Linux supports multitasking (running several programs at once),
multiuser (several users on the same machine at the same time),
multiplatform (being able to run on many platforms...not just Intel or Alpha),
multiprocessor (Intel and Sparc versions).
It has memory protection between processes, so that it is a very hard thing to make it
crash.
It can be used with other operating systems on the same machine.
It can run MS-DOS, 16 bit Windoze applications with the help of some emulators.
It uses memory more efficient.
It supports shared copy-on-write pages among executables.
This means that multiple processes can use the same memory to run in.
Linux has virtual memory using paging (not swapping whole processes)
to disk: to a separate partition or a file in the filesystem, or
both, with the possibility of adding more swapping areas during runtime.
Theoretical Linux supports 2 GB of useable swap space.
All free memory can be used for caching,
and the cache can be reduced when running large programs.
All source code is available, including the whole kernel and all drivers,
the development tools and all user programs; also, all of IT IS FREELY DISRIBUTABLE
Plenty of commercial programs are being provided for Linux without source, but everything
that has been free, including the entire base operating system, is still free.
There are multiple virtual consoles: This means you can have several
independent login sessions through the console. You switch by pressing a hot-key
combination.
It supports several common filesystems , including Minix, Xenix, and all the common System V
filesystems, and has an advanced filesystem of its own, which offers filesystems of up to
4 TB, and names up to 255 characters long.
Access to MS-DOS partitions (or OS/2 FAT partitions) via a special filesystem:
you don't need any special commands to use the MS-DOS partition, it looks just like a
normal Unix filesystem (except for funny restrictions on filenames, permissions,
and so on). MS-DOS 6 compressed partitions do not work at this time without a patch
(dmsdosfs). VFAT (WNT, Windows 95) support is available in Linux 2.0
It also supports HPFS (OS/2 2.1), HFS (Macintosh) filesystems.
It supports TCP/IP networking, Appletalk server, Netware client and server, Lan Manager
(SMB) client and server.This means that it can communicate with other operating systems
on the same network.
AX.25, X.25, IPX, DDP (Appletalk), NetBEUI, Netrom etc... support. Stable network
protocols included in the stable kernels currently include TCP, IPv4, IPX, DDP, and AX.25.
