To understand the concept, you should think of free speech, not free beer”(Open Source). Ever since its inception, the core belief of Linux is that it should always be free for anyone to use. This has been driving many to use it for normal and abnormal usage. Linux has been a top choice for corporations, government agencies, and other groups that want to cut spending without cutting performance. One of the fast growing fields that benefits from free software like Linux is the super computing field. According to SUSE, one of the largest enterprise class server operating systems, the driving force behind the rise of super computing is due to the reduced cost and reliability brought by …show more content…
A six billion dollar project is in production by Mars One that seeks to put humans on mars by the year 2025. The task requires thousands to complete the preparations, facing many issues such as radiation, food, water, and oxygenation. The project chose Linux, Ubuntu specifically, to run systems for the colony. The founder Bas Lansdorp cites the well known reliability and stability of the system, saying he is in favor of the system to colonize mars(Banerjee). Mars One is not the only one to take Linux into space, NASA has switched to Linux for its International Space Station Operations. The space agency has dozens of laptops that they plan to convert to Debian 6, these will be joining the other systems onboard that already run the operating system. The agency uses specialized a specialized variety of Linux known as Scientific Linux for some of its operations. The United Space Alliance, in charge of managing computers at NASA, choose Linux because “we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable”(Sebastian). Performance is not the only reason to make the switch, in 2008 a Russian astronaut brought on board a malware infected Windows laptop that quickly infected the rest of the machines on board. Due to the sensitive activities of the astronauts on board, the decision to switch to Linux also had the benefit of protecting against most virus infections. NASA is not the only scientific organization to