CASE STUDY ON LUNIX

INTRODUCTION
Operating system is system software, which acts as an
interface between user applications and hardware devices
such as input/output devices, memory, file system, etc. It
schedules both type of tasks, systems and users’, and
provides common core services such as a basic user
interface.
The two major goals of any operating system (OS) are:
• Convenience: It transforms the raw hardware into a
machine that is more accessible to users.
• Efficiency: It efficiently manages the resources of
computer system.
Operating system consists of the following components for
achieving the goals:
• Kernel: The main task of the kernel is to optimize the
usage of the hardware, running the required programs,
satisfying the user’s requirements.
• Application Programming Interface (API): A
collection of rules, which describes how services have
 to be required from the kernel, and how we receive the
answer from it.
• Shell: Its’ task is the interpretation of commands. The
shell can be command line (CLI – Command Line
Interface, such as DOS), or graphic – GUI – interface
(e.g.: Windows)
• Services and Utilities: These supplementary programs
enhance the user’s experience (e.g.: word processors,
translator programs) and are not inseparable parts of
the system.

WHAT IS LINUX?
An operating system is software that manages all of the
hardware resources associated with your desktop or laptop.
To put it simply – the operating system manages the
communication between your software and your hardware.
Without the operating system (often referred to as the “OS”),
the software wouldn’t function.

Components of Linux system

Linux Operating System has primarily three components
• Kernel-Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible
for all major activities of this operating system. It
 consists of various modules and it interacts directly
with the underlying hardware. Kernel provides the
required abstraction to hide low level hardware details
to system or application programs.
• System Library – System libraries are special functions
or programs using which application programs or
system utilities accesses Kernel’s features. These
libraries implement most of the functionalities of the
operating system and do not requires kernel module’s
code access rights.
• System Utility – System Utility programs are
responsible to do specialized, individual level tasks.
Feature of Linux

• Multitasking: Several programs running at the

same time.
• Multi-user: Several users on the same machine at
the same time (and no two-user licenses!).
• Multiplatform: Runs on many different CPUs, not
just Intel.
• Portable – Portability means software can works
on different types of hardware in same way. Linux
kernel and application programs supports their
installation on any kind of hardware platform.
• Open Source – Linux source code is freely
available and it is community based development
project. Multiple teams work in collaboration to
enhance the capability of Linux operating system
and it is continuously evolving.
• Multiprogramming – Linux is a multiprogramming
system means multiple applications can run at
same time.
• Hierarchical File System – Linux provides a
standard file structure in which system files/ user
files are arranged.
• Shell – Linux provides a special interpreter program
which can be used to execute commands of the
operating system. It can be used to do various
types of operations, call application programs.etc.
• Security – Linux provides user security using
authentication features like password protection/
controlled access to specific files/ encryption of
data.
Characteristics of Linux
Linux has several salient characteristic features, some of
the important among them are:
• Multi-user capability: This is a capability of Linux OS
where, the same computer resources– hard disk,
memory, etc. are accessible to multiple users. Of
course, not on a single terminal, they are given different
terminals to operate from. A terminal will consist of at
least a Monitor/VDU, keyboard and mouse as input
devices. All the terminals are then connected to the
main Linux Server or Host Machine, whose resources
and connected peripheral devices such as printer, can
be used. Client/Server Architecture is an example of
multiuser capability of Linux, where different clients are
connected to a Linux server.
• Multitasking: Linux has the ability to handle more than
one job at a time, say for example you have executed a
command for sorting for a huge list and simultaneously
typing in a notepad. This is managed by dividing the
CPU time intelligently by the implementation of
scheduling policies and the concept of context
switching.
 • Portability: Portability was the one of the main features
that made Linux so popular among the users, but
portability doesn’t mean that it is smaller in file size and
can be carried on pen drive, CDs and memory cards.
• Security: Security is a very important part of any OS, for
the organizations/ user who is using the system for their
confidential works, Linux does provide several security
concepts for protecting their users from unauthorized
access of their data and system.
Linux provide three main security concepts:
• Authentication: This simply implies claiming the
person whom you are by assigning passwords and login
names to individual users, ensuring that nobody can
gain access to their work.
• Authorization: At the file level, Linux has authorization
limits to users. There are read, write and execute
permissions for each file which decide who can access
a particular file, who can modify it and who can execute
it.
• Encryption: This feature encodes your files into an
unreadable format that is also known as “cyphertext”,
so that even if someone succeeds in opening it your
secrets will be safe