The Linux Machine
12 Jun 2009You may be trusting Linux and not even know it. You've used it, wether you know it or not. You may play your music on it, you may answer your phone with it. You may watch TV on it.
You may or may not know that many storage vendors use Linux under the hood.
"If you look at some of the guys who are doing storage right now, even the proprietary guys, you will find that the vast majority of them are actually using Linux as the base for their storage offerings," he said. "And the reason they're doing that is because there is all this stuff in place, based on the Linux kernel, and these big name vendors — IBM, NEC, Oracle with its BTRFS file system, Sun Microsystems with OpenSolaris — have a vested interest in making sure that their products continue to work in those enterprises. So they've completely changed their philosophy.
"They're, like, if you can't beat them, then join them."
If there was any doubt about the real utility of Linux the fact that it runs on such a wide array of hardware in so many different applications. From phones to servers, storage and everything in-between. You search with it, you shop with it, you connect with it, and you get your news with it. Maybe it tells you what to do or where to go. If these examples seem trivial, how about the New York Stock Exchange?
It's cheaper, faster, and ready to do whatever you need it to do. If it doesn't do what you need it to do, you are free to modify it so that it does do what you need it to do. Wether or not you think this means Linux operates in the margins simply because it is less visible it is clear that Linux does a tremendous amount of work for a tremendously diverse set of businesses.