With Backend Development, a developer finds thousands of interesting options to develop, deploy and manage these server-side applications. As technology is growing over time, developers also shifted their ways of creating them.
One of the significant changes seen in recent trends is people shifting toward Linux for backend development even though Windows is still the top-used Operating System in the market.
But most coders and programmers prefer using Linux for backend development in 2023 over other OS.
But what makes developers choose Linux over other OS? Is it the ease of use? Is it secure? Is Linux even good for Backend Development? Reasons are many. Let’s cover each one of them in detail.
7 Reasons Why Developers Should Use Linux For Backend Development
Here are the top reasons why developers should use Linux for backend development:
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Open Source And Free Market Of Linux
While in other OS, you need to pay a high amount to get the licence. Linux provides the biggest advantage to its user to download and use the system freely.
It provides time to developers to understand the different distributions of Linux like Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Linux Mint, CentOS and many more. Linux has more than 600 active distributors.
Lastly, as it is an Open Source software so all the source codes are available to all of us under GPL(General Public License).
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Secure And Stable
Linux provides better security as it is an open-source system – developers tend to make changes in the code as they find any problem in it, so it continuously gets updated from time to time.
Also the management and development team of Linux, design the system in a way that the repository and other packages are harder to hack than other Operating Systems.
Even Microsoft prefers using Linux to power their Cloud Computing Service over Windows and MacOS.
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Runs on any hardware
Many hardware systems become outdated as Windows and Mac release their new versions every now and then. The technical specifications in new version become outmoded for older hardware.
Linux provides you an efficient way to customise the installation as per your hardware requirement. Process of Installing Linux is quite simple as all the distributors are easily accessible – just follow the distribution model outline and choose the module as per the application project requirement.
This helps developers to use old hardwares and build backend applications easily.
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Handy For Programmers And Developers
One of the main reasons why Linux is best chosen for backend development because it supports primarily all programming languages from C/C++ to Java, Python, Ruby and more.
It also provides developers a vast variety of range like Linux terminals, different package managers, scripting and functional features to create multiple applications.
With Linux, developers also find good and supportive large communities at various sources, there are many open-source communities that are always ready to help and explain. This increases trust in the system and gives programmers a space to network largely for support.
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Command Line Interface
Command Line is text-based interaction so it is more efficient in many cases while passing and storing backend data.
As Linux provides a command-line Interface, programmers find it better to use this over other OS because this works faster than GUI(Graphical user interface), it runs on less powerful PCs, it is scripted and programmers can easily automate them.
While providing so much flexibility under the table, still it uses fewer resources and simple operations as compared to GUI. Many beginner developers find it hard to learn and work, but as they get ahead with it – they find Command Line more efficient in their system.
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No Forced Reboots While Performing Operations
One of the best features you find while using Linux as your Operating System is that it doesn’t do contiguous updates as Windows.
It simply postponed all the updates while the application is in use, and completes it at the time when the application is shut down. So whenever developers restart the system, they get a new version with it and not in the middle of performing operations.
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Containerization
Linux provides portable containers that are easy to develop, deploy, manage, test and debug. With Containerization, Linux improves resource systemization, decreases the time limit of the final product, and improves the testing environment.
Containers help developers to create backend applications fastly as they hold necessary libraries and dependencies and also improve configurability of applications.
As a beginner you can use LXC(Linux Container project), it is an open-source Linux container that provides a set of tools and libraries that improve user experience and visualization environment.
Which OS to choose as a Backend Developer?
As a developer you find many ups and down with Linux, as starting you may find some problems to learn and understand, but ultimately going with Linux makes you understand how stable, secure, reliable, cost-effective, and high-resource server management system it is.
But if you ask for one right choice, then there is no right and wrong choice, it’s just about your preference and familiarity with that OS. Always look up to that system with whom you are more comfortable. Look for your application needs and consideration of client and market.
