The various features of Linux. What are the steps for installing Linux

¯ FEATURES OF LINUX:
Linux is a UNIX like operating system originally developed by Linus Torvalds, a student of University of Helsinki. Linux was developed by thousands of developers and is available for free on the Internet. Linux is written and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Technically Linux is strictly an OS kernel (Kernel is the core of an Operating System.). Linux come with a collection of software including desktop, server programs, networking suites, compilers, and many more utilities make it a complete operating system. For example, the recent version of Linux includes the XFree86 version of the X Window System, the GNU C compiler GCC and code from quite a lot of other sources.

Following are the various features of Linux

1) Multi tasking: Linux is a multi-tasking system, allowing multiple users to run multiple programs on the same system at the same time.

2) Multi-user: It is multi-user operating system, allowing multiple users to use the computer and run programs at the same time.

3) Hardware support: Runs on a variety of computer architectures, including ARM, SP ARC, Alpha, PowerPC, M68k, MIPS and Intel.

4) Reliable: Highly reliable and stable operating system, it can run for months, even years, without having to be rebooted.

5) Multiple processor support: Supports the use of multiple processors. More processors can be added without disturbing the existing hardware set up. Software dependencies: Implements shared libraries. For example, if Program A and Program B share a common piece of code then the common code is placed in a separate file so that any program requiring this common routine can refer to this file rather than including the code in each program. This saves a large amount of space on your system.

6) Graphical User Interface (GUI): Linux provides the freedom to use any user interface-programming library you choose. KDE (K Desktop Environment, K does not have an expansion) and GNOME are the two main graphical user interfaces aiming to make Linux easy for computer users to operate. They are free softwares coming under the GNU General Public License.

7) KDE: is a powerful Open Source graphical desktop environment that combines ease of use, contemporary functionality and outstanding graphical design. KDE desktop is very similar to the Windows 98/NT environment. It provides a complete desktop environment by including:
(i) Standardised menus and toolbars, key bindings, colour-schemes and many more. (ii)Dialog driven desktop configuration. (iii) File Manager for easy management of files and directories. (iv) KDEPrint for administration of various printing engines and management of enterprise networked printing systems. (v) An integrated help system allowing for convenient, consistent access to help on the use of the KDE desktop and its applications. (vi) Browser Support including support for Java Script and DHTML. (vii) Innumerable utilities and applications like:


8) KDE-Network: KMail, KNode, Knewsticker etc.


9) KDE-Graphics: Graphics applications such as KDVI, KGhostview, KPaint, Kfax

10) KDE-Utilities: KEdit, KCalc, KHexEdit, Knotes

11) KDE-Edu: Edutainment related programs

12) KDE-Games: KAsteroids, KPat, KTetris

13) KDE-Admin: Various tools to aid system administration

14) KOffice: Integrated office suite

15) TCP/IP networking support: Linux supports most Internet protocols. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is built into the kernel itself. TCPIIP is the communication protocol that binds the Internet.

16) High level security: It has many built in security features to protect your system from unauthorised users. It stores the passwords in encrypted form which cannot be decrypted.

17) Web server: It can be used to run web servers like Apache, serving various application protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP and many more. It can also be used as an email server or a file server.

18) Database support: All major brands like Sybase, Informix and Oracle run well on Linux.

19) Programming support: It provides programming support for various languages like Fortan, Pascal, C, C++ and many web technologies.

20) Free: It can be downloaded for free from the Internet and its source code is freely available to everyone. Since the source code is open, bugs can be fixed easily without having to wait for proprietary vendors to fix the encountered problems.

21) GNU software support: Linux supports a wide range of free software written by the GNU Project, including utilities such as the GNU C and C++ compiler, and so on. Many of the essential system utilities used by Linux are GNU software.

22) The X Window system: X Windows is the de facto industry standard graphics system for UNIX machines. A free version of The X Window System, known as 'Xfree86' is available for Linux. The X Window System is a very powerful graphics interface that allows multiple login sessions in different windows on the screen at the same time.