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Linux is naturally geared towards being a server. It is based of the UNIX operating system which is the standard for server operating systems. By design, UNIX was meant to have multiple users sign in over a network and run applications remotely. Linux inheirited all of this from UNIX. There are also very solid GNU software packages, such as Apache Web Server and Samba networking protocol that make Linux a powerful server platform. Linux's strict permissions structure also makes it very difficult for a hacker to break into a web server and cause damage.
As we have discussed ealier, the GNU Project was started by Richard Stallman. Under the GNU license Linux and its software are open source and free. Free means much more than just not having to pay for it. Under the GNU license free means users are free to download, compile, install, use, share, modify, and redistribute software and its source code. The only catch is that any modified code must also abide by the GNU license. The GNU license promotes software progress. Open source code allows programmers who have found a bug in a program's operation to download the code and fix it so that it does what the it should. This takes a lot of the workload off of the programmers who develop the software and allows them to focus on advancing their software rather than nitpicking all the small bugs in it. Open souce code also promotes programming efficiency. Programmers do not need to write a module for something if someone else in the GNU community already has. The programmer can use the other's code in his program and not have to waste his time creating his own code to accomplish the same thing. The GNU license is a powerful asset of Linux that allows for complex software to be created and still be offered for free. Often times this GNU software is better than or even exceeds their closed source counterparts which are usually expensive.
Linux inheirits its stabilty from UNIX much the same way it does it server abilites. Bell Labs designed UNIX to run servers so if it was not stable, nobody would buy it. UNIX is a very expensive operating system. Linux offers much of the same stability for free. Another reason for Linux's stability has less to do with Linux itself and more to do with the computing world. Because it is not very poplular there are very few viruses and worms written to attack Linux. Linux anti-virus programs can easily handle these threats.
Linux is one of the only operating systems that is available on many different hardware platforms, giving users a different operating system choice if they do not like the common one. Linux distros are available for Apple's PowerPC architecture. This gives people who use Macintosh computers a different choice if they do not like Mac OS 10 or 9.x. It is also available for the Intel x86 architecture (regular PCs) if users do not wish to use Microsoft Windows. It is even available for the Sun Sparc Station for users who opt not to use Sun's operating system.
Customizable GUI
A GUI or graphical user interface is a user interface based on graphics (icons, menus, windows, etc) that uses lots of input devices such as the keyboard, mouse, microphone, and others. A GUI allows users to interact with hardware, run programs, and navigate the file structure in a simple, easy to use interface. Linux's GUI variety is one of the most rewarding and most difficult to learn aspects of linux. Windows XP offers a single GUI with only two basic looks. Linux has a great number of GUIs though there is a growing trend towards two man GUIs, GNOME and K Desktop Environment or KDE. Linux GUIs, especially KDE, are easily customized to look like other things. For example a Linux user can change his GUI to look like Mac OS X or to look like Windows 98. The GUIs usually come with several different looks, but users are free to download and install their own if they don't like the packaged ones. This customizability is one of the major draws to Linux.