Introduction to Linux
{LANG_NAVORIGIN} Operating System Linux
Colin Sauze
05/27/2005
Other common software
Most Linux distributions ship with a number of applications that you'd expect to find on most PCs. This includes Office programs, Web browsers, DVD/video file players, MP3 players and games. The most common office program is OpenOffice a derivative of Star Office a program similar to Microsoft Office (but without a database), this provides a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation Maker and Drawing program. Its able to load up the equivalent files from Microsoft Office and save to Microsoft formats as well. The most popular web browser is Mozilla, a derivative of Netscape. Mozilla works with pretty much every web site out there although a little configuration is required to get it to work with Macromedia Flash and Java. There are many other web browsers available for Linux and both KDE and GNOME actually ship with their own built in browsers. Many Linux distributions ship with a photo manipulation program similar to Adobe Photoshop called the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). More details on specific programs will be given in part 3 of this series.
Linux Distributors
One of the first Linux distributions was called RedHat, it was in (comparison to the distributions which had been seen before it at least) considered easy to use and came with a huge array of software. Since it first began in 1993 RedHat has become the largest and best recognised seller of Linux distributions and saw one of the biggest one day gains ever when it floated on the stock market. Many distributions today are based upon Redhat or at the very least incorporate some technologies which were originally developed by them.
Today Redhat's popularity as the main desktop distribution has slipped somewhat and Redhat have recently spun off their desktop distribution into a separate project known as Fedora, which is to be maintained mainly by volunteers instead of Redhat employees. Fedora has suffered from some major teething problems and is probably not the best thing for a new user to begin with right now although things can change rapidly in the Linux world. However like most open source projects it is developing rapidly and this will hopefully change.
2 popular alternatives which were both originally derived from Redhat are SUSE Linux and Mandrake Linux. Both of these focus on providing ease of use and are well suited for new users to Linux. Both are freely downloadable from the internet in a slightly stripped down form or you can pay a small fee for a copy of the downloaded version on CD if you've got a slow internet connection. You can also buy more expensive versions from SUSE or Mandrake directly, these often include extra programs, free or reduced rate technical support and early access to new releases.
Mandrake and SUSE are both created by commercial companies who exist to make money even if they do give away their products for free. A number of Linux distributions (often called distros) are made by volunteers and have been released onto the internet. These distributions tend to be aimed at more advanced users although this isn't always the case. They often come without any official support package although there are many message boards and chat rooms where help can be found. One of the most popular of these distributions is Debian, it aims to be stable, secure and able to run on minimal hardware. It often lacks the very latest versions of some programs as a result of this but your far less likely to see it crash than some other distributions which are incorporating poorly tested programs which were released only a few weeks earlier. Debian is often used by more advanced users, partly because they see it as a challenge to use and also because it doesn't have a lot of the extra “bloat” of some of the other distributions like SUSE or Mandrake. It is also well suited to run on old hardware which might serve as a server machine or a thin client. Another distribution which is gaining popularity is called Gentoo and it works by compiling every program from source code at install time, this can make for very optimised programs but it also takes a very long time to install and re quires quite a bit of expertise in order to know what to install (and installing extra things will cost you time wise), although Gentoo is very powerful in the right hands it is not a good idea for a new user to attempt to start with Gentoo.
If you don't feel like installing Linux but would like to give it a try or you want to run it on a friend's machine but they don't want you installing anything on it there is a special type of distro called a “Live CD”. These are usually a single CD which when placed in the CDROM drive at startup will boot Linux from the CD instead of booting the operating system thats installed. These Live CDs are very useful for playing about with Linux, using it on someone else's machine or as recovery disks. The major drawback is that you cannot store any changes you make, however some Live CDs are now allowing you to store changes to another device such as a file on the local hard disk, a network drive or a USB pen drive/USB Mass Storage Device (like a digital camera or MP3 player). Two popular Live CDs are Knoppix which is based on Debian and which will run on very minimal systems as well as high end ones and MandrakeMove which is based on Mandrake Linux and features many of the applications which ship with Mandrake. See the references section for links to these.
There are many, many other distributions out there ranging from ones which fit on a single floppy to ones designed to run security systems to ones which try to provide the user with as many possible features as they could wish for.
Packages
When you obtain a new program for your system it is usually packaged up into a single file which contains the whole application. Most PC users are probably familiar with ZIP files which contain a series of other files, this is a similar concept. Most Linux distributions use one of 2 (or both) types of package, these are known as DEB and RPM. The DEB system was originally developed for Debian Linux and RPM for Redhat. They both essentially do the same thing, you install a package file and it will install the program it contains placing all the files in the correct places and adding that package to a list of installed packages. If at a later date you want to remove the package its possible to find all the files it contains and remove them. There are a few other formats around but these are the main 2. Some software is also distributed as “source code” this means its in program code which is understandable by humans and not machine code for computers, such programs must be compiled before they work, you'll usually find they are distributed in either .tgz, .tar.gz, .tar, .tar.bz2 or .zip files (these types of files do not necessarily indicate that they contain source code). When you have to compile programs you'll usually find instructions shipped with the program.
Interesting Uses of Linux:
Linux doesn't just run on PCs, its been converted or “ported” to a vast number of devices. These include handheld computers, games consoles, high end servers and even super computers. Unlike Windows which only runs on computers using processors compatible with the Intel 386, 486 or Pentium (this includes processors like the AMD Athlon) Linux runs on a wide variety of processors. As a result its is possible to run Linux on Apple Mac, Amiga, Atari, Acorn, HP (formerly Compaq (formerly Digital)) Alpha's, SUN UltraSparcs and many others. However doing this means getting hold of a Linux distribution which has been built for that type of system or building your own from scratch. You may also find that some programs (especially commercial programs such as Macromedia's Flash or Sun's Java) do not work on these non-Intel/AMD systems. For more on running Linux on other platforms and interesting uses its been put to see the references section.
Legal Issues With Linux:
Linux attempts to mimic many of the functions of the Unix operating system which can only be produced under commercial license. A company called SCO are claiming that they own the rights to the Unix operating system (something which is disputed by some) and are currently suing IBM for placing code from Unix into Linux. SCO have claimed that because of this Linux violates their Copyright and they have been trying to extract a fee of 699 US Dollars from every user of Linux, to date they have only made $11,000 from this! So far SCOs legal efforts have met with a number of set backs and there is little sign of them succeeding, however they have been generating a lot of press attention over these issues. At this point in time nobody should be discouraged from using Linux because of SCO and if threatened nobody should pay up (they have already dropped a lawsuit against Daimler-Chrysler who refused to pay the $699 per installation license fee).
References:
http://www.linux.com – Various links and articles about all aspects of Linux as well as lists of software available for Linux.
http://www.kernel.org – Homepage of the Linux kernel, useful if you want to download your own kernel, probably something for more advanced users.
http://www.tldp.org – The Linux Documentation Project, a site full of useful documentation about all aspects of Linux, this includes the “howto” documents which describe how to perform all kinds of common Linux configuration tasks. This site also has several longer more in depth guides to Linux.
http://www.suse.com – homepage of the Linux distributor SuSE, an easy to use Linux distribution.
http://www.linuxmandrake.com – homepage of Mandrake Linux, another easy to use Linux distribution.
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3#move – Mandrake Move, a LiveCD which runs from CD and can use a USB Pen drive to store settings.
http://www.redhat.com – homepage of Redhat one of the first Linux distributors, The desktop edition of Redhat (Fedora) is available from http://www.redhat.com/fedora.
http://www.knoppix.org – A LiveCD distribution which runs entirely from the CD, no need to install it. Also have a look at http://www.gnoppix.org , knoppix with Gnome instead of KDE.
http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.wav – A short sound file with Linux Torvalds pronouncing Linux.
http://www.hummingbird.com/products/nc/exceed – Exceed, a (commercial) X Server for Windows, allows you to see the output of Linux applications under Windows.
http://www.microimages.com/mix - Another commercial X Server for Windows, but has a 15 day free trial and is a lot cheaper than Exceed.
http://www.cygwin.com - Cygwin is a Unix emulation layer for Windows, but also includes an X-server that runs on Windows, it is open source and free of charge. More details about Cygwin are covered in part 3 of this series.
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-X-Apps.html – A description of how to run applications from a remote Linux machine.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/ - A site detailing the use of Linux in all kinds of devices including phones, handhelds and even robots.
http://www.pcc-services.com/distcomp/distrocomparison.html - A comparison of Fedora 2, Mandrake 10 and Suse 9.1.
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