What is Linux

Linux is a common name for a group of operating systems called distributions, that share a kernel (the core of the operating system) called Linux. Some well known distributions are Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, CentOS/Rocky, Suse, etc. They all bundle the Linux kernel together with a lot of other applications in a software distribution you can install on a computer. Every distribution has it’s own philosophy and it’s own pro’s and cons. Most of them are free, some like Red Hat Enterprise Linux, are paid software that includes support from the supplier.

Besides an operating system, when we talk about Linux, we talk about the ecosystem around it. Linux is usually used with a lot of other software that surrounds it, and is associated with certain best practices and methods unique for this ecosystem. Linux systems are know for their high stability, simple maintenance (for the skilled administrator) and ofter low costs, usually free to use.

Open source applications

There’s a large number of open source applications in use in nearly all large corporation over the globe, that are free from licences and have become a standard tool in the sysadmin’s toolbox, to easily and quickly solve common issues in organisation. Often this software is more widely used, tested better, safer, and cheaper than the commercial alternatives.

Free from paid licences

Used software that doesn’t use paid licenses not only saves (a lot) of money from direct costs of licensing, but also saves a lot of time spent on administration. Although Microsoft Windows nowadays is quite a stable and mature ecosystem, every server needs to be licences per core, and every user or devices that accesses a service in this Windows machine needs a client access license. If you want to expose services to the internet with anonymous users, you need an external service connector, there’s stuff that is in your Office365 licenses and stuff that isn’t, and then there’s different licensing programs like SPLA with their own rulebook in case you want to sell a platform to a client. In short, it’s complicated, and understanding licensing and keeping up to date is a lot of work.

If you use software that is free from paid licensing, you can stop counting users and devices, you can stop managing contracts with suppliers, go through procurement, waiting for public tenders to run, etc. You can just go ahead and roll out your servers and applications, which a skilled administrator can do in a few minutes.

Administrators

In the Linux ecosystem there’s a running gag where we’re talking about the ‘click-admin’, a systems administrator that usually manages Windows servers and keeps a checklist of what buttons to click on in which order, and that lives by the credo ‘next, next, finish’. This work is hard to scale, because if you need to deploy more machines, you need to click more often, and might need more admins. And besides, manually repeating tasks is error-prone. On the other hand, there’s the highly skilled Linux admin or DevOps engineer. They cost a lot more money, but they will write some code, to automatically deploy a few hundred servers and applications in a blink of an eye, using principles such as ‘infrastructure as code’, version control, etc. Depending on the organisation, they benefits of the skilled Linux administrator can easily outweigh the extra costs.

Installing and maintaining applications

Modern applications are increasingly being delivered as containers, using the ‘cloud native’ philosophy. But these all run in the Linux ecosystem. Whether applications run on-prem or in the cloud, on ‘bare metal’, in virtual machines, docker containers or in a Kubernetes cluster, they need to run well. Applications need proper maintenance, which also means the underlying platforms need regular maintenance, security patches need to be installed, operating systems need to be upgraded, certificated need to be renewed, ‘secrets’ need to be rotated, etc. This all has to happen in a secure and controller manner, with as little as possible negative impact on the business.

Caribbean Linux Support

Caribbean Linux Support employs Linux engineers that can take care of all these subject. We can help you find a solution to your problem, make a design, implement the solution, maintain it, keep everything up to date, and make sure everything keeps running smoothly, ensuring your business does so as well.