Methods to summon Tux

Giridharan S — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:56:38 +0000

Who is TUX??

Tux is the mascot (a figure for branding) of Linux!! He is a happy, sitting Penguin.

Tux was chosen as mascot for Linux after the Linux logo competition and also Linus Torvalds once said in an interview that when he went to Canberra Zoo he was bitten by a little Penguin, which inspired his love for Penguins 🐧

*Summoning Tux in the title refers to running Linux.

Where to Install??

As we already saw there are several way to boot Linux like

USB live boot
Virtual Machine (VM)
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
Primary / Dual Boot in Disk

Let me explain each of these as simple as detailed as i could

USB live boot:

Unlike Windows most Linux distros have a special feature of trying before installing, Linux can run without installing by essential parts of Linux OS into the RAM and using RAM as a temporary storage medium with Ram Disk.

So here we use keep the Linux ISO image in USB drive and boot the OS present in it by making the USB drive bootable.

(There is a concept called as Ram Disk in which the OS uses the ram as a virtual storage medium and storing files in it until the power is lost. You can try out Ram Disk in almost every OS with special software )

Using Virtual Machine (VM):

As everyone already knows OS controls hardware, there can be only one OS running at a time. If we want to run 2 or more OS at a same time, we use the concept of Virtual Machines.

The virtual machine is created and run using specialized software called Hypervisor (eg: Virtualbox, VMware, qemu etc). Hypervisor creates a Virtual Hard disk, allocates virtual CPU and memory then installs OS to it and makes the installed OS run as if it were on a real machine.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL):

WSL is a feature in Windows Os that allows us to use Linux without Installing Linux a Distro!! WSL uses a lightweight shell (terminal) only edition of distros. It loads the Linux kernel and a lightweight VM inside to provide a Linux compatible environment inside Windows.

Primary / Dual boot with Disk:

This is the complete Linux installation. Installing Linux to disk as only OS or alongside Windows allows us to use its full potential. Its done by partitioning disks (dividing physical storage as parts like house with rooms for separate purpose) and installing the Linux in the created partition or installing it in whole disk.

For a first time Linux user, selecting this is the worst decision they could make : )

Pros and Cons

Everything has its own pros and cons, now let's see the pros and cons of these.

Pros

USB:

• Runs even without any installed OS.

• Portable (can boot on any system)

• Quick to setup.

• Format USB drive to remove.
Virtual Machine:

• Faster than USB booting.

• Simple and risk free setup then installing in disk.

• Can share files and clipboard between Host OS and VM.

• Snapshot and rollback possible (can save the session and rollback to it if needed)
Windows Subsystem for Linux:

• No need to install additional software.

• Integrated with Windows. (can easily access Windows files from wsl)

• Lightweight than VM both in memory and storage.

• Can multiple versions at same time.
Installing to Disk:

• Runs in full potential.

• Uses less storage and memory.

• Very fast.

• Full hardware access.

Cons

USB:

• Speed is limited to data transfer speed of USB

• Session is not saved. (Files are not saved)

• Reduces USB drives lifespan.

• Limited space
Virtual Machine:

• Performance is reduced because of emulation.

• Very limited access to real Hardware.

• High resource usage.
Windows Subsystem for Linux:

• Limited access to hardware.

• Limited GUI apps support.

• Issues with network connectivity.

• Read/Write operations are slow.
Installing to Disk:

• Very complex to setup.

• Risk of existing data loss (selecting wrong partition)

• Managing takes time and effort.

These are the pros and cons of those Linux usage methods. Do research learn on your own then choose a method for your use case.

(Try everything to experience the pros and cons!!)

My recommended order of trying is:

WSL -> Virtual Machine -> Live Boot -> Installing on disk

We have reached the end! While waiting for the "Summoning TUX (Installing Linux)" blog do a deeeeeeeep research and know more about them!

See you on the next Blog!

Written by Giridharan S ( a.k.a. GodInreach)

Reach me at giridharan@duck.com

root@linux:~# wget https://paste.rs/Zd03p.txt
root@linux:~# cat Zd03p.txt
Good Bye from GodInReach
See you in the next blog!
root@linux:~# exit

Linux!?

Giridharan S — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 04:20:45 +0000

Linux Linux Linux..... What's Linux????

Linux is basically a Kernel (Kernel is the Brain of Operating System which acts as a bridge between hardware and rest of the OS) built by Linus Torvalds but due to its popularity the family of Open Source OS using Linux kernel is being called as Linux in common!!

(🤫 But actually full Linux OS is called a Distribution)

FACTS!!

72% of mobile devices use Android which is a basically a highly customized variant of Linux kernel!!
The worlds Top 500 supercomputers are running Linux!!
Linux can run for years without Rebooting!!

Linux Distributions

As already said above a Linux Distribution is a complete OS bundled with the Linux kernel, software and User Interface

Linux Distros (Distributions for short) are not like windows, where all the components in windows are tightly integrated, but Linux is like plug and play, just like you go to a ice cream parlor and select the base ice cream then different toppings to add on.

Some Base Linux Distros:

Debian
Arch
Fedora
OpenSUSE
RedHat
Gentoo

Just like there are many Flavors in Ice Cream there are many flavors derived from these Base distributions.

Its called Flavors or Spins

Some famous flavors/spins of those base:

Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Kali Linux/ Parrot OS - Debian
Garuda / Manjaro / EndeavourOS - Arch
Fedora Workstation / Fedora Silverblue- Fedora
RHEL Server / CentOS - Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Choosing the Distro for YOU

There are approximately 500+ distributions to choose from!

*From here we will be referring Distros as Linux for my convenience...

To answer the question What Linux to use, first we need to define our use case. Every Linux has some advantage and disadvantage.

First answer these questions:

1. First time using Linux?

2. Low on Storage and memory / Using low spec device?

3. Stability or Customization?

With answers for these we can come to a conclusion a bit,

Poor<Okay<Good<Excellent

	First time users	Low Spec	Stability	Customization
Ubuntu	Excellent	Poor	Excellent	Good
Linux Mint	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Kali Linux	Okay	Poor	Okay	Okay
Arch based	Poor --	Excellent ++	Don't Expect	Excellent ++
Parrot OS	Okay	Good	Okay	Okay

*This table is just according to me, not the proven comparison.

Written by Giri - aka GodInReach

DEV Community: Giridharan S