If you are looking for an OS to install on your next server, you need to take a look at what operating system most companies deploy on their data center infrastructure.
Over 70% of the servers that are live on the internet in 2019 run on an operating system from the Linux/Unix family, making it by far the dominant market player.
There are a lot of reasons why Linux is the perfect OS for enterprise servers, but we will list the most essential ones that give it an advantage over other operating systems:
1. Flexibility
The Linux kernel on which most distributions are built is open source, meaning it is free to copy, use, modify and distribute under the GNU General Public License. This means you have increased flexibility compared to other enterprise operating systems such as Unix or Windows, allowing you to modify the kernel to suit your needs and the software array needed to run on your dedicated server.
2. Security
Because you have access to read and modify the entire Linux source code, you can review and remove any code that can be considered high risk for your business, give permission to access important files and run administrative commands only to trusted users, increasing security through lack of breaches. Also, there are a wide variety of security tools created for Linux that are easy to install and configure for your own projects, such as firewalls, vulnerability scanners, virus scanners, and network intrusion prevention and detection system that help you detect and fix any vulnerability left unnoticed on your dedicated server.
3. Performance
At its core, Linux only requires minimal resources to run the operating system kernel, allowing you to remove unnecessary software and allocate hardware resources to your required app, giving you the required boost and enhanced productivity without the need to upgrade the hardware to get the same performance, such as on a Windows Enterprise server that sometimes takes up to 30% of the hardware resources just to run the OS.
On the other hand, native apps running on Linux benefit from enhanced performance, Linux being app-centric and having hardware support from companies such as Intel and IBM.
4. Cost
Linux is and it will always be free. It is true that some Linux distributions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux require a yearly fee to be paid in order to be used, but you can always use CentOS, which is the free version of Red Hat. For most software that is paid on Linux, you can also find a free version, released by the same software developer. The reason behind it is that the paid version includes in-built customer support for any bug, error or compatibility issue that you might encounter, directly from the software producing company, which in an enterprise environment is better than hiring and training an employee to become an expert on specific software.
5. Community Support
Speaking of software support, the Linux kernel consists of over 20 million lines of codes written by more than 14,000 programmers. The Linux community is the biggest software development group on the Internet today, and you can read or ask for help when you encounter an issue, from a large group of people.
Thus being said, Linux is the gold standard when talking about enterprise operating systems and its usage will only grow with time to become better, bigger and more versatile.