Hi everyone! I'm starting a new series on Steemit. I'll be teaching you what Linux is, how and why to use.
You might wonder why this is important: Nearly all servers run with Linux. It's free and in my opinion better than Windows or MacOS. No bashing. Just being honest.
Today I'll introduce you to Linux, tell you what it is and afterwards we'll look on how to use the terminal and even more interesting stuff.
I'm doing this series while doing another on Functional Programming. Sometimes I'll post some random fun, tech-related stuff. I hope you'll be enjoying this series!
There are different Operating Systems (OS), you might know Windows, MacOS, Ubuntu,...
If Operating Systems were cars, the so-called Kernel would be the engine. This is what Linux is. Linux is a kernel and there are people using that kernel building great OSs like Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Kali Linux and many more. This is what we talk about when we're saying switching to Linux. We're switching to an OS with a Linux kernel. In the beginning it was developed by Linus Torvalds and is of course still developed by a whole team today. The OSs are of course developed by different people or even companies.
Btw. the community is great.
The logo is the penguin called Tux. Isn't he cute?
@bossel mentioned it in the comment section. There are downsides of Linux. I wasn't clear about that. But INFORM YOURSELF on other opinions and facts about Linux and decide on your own if you want to switch. If you want to try it out: Please do so maybe by using a Virtual Machine and decide if you want it on your computer. And one more thing: You can make a Dual-Boot later, so you can keep Windows or MacOS!
Thanks again 
Linux is free software. It's opensource, you don't have to buy anything for using it or building something with it.
More precicely it is licensed under GNU GPL v2. So everybody can just look at it, use it or contribute to it.
You may be good with your current OS, but here are some reasons why to switch to Linux:
You might know CMD or if you're on MacOS you should know what I'm talking about. The console is interactive. The console can run scripts and therefore automation of life is so simple. Just google some "automation linux" and you'll find so many nice things. You can even browse (with not much data use), play simple games, check your mail and much more in the console!
But of course, not everything needs to be done. You can download also applications with a graphical user-interface like LibreOffice, VLC, GIMP, Thunderbird, Telegram and so many more.
Open Source projects are in general more secure than projects that are not since everybody can check out the code and tell the developers about it before the bad guy find out. But the community protects you also from the developers, there are secure repositories and of course the devs can't spy on you because the community checks the code. Additionally encryption and privacy are built in.
IT'S FREE. You don't need the best computer to run it. With the right OS with Linux you can run your old computer smoothly.
In Linux you have many different Desktop-Enviroments. When installing it on your computer you can choose your favourite one. Some of the best known are (you can google them yourself otherwise the pictures would take to much space on this post):
Most of them are even highly customizable. So you can get a really personal experience using Linux.
You know those situations when Windows crashes for no reason and gives you some stupid message? This doesn't happen with Linux. If Linux crashes, the message is full of information and telling you how to fix the problem.
Yes of course you can contact the support, but as an Apple user you're paying for that. In Linux you have the community which responds minutes after your post in a forum, reddit, ...,(Steemit soon?) and there are tons of WIKIS. So if you the message printed out by Linux is unclear, the community is there to help.
They use all the same.
Everyone has seen that, but in Linux you'll get more information.
As I said, Linux is just the Kernel, Distros are the Operating Systems using Linux.
But why are the different distos at all, why not only one? People have different visions on how it should work, how the organization should be and many more reasons. But that has only benefits to us, we can choose more customized OSs.
The Linux Timeline looks something like this: now there are even more!!!
Here is the installation in general. If you guys want I can give real tutorial on how to install a Linux Distribution. Just let me know in the comment section.
Here a quality meme:
Alright guy, that was it for today, I hoped you enjoyed my post. I also enjoyed writing it since I love Linux and everything around it. Next time I'll do a tutorial on how to use the terminal or maybe an installation guide. Thanks for reading.
Cheers
Sources:
Linux Timeline
Tux
Meme
