computer science

List of Linux adopters

List of Linux adopters is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of Linux adopters rather than just read about it. In short: This is a list of companies, organizations and individuals who have moved from other operating systems to Linux. On desktops, Linux has not displaced Microsoft Windows to a large degree.

Key takeaways

List of Linux adopters belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of Linux adopters to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of Linux adopters from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This is a list of companies, organizations and individuals who have moved from other operating systems to Linux. On desktops, Linux has not displaced Microsoft Windows to a large degree. However, it is the leading operating system on servers. See also: List of BSD adopters

Government As local governments come under pressure from institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the International Intellectual Property Alliance, some have turned to Linux and other free software as an affordable, legal alternative to both pirated software and expensive proprietary computer products from Microsoft, Apple and other commercial companies. The spread of Linux affords some leverage for these countries when companies from the developed world bid for government contracts (since a low-cost option exists), while furnishing an alternative path to development for countries like India and Pakistan that have many citizens skilled in computer applications but cannot afford technological investment at "First World" prices. Cost is not the only factor being considered, though – many government institutions (public and military) in North America and the European Union make the transition to Linux because of its superior stability and the openness of the source code, which strengthens information security.

Africa In 2007, first National Bank switched more than 12,000 desktop computers to Linux by 2007. In 2009, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) deployed multi-station Linux desktops to address budget and infrastructure constraints in 50 rural sites.

Asia

East The People's Republic of China exclusively uses Linux as the operating system for its Loongson processor family, with the aim of technology independence. Since 2006, Kylin is used by People's Liberation Army in The People's Republic of China. The first version used FreeBSD, but since release 3.0, it uses Linux. As of 2005, State owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is installing Linux in all of its 20,000 retail branches as the basis for its web server and a new terminal platform. Since 2008, North Korea uses a Linux distribution developed by the Korea Computer Center, called Red Star OS, on their computers. Prior to its release, Red Hat Linux or Windows XP were used.

West In 2003, the Turkish government decided to create its own Linux distribution, Pardus, developed by UEKAE (National Research Institute of Electronics and Cryptology). The first version, Pardus 1.0, was officially announced on 27 December 2005.

South In 2002, the Government of Pakistan established a Technology Resource Mobilization Unit to enable groups of professionals to exchange views and coordinate activities in their sectors and to educate users about free software alternatives. Linux is an option for poor countries which have little revenue for public investment; Pakistan is using open-source software in public schools and colleges, and hopes to run all government services on Linux eventually. In 2007, Government of India's CDAC developed an Indian Linux distribution, Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS) GNU/Linux. It is customized to suit Indian's digital environment and supports most Indian languages. In March 2014, with the end of support for Windows XP, the Government of Tamil Nadu, India has advised all its departments to install Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS) Linux. In 2021, the Government of Kerala, India, announced its official support for free/open-source software in its State IT Policy of 2001, which was formulated after the first-ever free software conference in India, "Freedom First!", held in July 2001 in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, where Richard Stallman inaugurated the Free Software Foundation of India. Since then, Kerala's IT Policy has been significantly influenced by FOSS, with several major initiatives such as KITE possibly the largest single-purpose deployment of Linux in the world, and leading to the formation of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) in 2009. In 2023, India's Ministry of Defence will use Ubuntu based Linux distribution Maya OS on all Internet-connected computers.

South-East In 2010, the Philippines fielded an Ubuntu-powered national voting system. In July 2010, Malaysia had switched 703 of the state's 724 agencies to free and open-source software with a Linux-based operating system used. The Chief Secretary to the Government cited, "(the) general acceptance of its promise of better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility and lower cost".

Americas

North

Cuba In 2009, Students from the University of Information Science in Cuba launched its own distribution of Linux called Nova to promote the replacement of Microsoft Windows on civilian and government computers, a project that is now supported by the Cuban Government. In early 2011, the Universidad de Ciencias Informáticas announced that they would migrate more than 8000 PCs to the new operating system.

U.S. In July 2001, the White House started switching whitehouse.gov to an operating system based on Red Hat Linux and using the Apache HTTP Server. The installation was completed in February 2009. In October 2009, the White House servers adopted Drupal, an open-source content management system software distribution. In April 2006, the US Federal Aviation Administration announced that it had completed a migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in one third of the scheduled time and about US$15 million under budget. The switch saved a further US$15 million in datacenter operating costs. By 2007, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) uses Linux - "the U.S. Army is the single largest installed base for Red Hat Linux" and the US Navy nuclear submarine fleet runs on Linux, including their sonar systems. By 2008, the US National Nuclear Security Administration operates the world's tenth fastest supercomputer, the IBM Roadrunner, which uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux along with Fedora as its operating systems. In June 2012, the US Navy signed a US$27,883,883 contract with Raytheon to install Linux ground control software for its fleet of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout drones. The contract involves Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, which has already spent US$5,175,075 in preparation for the Linux systems.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of Linux adopters

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of Linux adopters claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of Linux adopters before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of Linux adopters ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of Linux adopters

In research: List of Linux adopters appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of Linux adopters in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of Linux adopters is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computing-related lists, Linux, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of Linux adopters outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of Linux adopters in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of Linux adopters means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of Linux adopters out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of Linux adopters in simple terms?

This is a list of companies, organizations and individuals who have moved from other operating systems to Linux. On desktops, Linux has not displaced Microsoft Windows to a large degree.

Why does List of Linux adopters matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of Linux adopters?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of Linux adopters.