30 Big Companies and Devices Running on GNU/Linux

Linux is a most popular Operating System compared to Windows and Mac. Linux is everywhere even at those places where most of us have not even thought. Tiny machines to Gaint Supercomputers are powered by Linux. Linux no more remains a Geeky thing.

Companies Running on Linux
30 Companies and Devices running on Linux

Here in this article we would be discussing some of those Linux powered devices and company running them.

1. Google

Google, an American based multinational company, the services of which includes search, cloud computing and online advertising technologies runs on Linux.

2. Twitter

Twitter, famous online social networking and micro-blogging site that is Powered by nix.

3. Facebook

Facebook, one of the most famous and most widely used Social Networking service runs on the same platform.

4. Amazon

An American based international company which deals with International Online Retailing is in the list of Linux powered Company.

5. IBM

IBM (International Business Machine Corporation) the American based company which for sure don’t requires any introduction, is again powered by nix.

6. McDonalds

The world’s largest chain of hamburger fast foot restaurant uses GNU/Linux (Ubuntu) too.

7. Submarines

The submarines in the United State Navy are controlled by same platform.

8. NASA

National Aeronautical and Space Administration, The United nation’s Space program widely uses Linux in many of their programmes.

9. Watches

Most of you would not be knowing that there are Linux Powered Watches in the market, already. The watch developed by IBM running Linux.

10. Mobile Devices

True, you all know that Linux is powering Mobile Phones, Tablets and Kindle. If the news is true, Nokia is all set to come with its First Android based Mobile (Though the decision of Nokia is too late and Nokia has paid for this and still paying).

11. Space

A Specific Linux Distro (Debian) is already in the space. Debian led all the rest.

12. Raspberry pi

The business card sized computer designed for electronic projects as well as desktop computing which is very cheap in cost and is fully functional. Raspberry is a landmark in Linux Development.

13. Desktop Computing

Though a little late, Linux made a notable presence in the desktop computing market. In school and academics as well as in government offices Linux are being widely used, these days.

14. Corporates

The corporate offices are using Linux and finds it more productive than any other alternatives.

15. New York Stock Exchange

New York Stock Exchange (NYSC) which provides means for buyers and sellers in order to trade shares of stock in companies registered for public trading relies solely on Linux.

16. Traffic Controlling

The Traffic controlling system in most of the countries be it Road Traffic or Air Traffic Linux proved to be the best than any other available alternative.

17. Nuclear Projects

When it comes to Nuclear Ambitious projects, Linux is the best option. One of such OS is QNX, which lately is acquired by Blackberry Ltd.

18. Bullet Trains

The Bullet Trains in Japan runs at the speed of 240-320 km/h. All train tracking, maintenance, scheduling and controlling is Linux based.

19. Tianhe-2

The fastest Supercomputer of the world, China’s Tianhe-2, which is capable of performing 33.86 petaflops operations per second is running Kylinos, a Linux based Operating System.

20. Internet Hosting

More than 70% of Internet Hosting and service providers are Linux based. Thought this statistic is difficult to figure out but based upon the Linux compatible hardware sold, and demand for cross platform compatible hardware, the above statistics is a rough estimation.

21. Missiles and Weapons

The Missiles and destructive weapons of next generation is themed to be much advanced and Intelligent system than its predecessors. Well what else would have been its alternative.

22. Hackers

Hackers be it ethical or non-ethical prefers Linux over any other Platform. The availability of a variety of tools, the architecture, the security, the technique to handle things intelligently and control everything to the point required makes it perfect choice for Hackers.

23. Other Industries

The Wikipedia, PIZZA Hut, Aviation industry, Parliaments of countries like France are using Linux. When it comes to work in distributed system, multi-user supported system, the only thing that comes to mind is the Nix.

The OLX and Just dial have their user base just because of Linux. The service providers relied on Linux for developing Application that has a huge database and act as local google and Amazon.

24. Postal Services

The US Postal Services and banking sector of most of the countries are using Linux. Well USA uses Linux not only as mission critical application, but have tried building their system around. The use of nix in US Postal Service is a brilliant Example.

25. Education

Schools, colleges and Universities in Russia, Germany, Philippines, Georgia, Switzerland, Italy, India specially Tamil Nadu are using Linux even for basic computer education.

The availability of specific Linux distro for every task makes Linux the most sought after platform. Edubuntu is a distro specially developed for computer LABS from educational point of view. (At my time RedHat was used for educational purpose, when I was pursuing my major in Computer Application.)

26. Movies

For those who think Linux is not for Graphical editing we need to mention that Oscar winning Titanic and Avatar were Edited and Graphics were created using Linux only. Moreover the video cameras these days are Linux centred.

28. Networking

Cisco, the networking and routing gaint are completely Linux Based. Real-Time Communication and Integration Solutions providing company finds Linux best suited to their Application Development and Delivery.

29. Cars

Recently, cars developed around Linux was exhibited. Making cars more intelligent which can work in odd situations, nix is the best choice.

30. Future of ROBOTICS

Again an intelligent critical application, which should work in odd situations and act accordingly, specially when robotics is supposed to be tied with army and security and there remains no place for any flaws, Linux and Only Linux………

Actually the list is ever growing. That’s all for now. I’ll be here again with an interesting article soon. Till then stay tuned and connected. Give your valuable feedback in comment section.

Avishek
A Passionate GNU/Linux Enthusiast and Software Developer with over a decade in the field of Linux and Open Source technologies.

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28 thoughts on “30 Big Companies and Devices Running on GNU/Linux”

  1. Hi, I have a doubt! which is more used in the world? Linus based servers or Microsoft based servers! Europe mainly what type are used!!

    Reply
  2. Linux is in Chrome OS, parts of Android and is the most popular server system on the planet. But the real lacking market for Linux is still the desktop PC. Mainly because Linux has some real issues trying to work with all the hardware out there.

    Many hardware makers never bother to make drivers for Linux and so you have some reverse engineering going on to get some hardware to work on Linux. Also many users are rather used to certain apps like Microsoft Office, iTunes, music streaming services, gaming, business or educational requirements, printer support and so on.

    Most people when they go to buy a PC will be given a choice between Windows, Mac’s or Chrombooks. You really have to either replace the native OS with Linux or you’ll be faced with limited choices in models. Dell, HP, System 76 are good places to look for Linux installed computers.

    My biggest complaints of Linux are reduced battery life, wifi issues, poor graphic hardware support, limited gaming support, not a lot of good OS support other than forums and self help.

    Reply
    • “Many hardware makers never bother to make drivers for Linux and so you have some reverse engineering going on to get some hardware to work on Linux.”

      The main issue is that some hardware makers only give out proprietary drivers. If you look at manufacturers like Intel that made their drivers open and let the open source community handle the development for them. The open source community always outdo themselves, and Linux runs wonderfully on Intel hardware.

      Reply
    • As a gamer I had preordered GTX 1080 and the card worked as expected from I plugged it in. I don’t know what reverse engineering even is so i guess I’ve never done any of that. The proprietary driver does not come prebaked so I had to download that, but no big deal as I am used to the driver-hell on Windows.

      I agree that it would be nice if all games had Linux support, but come on… we had practically NO games just a couple of years ago, now we have about 3000 games at steam! There is no f* way I will be able to play them all.

      There are so many games for Linux popping up on almost a daily basis that I want to pick up, but that would both ruin me and I would not have time to play them all. From my experience games on Linux is only a possible issue if you specifically want to play something that is windows-only, but do you apply that same critique to consoles and the many exclusive releases? I think not, because then you are so focused on those games you actually do have.

      That’s how I treat Linux. I don’t really have time to focus on what i don’t have, and to be honest I don’t really care because I get so much fun from what I do have! Gaming on Linux have been awesome so far and when looking at all the great news I see coming to Linux, I’m now sure that Linux is my new home. Happy Holidays!

      Reply
  3. As a sysadmin working and certified at an expert level in both windows and virtualization I try to stay away from Linux as much as possible (unfortunately hypervisors and networking devices require me touching it). Simple operations are overly complex to configure (yes I know how to use linux, trust me I tried to like it), a problem that exists in both windows and Linux could take double or even triple the amount of time to solve in Linux and honestly I would rather put my efforts into something else than the never ending time suck that is Linux (you would understand if dealing with these systems in an enterprise business environment under time crunch).

    In my consulting days I have seen many different environments and the biggest complaint among the internal IT staff is the time suck that is linux and IMO the only thing linux is good for is running an Apache web server but then again if I wanted web security I would use IIS. From the comments in this article it looks like everyone is either a 1. Programmer, 2. CS student or 3. Linux fanboy (Avishek Kumar I’m talking to you).

    Reply
    • I assume you’re talking 20 yrs ago when Linux was “difficult”. These days, Linux is easier to install, use, upgrade, modify and maintain than MS and other OSs. The development progress since, say, 1994 (when I started using Linux) to now is amazing.

      I install Linux on office machines now after a short demo, either in tandem with MS or alone. Most times, after settling in, customers ask for Linux alone. YMMV

      Reply
  4. It is about time that Linux makes surface. The cost of ownership of Windows is a big consideration. The only issue that prevents Linux to emerge at the rank it deserves is the Office compatibility. “Open Office” and preferably “Libre Office” have used reverse engineering to be able to be compatible as much as they can with the files format of Microsoft Office but it is not perfect. Microsoft should be forced to publish the secrecy they use. The other aspect I think is a perception problem: Because it is free it hides something, OR, It is too good to be true.
    I can tell you:” Linux is the only thing I know that is too good to be true … but it’s true.
    I remember the last computers migration I did for a big company we needed 10 to 12 reboot taking about 4 minutes each time. Do the math !
    When the enterprises realize all the times the users and the IT guys have to wait for the numerous reboots we have to perform on Windows after almost every update: this time is a loss of productivity that should be accounted for on top of the numerous licenses costs and also the cost to manage those licenses.
    Companies that refrain themselves to migrating massively to Linux should at least consider to migrate their servers: like this they will save the ACL costs. They would benefit also of a more reliable bank of servers.
    The support issue makes me laugh: lot of organization are afraid of the free (libre) software because it may lack support.
    In all my career of 30 years in I.T. I can’t remember when I had to call Microsoft besides revalidating a system code so that my license was still valid.
    With Linux we are free and free from tether.

    Cheers,

    Reply
    • thank you for posting this comment. i would like to use it in a homework assignment for my IT Linux class, its about why companies are not using Linux and i thing you summed it up quite nicely, so much so that now i will have problems writing the rest of my page.

      Reply
  5. Now in my 70’s iam a newbie to Linux,started computing in 2000 but now I just Love Linux Lite as do my two grandchildren.Particularly with it’s ability to find drivers for scanners,printers etc that become obsolete as windows upgrade.Also the New Lite Cleaner keeps the computer clean .Thankyou Linux.

    Reply
    • every child know that Linux is kernel and GNU/Linux is OS. and the proper way to write Linux is – ‘Linux’ and not ‘linux’. Similarly proper way to write ‘UNIX’ is ‘UNIX’ and not ‘Unix’ or ‘unix’.
      still we refer to linux os in day to day talk by saying it linux.

      isnt it?

      Reply
  6. I wasn’t a geek when i first installed linux, and it was fine, easy to use and understandable system, but after using it for a while I became one.. I have learned to code in python, php, java, etc.. I am thankful to linux community, they made me a better human being they forced me to think by my self not just to take what is given. I now believe that only lazy people choose windows or mac, those, who like to get everything on the plate, those who are afraid or too lazy to try something themselves…

    Reply
  7. “Linux no more remains a Geeky thing.”

    Except, for the most part, only geeks actually interface with Linux in almost all the places on your list. The consumer-facing stuff is mostly all tightly controlled. In only a few desktop use cases do non-geeks actually have the opportunity to get their hands dirty with a Linux distro. And they probably don’t want to, any more than they want to fool around with their Windows desktop (assuming either isn’t locked down anyway).

    Other than that quibble, this is a great rundown on how GNU/Linux and FOSS are absolutely everywhere these days. Thanks!

    Reply
  8. Dream on, the real case is users of Linux, and there is the bitter truth,
    Still only one percent (+-) of the users really uses Linux for daily work, the rest are servers and Geeks that run those servers.
    It is as if Microsoft will say that she rules the mobile world because most of the devices eventually synchronizing throw Windows computers.

    Reply
    • It is bitter truth no doubt, just because of history when Microsoft took a big lead in user friendly OS race and effects are today that people are using Windows, but time doesn’t remain the same, people are getting familiar with Linux and are less and less moody to buy propriety OSes e.g. Mac, Windows, when they can get same or more better OS in free of cost with free applications.
      For your info, only desktop users are stuck to Windows, those who have Windows over their desktops / laptop machines prefer to run Android [a modified Linux Machine designed to run over mobile devices] or Apple. 1% (+-) people are willing to have Windows Phone other wants Android and Android [Linux] is 60% of todays mobile market.
      Fact is that it is gonna take time for people to change from Windows to other OSes, but when they will find something better, they’re gonna betray Windows!

      Reply
  9. I just wanted to point out that NASA is not the “United Nations space program.” Other than that I like all the great articles. Thanks.

    Reply

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