Linux Journal: A Look at Linux Capabilities

“This week, I want to take a look at some features of the Linux
operating system which make it stand out from what you find in the
basic offerings from Microsoft. If you have a UNIX background,
these features will be expected.”

“First, Linux is a preemptive multi-tasking operating
system. Let me explain this in two parts. First, multi-tasking
means that the operating system can perform more than one job at
once. Or, more accurately, appear to perform more than one job at
once. If your computer only has a single CPU then it really
can only do one task at a time. What the Linux kernel does is
schedules tasks based on a priority scheme and switches between
them so that it appears all the tasks are running at once.”

“Why would you want to do this? Let’s say you are using a text
editor to edit a document. You might want to grab a web page with
your browser or upload a data file to another system while you are
working interactively with the editor. To Linux, this is just a
simple job of switching between running your text editor and the
file transfer program or browser as needed.”

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