Linux. What Is It? Should I Try It?
- UNIX Operating Systems
- Linux - Who Cares Anyway?
- A Word About Free Software
- Distributions
- Programs, Documentation, and Help
- Technology - Multitasking, Multiuser, Multiprocessing
- Strengths and weaknesses of Linux
- Should You Try Linux?
- Linux Demo (Red Hat 6.0)
UNIX Operating Systems
Bell Labs, 1969
AT&T UNIX System V, Release 4
Berkeley, SCO, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, FreeBSD
Linus Torvalds, Linux (and how is it pronounced?)
Linux - Who Cares Anyway?
IBM - servers pre-loaded with Linux
Kernel hackers
Microsoft
Microsoft haters
Compaq - Intel, Alpha hardware
Intel - hardware, Red Hat
People with old computers - Linux runs on a 386
The press - Infoworld 1998 technology of the year
IBM, Oracle, Sybase - database engines
SAP - Enterprise Resource Planning servers
Corel - WordPerfect 8
Sun (formerly Star Division Corp) - StarOffice
S.u.S.e - Office Suite 99
Free Software Foundation
The Apache Group
A Word About Free Software
The Free Software Foundation
GNU (Gnu's Not Unix)
GPL (GNU Public License)
Copyleft - Free to acquire, change, distribute
The Linux kernel and most programs for Linux are free.
Distributions
You can download Linux and most Linux applications from the internet, but a distribution makes things easier.
A distribution includes a Linux kernel, applications, online documentation, and an installation procedure, usually on CD.
Some distributions include a book. Some books include a distribution.
Red Hat - most popular
Mandrake - enhnaced Red Hat
Caldera - business-oriented
Debian - nonprofit
S.u.S.e - German
Slackware - the original
Corel - coming soon
Programs, Documentation, and Help
A Linux distribution typically includes hundreds of programs. Many more can be downloaded from the internet
Get documentation and help from
- Your distribution's CDROM
- The program's man pages
- Books
- The Linux Documentation Project (LDP)
- Web pages and newsgroups
- Organizations - SVLUG
Technology - Multitasking, Multiuser, Multiplatform, Multiprocessing
Multitasking - many concurrent activities
Multiuser - many concurrent users
Multiplatform - various computer hardware architectures (Intel, Alpha)
Multiprocessessing - multiple processors per computer
Strengths and Weaknesses of Linux
Strengths
- Stability
- Low cost
- Integration with the internet
- Good availability of server software
Weaknesses
- Fewer desktop software titles than Windows (but improving)
- Less user-friendly than Windows (but improving)
Should You Try Linux?
You should try Linux if
- You like DOS
- You would rather not use Microsoft software
- You are curious, persistent, and patient
- You want to run a database server
- You want to run an internet server (web, news, FTP, PPP, telnet, DNS, etc.)
- You want to share an internet connection with other computers (firewall / IP masquerading)
- You are interested in networking and the internet
Check back next year if
- You want all your software to be drag and drop
- You want to buy all your software at a local retailer
Linux. What Is It? Should I Try It?
- UNIX Operating Systems
- Linux - Who Cares Anyway?
- A Word About Free Software
- Distributions
- Programs, Documentation, and Help
- Technology - Multitasking, Multiuser, Multiprocessing
- Strengths and weaknesses of Linux
- Should You Try Linux?
Linux Demo (Red Hat 6.0)
- Netscape
- Bootup, login, security
- Consoles, commands
- Midnight Commander
- minicom
- X-Windows, GNOME, KDE
- nxterm, linuxconf