Linux OS  developed by Linus Torvalds in '91 is based on Unix OS . It's core functionalities have been greatly inspired and adopted from Unix but unlike Unix , Linux can also run on small devices with low hardware capacities, Linux is completely free to modify and redistribute under GNU GPL.

The main advantages of using Linux are as follows:

1.  Free and Open source : Linux has been from its early days work of loosely knitted hackers around the globe and till date is developed and supported by a vast open community.

2. Linux can run on low hardware machines too : Unlike its so called  'source' , Linux can run on small devices such as PDA , mobile etc. latest e.g being android OS. This is possible because of the fact that Linux can be easily configured to install only the part of OS which are really required.

3. Well supported :  Being an OS Linux has vast community of users due to which the process of finding the bugs and fixing them becomes very quick.

4. Lots of flavors : In the market there are numerous flavors offered by various organization. Most popular being Ubuntu , Fedora etc. And many options means users get to experience a lot of varieties of an OS which  has same underlying functionalities.

5. Scalability : One of the most powerful features of Linux being the fact that on one end it can run on a device such as a smartphone while on the other end it can also be configured to work on clusters of computer working continuously to provide results to some of the biggest problems.