Linux will (a) provide the login screen, (b) manage file storage, and (c) provide the platform on which other software - like spreadsheet or word processing solutions - run.Īn engineer named Linus Torvalds released the Linux kernel - the most basic part of the operating system, if you will - in October 1991. It will be the first thing a user sees when a computer - running on Linux - is turned on. The dependency on Office has also prevented some businesses from considering alternatives to the popular Microsoft Windows operating system or Apple’s Mac OS X, both of which are proprietary, relatively bulky - in terms of memory and storage requirements - and potentially more expensive than Ubuntu Linux, an emerging, open-source, and often free operating system that may be more suitable for some small businesses. Maintaining spreadsheets, composing business documents, or even building slide-style presentations are a mainstay of modern business, including small and mid-sized online retail operations that often depend on the Microsoft Office suite to compete these tasks.
