[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Linux is Superior
Introduction
Selection of an operating system that is just right for a computer installation is important because operating systems are expected to provide to the users and the application the maximum strength of the computing power that is available at the installation. A computer system has many resources including CPU time, I/O, memory space as well as networking interconnect which have to be managed and allocated to various software applications or programs and users when required. The operating system in a computer also acts as a control program which controls the execution of user programs in order to prevent errors and disallows the improper use of computers. Operating systems are, therefore, selected in order to most appropriately satisfy needs and expectations that users have of a computing environment which has been established to solve particular problems or fulfill various needs (Horowitz, 2005).
Linux is an operating system which came into prominence and got increasingly well accepted around the world because it is an open source operating system which has all of its source code available from the internet for downloading by everybody. Because it is open source and does not have to be paid for, companies and other users can save a lot of money by using Linux. The "GNU General Public License" or GPL for Linux requires that anyone can download the source code and modify it for personal or public use, but the enhanced code or the modifications have to be provided to the public. The entire Linux system, kernel and utilities are freely available with source code for anyone to use, modify and redistribute. Any enhancements or changes become available to users or those who are interested and this means that interested programmers all over the world are constantly working to improve the operating system for novel applications. This also means that it is quite possible with such efforts to vastly improve the operating system and to modify it for custom applications....
