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From UNIX to Linux - variant Operating Systems

Most UNIX operating systems are a complete operating system with the code, applications, and utilities provided by a single source or vendor; there is a commercial license with contractual requirements, charges, and restrictions. There are indications that changes may be occurring with the UNIX software model. The Open Group manages the UNIX trademark licensing program.

A significant portion of business application workloads are being migrated from UNIX and MS Windows to Linux. The increase in the deployment and use of the Linux operating system is driven by information technology demographics: data center scalability, distributed processing, mobile devices, cloud computing, Big Data, and open source projects. Free open source and commercial subscriptions of Linux-variant operating systems provide cost control and flexibility in long term planning.

The GNU/Linux is a UNIX-like operating system used on a wide range of devices from supercomputers, IBM mainframe, servers, desktop workstations, tablet PCs to smartphones. The Linux kernel is available under an open source license. Functional specialization is occurring with the Linux-variants: base operating system platform for database, web servers, middleware, backoffice operations, internetworking with Microsoft domain models, integration with IBM mainframe systems, mobile computing, and IOT: Internet of Things.

The Linux community and leading software companies continue to develop the enterprise-class capabilities of Linux. There have been a number of advancements in technology by hardware manufacturers - Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, and Oracle, and cost-driven information technology services being marketed which use open source Linux deployments: 1- Google Android, Amazon, HTC, and Samsung 2- HP webOS and LG. 3- Tizen. Additional Linux-variant mobile operating systems are being brought to market include: Mozilla FireFox - smartphones and Jolla Sailfish - mobile device operating system platform. Facebook and Twitter social media and data center operations also are invested in Linux.

Public cloud services are being built using Linux in conjunction with other open source software. The use of Linux with mainframe systems and IBM Power provides an additional virtualized deployment platform.

Android	Centos	Debian
	Gentoo
	Red Hat / IBM
	Ubuntu

The Linux Foundation is a non-profit organization which standardizes the Linux operating system to promote its growth and commercial adoption. It is supported by the leading hardware and software companies for contributing and collaborating with the developer community to improve Linux operations and client software services.

Linux Foundation projects and initiatives include:

Cloud Native Computing Foundation
Tasked with creating and driving adoption of a new set of common container technologies. Cloud native refers to applications or services that use containers and microservices that are dynamically scheduled.

Hyperledger Consortium
Its goal is to create standards for promoting blockchain technology use.

Acumos AI: Artificial Intelligence Project
Is a platform and open source framework for building, sharing, and deploying AI applications. It standardizes the infrastructure stack and components required to run an out-of-box AI environment.

ODPi: Open Data Platform Initiatives
ODPi provides cross-compatibility between different distributions of Hadoop and Big Data technologies. ODPi Core is not a distribution; it is an industry standard deployment model which specifies how Apache components should be installed and configured and provides a set of tests for validation.

SYS-ED downloads the software; our staff prototypes and analyzes its use. The SYS-ED training service has been expanded to provide courseware and documentation services for many UNIX- and Linux-variant operating systems.

Footnote 1:

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