LINUX RUNS EVERYTHING

Developing software for supercomputers is expensive. During the 1980s, Cray was spending as much on software development as it was on its hardware. In a trend that would only grow, Cray initially shifted to UNIX System V, then a BSD-based OS, and eventually, in 2004, SUSE Linux to power its supercomputers. This was matched across the sector, and the top 500 supercomputers (www.top500.org) now all run Linux.

Internet services have also all been developed to run on Unix systems. Microsoft and BSD systems do retain a good slice of services, but over 50 per cent of web servers are powered by Linux. Recent moves to virtual services with container-based deployment are all Linux-based. Microsoft’s cloud service Azure reports that Linux is its largest deployment OS and, more to the point, Google uses Linux to power most of its services, as do many other service suppliers aka AWS.

Android’s mobile OS share dropped in 2020 to just 84 per cent – it’s powered by Linux. Google bought the startup that was developing Android in 2005. LineageOS (https://lineageos.org) is a well-maintained fork of Android and supports most popular handsets well after their manufacturers abandon them.

Space was thought to be Linux’s final frontier, because it’s not a certified deterministic OS, which is the gold standard for real-time OSes in missioncritical situations. Turns out that SpaceX rockets use Linux to power their flight systems, using a triple-redundancy system, while NASA has sent Linux to Mars in its helicopter drone, Ingenuity. Tesla is also reportedly running Linux in its cars.

Linux has also been at the heart of Hollywood’s special effects since 1997’s Titanic used a Linux server farm of DEC Alphas at Digital Domain to create its CGI. DreamWorks’ Shrek in 2001 was the first film that was entirely created on Linux systems. Meanwhile, Pixar ported its Renderman system to Linux from SGI and Sun servers around 2000, in time to produce Finding Nemo in 2003.