Ep 10: Why servers run Linux

Episode 10 of 448 · Concept

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In one sentence: most servers run Linux because it’s free, stable and light, and almost every DevOps tool is built for it.

Three reasons

1. Free and open source: no license fee whether you run 1 server or 10,000, and anyone can read and fix the code.
2. Stable: Linux servers commonly run for months without a restart.
3. Light: no desktop or graphics needed, so more memory and CPU go to your apps.

And for DevOps specifically

• Everything can be done by typing commands, so everything can be scripted and automated.
• Containers are Linux: Docker and Kubernetes are built on Linux kernel features.
• The cloud’s default images are Linux.

That’s why LoopNotes will live on a Linux server, and why the next weeks of this course are about Linux.

Which Linux?

Linux comes in “distributions”: Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Amazon Linux and more. They share the same core. We use Ubuntu in this course because it’s the most common for beginners and on cloud servers.