvalds at first, but that was because I didn't know anything about him. After this, I have changed my mind and enjoyed it thoroughly. He is kind of a jerk, but I guess being a genius gives you the right? I agree that Linux does have a lot of advantages but is not as commercialized as Windows or Mac. I guess I wouldn't want a operating system that couldn't have the windows apps I want either.

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  3. UnknownOctober 29, 2013 at 9:33 PM

    Interesting post, very informative. I have worked with Windows and Mac operating systems and compared to Linux they are very expensive. Every program does have its drawbacks however, I didn't like how some programs from windows wouldn't run on Linux. With all the technology we have and in the day and age we live in we should have sold this program by now. Over all interesting post, it was very informative and in depth. Good job.

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  4. UnknownOctober 30, 2013 at 8:45 PM

    First off, good choice on the picture that's the one i used. Great, informative post. I liked all the little details that you put into it i could tell you did your research. I knew that there were barely any crashes but i didn't know that the whole system doesn't go down with it if it does. I know that you mentioned that there are barely any viruses and that is one on my favorite things about Linux. I read that only .05% of viruses are made for Linux. Good post though very informative.

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