help on linux
 

I am doing a school project and need to know about Linux. The question reeds "How succesful has Linux been thus far? Where is it used and who is using it?" If you can answer the question please help. Or if you now a good web page please tell me.

Linux
 

> "How succesful has Linux been thus far?

That's almost a trolling question. It really depends on how you gage success, and who you ask.

As an Internet or intranet server, I wouldn't bother to use anything else. Linux looses the war on the Desktop, even though it has come a very long way in a very short period of time. To me, Linux isn't about success, in a monetary way, Linux is about necessity, we need a better, stronger, faster, more versatile server and an option other that the dominant Microsoft, if only to keep M$ on their toes.

> Where is it used and who is using it?"

I have replaced the majority of NT functions with my Linux boxen. Mail servers, that don't crash. Network storage devices that don't keep loosing connection and crashing, but connect Windows workstations to each other. Good, highly secure WWW servers, that run for months without crashing. Internet gateways and network routers is a great use, and only require an old PC that probably would not even run WinNT4 or Win2K. You may even have one sitting around in the basement or garage, or holding that door open. Chances are, if it's an i386 or better, and it turns on, it can be turned into a gateway or router.

Other uses for Linux may include, but not limited to, high availabilty servers for things like Web and Mail servers, database servers, or Telephony devices. Also, development systems, juke boxes, even workstations.

For a long list of Linux uses, try http://freshmeat.net
http://sourceforge.net

http://www.netcraft.com has some stats about Linux growth in the web server market.

Do a search on google for Linux growth or Linux usage or Linux successes.

KevinJ

I think last time I read, its about 30% of the web is Linux now, or runs on Linux. With about 60% using Apache as their web server.

KevinJ's recommendation of netcraft.com is a good source for that.

Its also good for clustering, making a supercomputer out of many Linux boxes acting as one computer to do super stuff I would say saving millions of dollars in that by not buying a million dollar computer. You can do a search on clustering I am sure.

You might also want to look at the Linux counter project at http://counter.li.org/ - just remember that there are lot more people who aren't registered that those who are.

HTH

Jamie...

Duh... supercomputing. How could I forget that. One of my customers has a 1500 node Alpha Linux supercomputing cluster. (Its somewhere in the same building with the 20 node cluster that I help support)
;)