Linux Special Report
Linux Matters
It's inexpensive, but that's only the beginning of the story.
You don't always get what you pay for. You can spend $1000 or more for fully tricked-out Unix for your PC. Or for about $25, you can get Linux, a Unix Variant, which is just as good for running an in-house BBS, an employee information system, a World Wide Web server, a mail server, or a Usenet news server.
But economy is only a small part of the Linux story. This OS has created a troop of dedicated followers who can act like monks revering an ancient religion, complete with a geek mythology of wizards and deamons =). The passion -- and even fanaticsim--that true believers feel for Linux creates some striking similarities with hyper loyal Amiga users.
Why do otherwise normal people become so passionate over mere software? There's no simple answer to this question. To understand Linux, you first must have to understand it's various pieces. Next, you must get a feeling for what is is like to actually run the OS. The technical analysis and road test that follow should help you see why Linux is not just another OS.
Something for everyone
Most of the popular CD-ROM distributions of Linux fill three or four discs with the software. That's the core OS. There are hundreds of utilities, from flat-file databases to system management. Programming languages like C, C++, Perl and TCL. Practical programs, such as spreadsheets and text editors. Text formatting. A display post script clone. Network support. Graphical applications. Games. And tons of source code.
The complete source code is in every commercial distribution of Linux. The Free Software Foundation mandates this openness with a "copy left" license that grants users the right to modify and redistribute Linux. You can charge whatever you like for it, but you must take the source code freely available.
Even if you don't care about the source code, Linux deserves the respect because it hold nothing back. Early versions os Unix were the same way. The C compiler and a full set of utilities came with every copy. When commercialization came the brilliant strategy of unbending: strip down the OS and then charge users for the pieces to build it back again.
This decidedly un-Unix-like approach didn't cause the birth of Linux, but it's widespread success can be partly attributed to the bungling of commercial Unix vendors. Some companies such as Novell realized the folly of unbundling and began to sell more complete packages. But a commercial PC unix with an unlimited user license, development tools, and server applications still costs $1000 or more. At $25 to $50 with all these features, is it any wonder that Linux is winning the favor of even commercial users?
Genealogy
Linux roots lies in Minix, which is a public domain PC Unix. Minix had limited capabilities and device support, but its small stature translated to clear, easily understood code. Minix was popular teaching tool in Computer Science classes. Linux Torvalds created a Minix-like OS that came closer to real Unix in functionality and provided the OS with it's name.
Before long, programmers throughout the world began to contribute to his efforts by writing device drivers and adding utilities and other programs. Many of these pieces are real Unix. A large number of the utilities and much of the networking support came from BSD, the Berkeley Standard Distribution edition of Unix.
Clever programmers re-created portions of Unix code when
licensing restricted re-distribution of the code. In some cases, the re-creation
outdid the original. For example, the VI editor is done better in linux
than in other Unix versions. Some programmers are even working on the whimsically
named Lessif, a freeware clone of the Open Software Foundation/Motiff graphical
interface. Linux now has an impressively complete set of commands and utilities.
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GNU applications; development environment |
BSD applications and tools |
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X window system ------- Linux Utilities and Shell |
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Linux Kernel |
The basic Linux framework evolved from work By Linus Trovalds and contributing programmers throughout the world. Commercial distributions of the OS build on this base
Most Linux programmers keep their day jobs but still manage to crank out new releases of the code every few weeks. Device, support, bug fixes, and cross-platform porting take center stage in most releases. Torvald maintains control of the kernel, while others tend to the work of the combining core Linux with the utilities, tools, libraries, and other software that turns into a Unix clone. The bundles came in distributions.
Between the work being done for linux and programmers coding freeware for Unix in general. Linux has plenty of impressive add-ons. Samba adds netBIOS support, allowing Linux machine to service a LAN windows for workgroups or Windows 95 clients. DOSEMU lets you run the DOS programs and Wine, while still in the works, will provide Windows 3.1 binary application compatibility.
Support for the ELF binary format is the first step toward allowing Unix Ware, Solaris, and other System V PC Unix binaries to run on linux and vice versa. In that vein, programmers are under way with Intel Binary Compatibility standard porting efforts. The objective is clear : Linux users want their OS to be both source and binary compatible with the other commercial PC Unix OSes.
There are some successes also on getting Linux running
on Digital Equipment's Alpha CPU. It already runs on the Amiga and some
other systems with Motorola 68000-series processors. As new ports are undertaken,
the Linux kernel will become more easily protable.
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What's Inside Linux |
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Other vendors should envy Linux's record of rapid adaptation. When new drive and CD-ROM controllers, motherboards, BIOS ROMs, and other hardware appear, it won't be long before someone tweaks Linux to work with them. X Windows System display drivers aren't easy to write, and some card manufacturers are reluctant to document low-level details of their boards for Linux's "casual programmers." Thus, while some display cards work well, others will work badly or not at all. If you are interested about Linux, you should check your system's configuration against the list of supported devices.
Road Test
Linux, touted by fans as a free OS, carries some costs. Only those with high speed Internet links can afford to download it. It is there, free, if you have the time. Two sites are Sunsite and TSX-11.
But for $25 to 450, you can pick up a set of CD-ROMs, sometimes bundled with manual. Slackware is the most widely used and distributed with CD-ROM. Slackware's trademark is its interactive installation program. This may lull you into thinking that installing Linux is a cinch; it's not. Just as in the old days, you need to know what you're doing or be willing to learn before using Linux.
For example, if you are running a CD_ROM drive attached to a sound card, you might be in trouble. Linux identifies some sound card and supports their CD-ROM drives in many cases. But you may find that your card isn't on the list, and you'll have to try to a few different drivers. Display cards are the same way. Your card might have the same controller chip as supported card, but it might not work.
It's much easier to configure your hardware for Linux
than to get Linux adapted to your hardware. The first step is to check
your system against Linux's requirements. Linux will run on a 386-class
PC or better with 8 MB of RAM, and you can install it on a hard drive as
small as 20 MB. You should consider a CD-ROM drive essential. Linux supports
CD-ROM drives attached to popular SCSI controllers. A sound blaster, Windows
sounds system, Pro Audio Spectrum, or compatible sound card should all
work well.
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What you'll need |
Linux lets you decide how deep into its internals you want to go. You can just dip your toe in the water by loading a subset of Linux onto your DOS file system and running it from there. There is even a DOS command that loads Linux. You can also run it directly from a CD-ROM drive if you are just curious. But running Linux in it's own partition is the only way to fully savor it. Linux includes an fdisk program that creates partitions for you.
Create at least two partitions: one to hold your files and a second to hold your swap area. (Theoretically, you won't destroy data if you add partitions to your disk rather than change existing ones. However, most DOS users allocate the entire disk to DOS, so they usually have to repartition with data loss.) Swap areas are vital if your machine has 8MB of RAM or less. The swap area should be 1.5 to 2 times the size of your physical memory. If you have more RAM, you can get away with having a smaller swap area.
Unless you are purchasing one of the rare floppy disk distributions of Linux, you need to have DOS running to begin the installation. Under DOS, you will create two floppy disk; a boot floppy disk and a root file system floppy disk. There are several types of bott and root images. creating confusion. on one system with in Adaptec 1542 controller, we had to use the boot image names scsi. The kernel on the root floppy disk is just a starting point. The real kernel the one that will boot from the hard drive, installs from the CD-ROM.
The typical slackware installation is a labyrinth of questions. You'll be given the option to install everything, but don't take it. You need to choose just one kernel type from several on the CD-ROM. And you must select just one display card if you plan to run x.
Linux is smart about sensing drive controllers and network cards. Smarter, in fact, than most other OSes. If you tell slackware that you want to use it's TCP/IP networking features, it prompts you for all the relevant configuration details. This is sweet : 30 seconds of prompted questions got the test machine configured on an Internet-connected LAN. On reboot, Linux sniffed out our network card and brought up the LAN link.
When testing two commercial Slackware distributions (MORSE
telecommunication's Slackware Proffessional and WGS Linux For from Workgroup
Solutions), you will find out that both have the latest binary versions
of the best freeware. The two versions offer great clients like the Pine
email shell, the GNU emacs editor, the tin newsreader, and a terrific X
window manager called fvwm. In addition to Telnet and FTP, the Linux products
include server software for HTTP, Usenet news, NetBios networks, BBSes
and NFS. Even though these two Linux Offerings don't license the real thing,
you will find satisfying imitations of the Korn shell and the motiff window
manager.
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Product Information |
Linux boots faster, runs with lower resources, and is
more responsive than any of the more expensive versions of Unix. If you
are serious about running the X server, consider buying Metro X or one
f the other commercial X implementations available for Linux. These often
come with true OSF/Motif, and the display-card support is superior than
that in the freely distributed products. Just remember that Linux runs
great in text mode. You don't need to run the X servver on your Linux system
to serve the graphical clients to the rest of your network or the Internet.
| Linux Online Key ftp sites Mirror sites |
Whom do you trust?
Linux runs on many kinds of hardware, even old 386s, so deciding whether to buy it or not is a no brainier for the Unix aficionados and students of Computer Science. If you want to learn OS principles, C ++ programming, X development or Hyper Text Mark-Up Language (HTML) authoring, the better Linux distributions have all the tools you need. For businesses Linux can turn a retired 368 or 486 system into a capable information server for internal and external users.
Can corporations afford to put their faith in an unsupported OS like Linux? Many Unix users complain about big-name OSes letting them down. Large Unix vendors often take a time to identify and fix problems.
Linux developers boast a quick turn around time on problems. Issues with the core OS do get resolved rapidly, but there isn't yet a painless way to patch a running system. The trick to stability seems to be to hang back a few releases from the latest version. Torvalds has been explicit in classifying which releases are safe and which are in beta testing. The keepers of Slackware advise users to do a complete reinstallation for every new release. The slackware releases feature only stable, well-establishes kernels, and you might be tempted to upgrade your to a later release on the Internet. Unless You are just tinkering you probably shouldn't upgrade until Slackware does.
Linux has proven itself in the field of network services, whack makes it a solid choice as an Internet server for a low volume applications. It also makes a good, cheap router and even can be set up as a firewall.
What most keeps linux out of the major leagues is its lack of support for enhanced system configurations. Its standard file system is quick enough, but it lacks such needed features as mirroring, stripping, journaling, and tolerance. The OS is also limited to single CPU systems.
The evolution of Linux will be fascinating to watch. If it is an alternative to overstuffed, impersonal versions of Unix, won't adding multiprocessing and all that jazz eventually make it as unmanageable? We hope not, because in these days where everything technical is sanitized, commoditized, and idiot-proofed, it's great to know that the Linux world is still a place where wizard can hang out.
