Overview of Linux:
Comparison of a few distros

10:00am-11:00am

Beginners Tutorial Track

Ralf Pieper

Unix

Unix was freely available from its inventor, Ken Thompson of Bell Labs.

Universities used it and improved it.

Commerical UNIX by Sun, IBM, HP SCO, SGI, MS Xenix(SCO)...

Source code for a few varients (mostly BSD) is still available, but most UNIX products were proprietary and expensive.

Unix Clones

BSD

Linux is an Open Source version of the Unix kernel developed by Linus Torvalds for the Intel x86 processor.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF.org) made the rest of the OS. They are working on Hurd their own kernel.

GNU/Linux, Linux, GNU/BSD, GNU/Hurd.

Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)

Is the name of the UNIX dialects distributed already in the 1970s from the University of California, Berkeley.

The BSD License does not prohibit the use of the material licensed in products for resale.

Advertising clause

bsd.org

Free

Software in which the source code is by definition freely available to the general public for redistribution, modification, examination or any other conceivable purpose. Similar to "open- source software," except that "open- source" is a relatively recent term coined for marketing purposes by people who wanted to put a more "business- friendly" face on the concept. Free software, as an idea, is usually associated with Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation.

[Andrew Leonard, The Free Software Project, Free software glossary, Salon.com, 2000] http://cobrand.salon.com/tech/fsp/glossary/

What Is Free Software?

Copyleft

A play on the term "copyright," copyleft is the essential concept at the heart of the Free Software Foundation's General Public License.

According to the FSF, "Copyleft says that anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must pass along the freedom to further copy and change it." This is sharp contradistinction to the permissions granted by BSD style licenses, which allow you to do anything you want with a piece of code, as long as you maintain the copyright notices.

What Is Linux

Linux is a freely-distributable UNIX-like operating system for numerous computer platforms including Intelx86, Motorola 68k, Digital Alpha, Sparc, Mips, and PowerPC machines.

It is an implementation of the POSIX specification with which all true versions of UNIX comply.

The Linux kernel is covered by the GNU Public License (GPL), and is normally bundled with various applications to comprise a working UNIX operating system.

This bundle of software is called a "distribution" of which there are dozens to choose from.

Linux was created by Linus Torvalds, while he was a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. It was released to the world on October 5th 1991, and has been developed with the help of thousands of programmers across the Internet.

Linux Is Born

Message-ID: 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.helsinki.fi
From: torvalds@klaava.helsinki.fi (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
To: Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Hello everybody out there using minix-I'm doing a (free)
operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional
like gnu) for 386 (486) AT clones. This has been brewing since
april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it
somewhat
Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus

Linux Distributions

Linux From Scratch, Gentoo

Knoppix, MEPIS, Xandros for new

Slackware, Debian

RedHat, Fedora Core

SuSE

Mandrake

Immunix, NSA SELinux

Resistance to Change

“It is not worth my time to learn a new software, to gain the same level of experience as I already have in XP, or to persuade other people to go through the same change – unnecessary and annoying”

“Unless Windows disappear from the face of earth tomorrow, I am using it”

“I am not alone, I am SO not alone”

http://distrowatch.com

What Distro To Use?

Package Managers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_manager

Package Managers

Slackware's tgz

RPM

dpkg/APT

Portage/emerge

BSD's ports tree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_manager

Where To Install

Dual boot partitioning

FIPS works up to FAT32

Partition magic

QtParted

Clean install

Install Linux

CD-ROM

images/boot.img

Network

images/bootnet.img

Boot Floppy can be made with

dostools/rawrite.exe

dd if=images/boot.img of=/dev/fd0

Integrate Linux systems with other operating system platforms

Examine basic networking concepts

Configure xinetd, DNS, and TCP/IP network administration

Examine system scripts and configure cron

Compile, modify, and upgrade the kernel

Configure boot options

Configure the X Server

Implement and administer security issues

Install and configure Apache Web servers and virtual hosts

Install and configure DNS

Install and configure DHCP

Books

Linux Administration Handbook, Nemeth, Prentice Hall PTR 2002 $50, $30 online

Learning RED HAT LINUX, Bill McCarthy, O’Reilly 3rd. Ed. March 2003

Revolution OS

Revolution OS is a documentary which traces the history of Linux, Free Software and the Open Source movement. It features several interviews with prominent hackers, including Linus Torvalds, Richard M Stallman, Eric S. Raymond, Brian Behlendorf and Bruce Perens. It was directed by J.T.S. Moore.

Slide 1

2005-02-13T08:33:09