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Linux

GROUP SWOT ANALYSIS


MATTHEW MAY (GROUP MEMBER NAMES REMOVED FOR CONFIDENTIALITY)

SPRING 2015

Being Information Technology students, we decided to choose a piece of software for our
SWOT analysis project. Linux is a free and open source operating system that was originally cocreated by Richard Stallman and Linus Torvald. Linux is based on the UNIX operating system
that AT&T Bell Labs released commercially in 1972. UNIX was written in C, which is the
primary reason that it became so popular. Prior to UNIX, operating systems were usually written
to be hardware specific, but because it was written in C rather than one of the other commonly
used assembly languages at the time, it was able to be portable to more hardware and platforms.
UNIX revolutionized computing in the 70s and for over a decade computer enthusiasts around
the world used it religiously, but technology is constantly advancing and in 1984 Richard
Stallman thought that it was about time that computer users were freed from the bonds of
corporate computing.
The problem was that although UNIX was great, the source code was not made public to
enthusiasts and for technology to advance, knowledge has to be shared so that people arent
forced to reinvent the wheel by making their own operating systems from scratch. He began the
GNU project, GNU standing for Not Unix. This project was meant to evolve into an operating
system that would revolutionize the way that consumers were able to enjoy technology. He
intended for it to forever be free and open source. When people say free it is not unreasonable for
others to misunderstand and assume that the saying refers to the monetary value of the software,
but that is not the case. Until this point in time computer enthusiasts were still tied to
corporations because they were forced to use software that others had written and had not shared
the source code. In a world where software is only produced by big corporations, users have to
install the software that the big businesses tell them to in order to accomplish what they want to
accomplish. In other words, the user is controlled and limited by the software rather than the

software being controlled by and limitless to the user. Technology and knowledge should be
limitless and for the last 35 years there has been an exponentially growing population of
computer enthusiasts who are advocates for Free Software.
Richard Stallman did in fact complete the vast majority of his project, but as he was
nearing the light at the end of the tunnel he ran into a dead end and was left with one small piece
of the puzzle missing. The kernel of an operating system is the fundamental part that is required
for it to run. An operating system can have all the bells and whistles imaginable, but without the
kernel it will not run and for a long time the GNU project sat unfinished. In 1991 Linus Torvald
wrote a kernel as a student project and combined it with GNU and other tools to make Linux.
Strengths/Opportunities
The absolute greatest Linux strength is that the vast majority of software written for it is
general public license and copyleft, so the source is available, can be altered, and can be
redistributed for money, but the license can never be changed. Distro is an abbreviation for
distribution, or a version of Linux. Most Linux distros are free but if someone buys a Linux
distro that costs money, they can analyze the source code, make their own altercations, and resell
the OS image to the public for others to use, or they can redistribute it for free which is what the
majority of Linux developers do because most of them are hobbyists and whole heartedly believe
that software should be shared. Another of Linuxs shining features is one that we have already
touched on but must emphasize because it is one of the most important aspects of the software
and one of the most important debate topics in the campaign for Free Software.
In todays world everything is being virtualized and the field of technology is
exponentially expanding. This expansion is fuelled by money and big corporations like
Microsoft and Google are dumping billions into the development of software and hardware that

people all over the world aimlessly use. Security is a massive issue and while the media
constantly spews garbage into the ears of the public about how data is not being secured
effectively and privacy is vulnerable because systems have been misconfigured, the fact of the
matter is that privacy is being imposed on more by companies who sell the software than by
hackers or crackers. Yes, obviously there are crackers out there who steal personal
information and use it maliciously but people need to realize that todays youth is adopting this
1984 mentality and have no problem binding their lives to Microsoft, Google, and Apple.
Everywhere you look you can see computers running on software written by one of these
companies and dont doubt for a second that each and every one of them has access to the
personal information of anyone who uses a device that they manufactured. These companies
deliberately write bugs and universal backdoors into the software that they sell and they
collaborate with government organizations like the NSA. Big brother is watching and if
computer users want to truly be free then they need to push for and support Free Software like
Linux. Furthermore, proprietary software is more vulnerable to exploitation because it doesnt
have the massive community of developers behind it. Companies have far fewer engineers than
the Linux community does so when software is released for Linux, developers are free to view
the source code and can fix bugs that could be exploited much more quickly than the few
engineers that a company will assign to a problem.
Before we move on to discussing the weaknesses associated with Linux we feel that we
need to mention one more strength associated with this operating system. Although the vast
majority of personal computing is done on machines powered by Microsoft or Apple, the
majority of the data on the web is actually computed by Linux systems. Thanks to the portability
and versatility of Linux, it powers over 95% of the worlds supercomputers, as well as every

mainframe and the majority of servers sharing data online. The brilliant hierarchical file design
makes the operating system quite transparent and this appeals highly to system administrators.
Weaknesses/Threats
Now that we have discussed what makes Linux so great, we are going to touch on some
weaknesses that it does have. With great freedom comes great responsibility, and where Linux
shines with its freedom and portability, other operating systems shine by appealing to the
common user. Obviously one of the greatest selling points for Microsoft and Apple are that they
are user friendly because software companies know their market and design software to meet the
demands of the population.
Although Linux is simpler than most proprietary software in retrospect, automation on
Linux systems is not nearly as intuitive as it can be on a Mac or a Windows machine. Apple and
Microsoft make it easy for the common user to click update or even configure their machines to
automatically install updates when and where they are needed. On a Linux system one must
understand how various package managers operate and often the only solution to updating and
patching software on a Linux machine involves visiting the site that published the software,
downloading the latest versions, and pointing programs that wish to use them to the correct path.
For example, if one wishes to install Java on a Windows machine they must simply search for
the download link on Google, download the executable file, run it, and then use the GUI
(Graphical User Interface) to install the software. After installation it is usually fairly easy to
update because the machines are designed to tell you when something is out of date. On a Linux
machine an administrator must download the necessary software and edit system configuration
text files to assign the correct file names and paths to achieve functionality. When the software is
outdated the administrator must be aware and update it manually, system (kernel) updates

however can be automated and can be executed simply by running update && upgrade from a
terminal. On the other hand, Linux developers are creating more intuitive software each and
every day and thanks to package managers these issues are being resolved. For reference,
package managers are programs that assist administrators by simplifying the installation of
software.
Our group is made up of students who plan on becoming experts in various branches of
technology and we feel that learning how to use the Linux operating system is important. We
feel that the strengths and opportunities offered through the use of the Linux operating system
outweigh the weaknesses and threats by an extremely large margin and our analysis and
information presented in this essay supports how we feel. Hopefully consumers will soon realize
that their privacy is being imposed upon and that if they want to truly be free, they must take a
new approach to computing. We hope that understanding this software will make us more
marketable to potential employers in the field of IT and we hope that our analysis of this
software has shed some light on the subject for those reading.

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