How do you pronounce Linux?

What is Linux?

The Linux kernel is a clone of Unix, a very robust, powerful, highly adaptable operating system. Unix was originally written and developed at Bell Laboratories beginning in the late 1960s as an operating system that could be run in many different types of machines, which was uncommon at the time, and which was relatively simple and easy to use (although users accustomed to windows-based interfaces might find themselves laughing uncomfortably to think that command-line Unix was ever considered simple or easy). It was distributed freely at universities throughout the 70s. Following the breakup of AT&T in the early 80s, Unix was brought back within proprietary control and made less accessible to casual users.

Around the same time, the Free Software Foundation was organized by a former MIT hacker named Richard Stallman to promote the development and distribution of Unix applications, particularly software development tools. This project was and is known as GNU, a recursive acronym for "GNU's not Unix." The ethic of GNU was that these tools would be freely distributed, source code included, so that development could take place in a loose community of constant peer review. A wealth of software continues to be developed within this community.

Still, it was long believed that something as technically demanding as an OS kernel could be developed only by a small group of experts working closely together in a formal setting. But in 1991, a student at Helsinki University, Linus Torvalds, wrote the first Linux kernel and distributed it on the Internet, encouraging others to offer suggestions, modifications, and criticisms. Thousands responded and, in short, by 1994, the Linux kernel was widely considered a stable alternative to commercial Unix. The kernel is still in development, largely by a group of roughly two-dozen programmers distributed around the world and working under the loose direction of Torvalds, who works from Transmeta Corp. in Santa Clara, California. A new version, 2.4.14, was released in early November. (Torvalds has some very interesting ideas about software development.)

Whole corporations have since grown up around providing software media and technical support for Linux packages. Durham's Red Hat is one of the more prominent and successful of them. Others include Mandrake, Debian, SuSe, VA Linux, and Slackware. All of these distributions are available for purchase in electronics stores around the Triangle or free over the Internet.

Very often when people say "Linux" they're referring to one of these distributions, not merely to the kernel. A distribution includes everything a user would likely need to install and run a complete operating environment, generally including graphical interfaces (there are two commonly used with Linux), Web browsers, e-mail clients, compilers, text editors and multiple file, security and administration utilities.

What's Open Source software?

Generally, when you buy commercial software, there's no way for you to find out how it does what it does without guessing. It's been created by a small number of programmers and you don't have access to the computer code that lies underneath. But a large and growing number of programmers believe this is not the best way to develop software. When anyone who uses a program can examine the code, then potentially any one of perhaps tens of thousands of people can create changes, fix bugs, and extend the program's functionality. This is how the Open Source community operates. If you're not a programmer, you still have to wait for someone else to do the work, but open source development generally moves more quickly and, in theory at least, encourages broader creativity.

Linux is renowned for its stability. Highly active production machines running Linux have been known to operate for more than a year without needing to be rebooted. About half the World Wide Web servers in the world run Apache, a free, open source Web server. Other widely used open source applications include Sendmail, a mail server, and WU-FTP, a file transfer server, both of which, in addition to Apache, are in common use on the UNC campus network.

These programs are often referred to as "free software" and, although open source software is often available at no cost, this is not the only meaning of "free." Free software is that which is meant to be used freely, examined, configured, extended, customized, wherever and however the user chooses.

What's the connection between Linux and Open Source?

Linux, being an open source operating system, provides a platform for both users and developers of open source software. Because of Linux, open source advocates can run their software in an environment that is itself without cost, open to scrutiny and improvement, and freely distributed. Linux and Open Source are complementary elements of the same philosophy and practice of computing and communication. For this reason, Linux as a complete operating environment is often referred to as "GNU Linux."

Scope:

Subject Headings:

Free Computer Software
Linux
Torvalds, Linus, 1969-
Open source software
Red Hat Linux
Operating systems (Computers)
Linux-History

Locations:

Davis: Davis Library Stacks.
SILS: School of Inormation and Library Science Library, 114 Manning Hall.
M/P: Brauer Math/Physics Library, 365 Phillips Hall.
UL: R. B. House Undergraduate Library (collection currently housed in storage - available by request through Davis).
NetLibrary : Many books are now available in electronic format through the UNC Libraries. Like other electronic services, these are available to UNC students and faculty through the proxy server and to the general public from the terminals in Davis Library.

Browsing Areas:

Linux Culture:

DiBona, Chris, Sam Ockman, and Mark Stone (eds.). Open Sources: Voices From the Open Source Revolution. Beijing : O'Reilly, 1999.
Available online for students and faculty at UNC or to the general public from the computer terminals in Davis Library, this "e-book" is a collection of essays about the Open Source movement's history and philosophy, as well as some speculations about its future. Of especial note are Richard Stallman's "The GNU Operating System and the Free Software Movement" and Robert Young's Giving It Away: How Red Hat Software Stumbled across a New Economic Model and Helped Improve an Industry."

Open Source Development Network
A good general starting point for all things Linux and Open Source, the OSDN is perhaps the central clearinghouse. OSDN includes a huge number of links to other resources, including some mentioned here (Sourceforge and Freshmeat, for example).

Raymond, Eric S. The Cathedral and the Bazaar : Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. Sebastapol, Calif: O'Reilly, 2001.
[Davis, 8th Floor Stacks: QA76.76.O63 R397 2001/or online from NetLibrary]
Raymond is a prime mover in the Open Source movement and a vocal proselytizer. This is a collection of his essays, all of them originally published online, outlining the history and philosophy of Open Source. Most of the essays, which are constantly evolving, are available in their latest versions online. The title essay, in which he expounds on his own background in the field, may be seen as a manifesto of the movement. It is often quoted and cited and is highly instructive. Raymond is a stark and sometimes raving libertarian. His writings are illustrative, but his philosophy is definitely not for everyone.

Torvalds, Linus. Just For Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary. New York: HarperBusiness, 2001.
[Davis: QA76.2.T67 T67 2001]
In his book Torvalds takes a decidedly lighthearted and disarming look at his life as a computer nerd and his development of the first Linux kernel. He is seen as something of a shaman in the Open Source world. It's a pleasure to find he is a clear writer with interesting and insightful ideas. Some of his theories are less than penetrating, but overall the book provides a passing glance deep inside the hacker culture.

Open Source History
Archive including many of the founding documents of the movement. Included here are links to the Eric Raymond essay mentioned elsewhere, as well as "The Free Software Manifesto" and "The Open Source Definition" and copies of various open source licenses.

Philosophy of the GNU Project
GNU's official statement of purpose and philosophy. A comprehensive overview of the ideas that lie behind free software.

Background:

Hekman, Jessika Perry. Linux in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference. Sebastapol, Calif.: O'Reilly & Associates. 1997. (Siever, Ellen. 2nd Edition, 1999).
[SILS: QA76.76.O63 H453 1997]
This book is useful as a desktop reference, though it is definitely not a how-to. Most of the text is made up of an alphabetical list of Linux line commands with explanations of what they do and what options are available with them, the same material available in the online manual that ships with the Linux distribution. There are separate sections for the editors, emacs, vi, and sed, as well as for programming and system administration commands. The second edition is somewhat more comprehensive, including, for example, information on managing and using the various shells available with Linux, but fills the same niche.

Linux Online
Founded in 1994 as a non-profit "voice for the promotion and advocacy of the Linux operating system," Linux Online is a helpful clearing house for information on books, news, and other resources. The Linux Lessons pages are an excellent beginner's tutorial.

Sarwar, Syed Mansoor, Robert Koretsky, and Syed Aqeel Sarwar. Linux: The Textbook. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2002.
[SILS Reserve Desk: QA76.76.O63 S35545 2002]
An excellent overall glimpse at how and why Linux operates the way it does with clear instructions on how to run a generic Linux system. Organized like a textbook with many, many practice exercises, a brief, historical overview, and chapters devoted to a wide array of topics, from the organization of the Linux file system to advanced shell programming and network security.

Shah, Steve. Linux Administration: A Beginners Guide. Second Ed. Berkeley, Calif.: Osborne/McGraw Hill, 2001.
[SILS Reserve Desk: QA76.76.O63 S523 2000]
Shah's book is well organized and easy to follow. His writing is clear. He addresses the major issues, including networking, security, and file management. More technically demanding issues are skimmed over, but references are provided to more in-depth materials for the inquisitive or the more advanced. On the negative side, Shah occasionally assumes more knowledge of a reader than a beginner could reasonably be expected to have, explaining, for example, how to configure for running a RAID without defining just what this is or how to run it.

Wells, Nicholas. Guide to Linux Installation and Administration. Cambridge, Mass.: Course Technologies/Thompson Learning, 2000.
[SILS: QA765.76 .O63 W45 2000]
Includes some recent information on installation.. It's organized like a textbook with chapter summaries and key terms. The book opens with a discussion of the history and culture of Linux and open source, then covers installation, and finishes with system administration. The book is illustrated with a number of screenshots. It's very useful to the beginner, for example, to know, "OK, at this point my screen should look like this." A good resource. It will likely become obsolete before long (it includes an installation disk for Red Hat 6.0; Red Hat released version 7.2 in October), but for now is quite good.

Welsh, Matt, and Lar Kaufman. Running Linux, 3rd Edition. Sebastapol, Calif.: O'Reilly & Associates, 1996.
[SILS: QA76.765 .O63 W465 1996/UL: QA76.765 .O63 W465 1999/or online from NetLibrary]
This is a very good resource as far as it goes, clearly written, providing a comfortable amount of basic history and context. Its drawback is that the 2nd edition is badly out of date and the 3rd edition, while a good deal better, still is now two years old. The information is probably not wrong; it's just outdated. For example, the 2nd edition includes several pages on how to create hard drive partitions manually using line commands like fdisk. This is a good skill to have, particularly for a system administrator, but it's not necessary with more recent distributions that use a graphical installer. In many cases, the tools outlined in older handbooks like this one are still valid; but there are better, faster, more powerful, simpler tools available now.

Wells, Nicholas. Guide to Linux Installation and Administration. Cambridge, Mass.: Course Technologies/Thompson Learning, 2000.
[SILS: QA765.76 .O63 W45 2000]
Includes some more recent information on installation. It includes Red Hat 6.0 disk. Organized like a textbook with chapter summaries and key terms. History and culture of Linux and open source, then installation, then administration. Many screenshots. A good resource. It will likely become obsolete before long, but now is OK.

Where Can I Get "Free" Software?

Freshmeat
Freshmeat claims to be the largest source of Open Source software on the Internet, hosting about 17,000 active projects. This is no doubt an enormous number, but it's still fewer than Sourceforge. Nonetheless, Freshmeat is an excellent source for free, open source software that's still in the development stage.

Georgia Tech
Provides a mirror for some software sources, such as The Linux Kernel Archives, where recent versions of the Linux kernel are posted, as well as a wealth of software under development at the university. Experience says the software found here can be buggy and largely undocumented. But, for the adventurous, some of the projects are interesting.

GNU
The authoritative source for high quality, free, open source Linux and Unix compatible software. GNU's origins are outlined elsewhere in this document. Traffic can be heavy here; to preserve bandwidth, you can generally find GNU software at several mirror sites, including:

Ibiblio
Hosted in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ibiblio (formerly Metalab and Sunsite, by which names it still is frequently cited) is one of the largest and most comprehensive archives of Linux software, including many of the available distributions and much popular and heavily used software, both new and older versions. It is frequently updated and open to anonymous FTP. Ibiblio, a cooperative venture between UNC and the Center for the Public Domain, and which bills itself as "the public's library," is also an outstanding source for all sorts of public domain literature and music.

Sourceforge
This is the primary location for developers to post software that's still in the test stage. Some of it is virtually production-quality, some is extremely buggy. The point is that developers can check out each other's work, poke around in the code, and offer fixes. At this writing, Sourceforge archives more than 27,000 projects in various stages of development.

What about documentation?

The Linux Documentation Project
A volunteer project to create free, high-quality documentation for the GNU/Linux environment. Guides, HOW-TO's, manual pages, generally available in HTML, plain text, or .pdf formats. This is the standard source.

Linux Installation HOW-TO
The first step in using Linux is putting it into your system. This is not an intuitive process for many computer users. Eric Raymond's installation instructions provide a healthy dose of background and easy-to-follow setps.

Linux Lookup
A glitzy front-end for a service that includes links to sometimes outdated versions of the same HOW-TOs available on Linuxdoc.org. But it does include some pertinent news stories, security advisories, a "tip of the week," and a link called "The Newbie Navigator" which includes some good basic information about starting and running a Linux system.

Red Hat
All of the distributions have their own websites (for example, Mandrake, Slackware, Debian, and Yellow Dog, which is configured for PowerPCs). Some of them are better than others for documentation. Redhat's is excellent. Although it is a commercial site and one is encouraged to purchase Red Hat's products and technical support, a huge volume of documentation and encouragement is available to anyone with a browser and an ounce of initiative: guides to getting started, installation, customizing, and reference. Particularly useful is the hardware compatibility list, which documents modems, network cards, printers, etc., for which Linux drivers are available. Can be invaluable when installing on your own system.

Linux Gazette
A full text monthly journal published online by Linux Journal as part of the Linux Documentation project. The main page includes a link to a searchable index of all issues. Some of the articles here concern material well beyond the concern of the beginner, but it's a good source for technical information presented in a cookbook format well suited to application.

Linux Journal. Westport, Conn.: Robert F. Young, 1994-1996?; Seattle, Wash.: SSC, 1997- (bimonthly).
[M/P: Periodicals] or online
Glossy general-interest magazine of the Linux culture. It's a subscription journal, but some content is made available online.

Linux Magazine
Another glossy, general purpose magazine, including technical support and how-to columns, profiles of luminaries, etc. Again, by subscription only and not available in the libraries under consideration, but some of the content is available online. Linux Magazine is the sponsor of the annual "Tuxies," an annual awards contest in which individual applications and distributions are rated by the editors and celebrated in a special issue.

Linux Today
Daily digest of news stories about the Linux community. These are sometimes highly technical and might be irrelevant to the uninitiated, but more often they pertain to current events as seen from a particular perspective. For example, there is much coverage of the battle between the Justice Department and Microsoft, as well as of various pieces of legislation aimed at copyright protection and the computer industry. Linux Today also includes a number of links to Linux-related sites.

Linux Weekly News
LWN proivdes updates from the Linux world, news largely geared toward commercial promotion. Hosted by Tucows, which provides, among other things, domain name registration, the site contains a number of garish banner ads. However, the articles, separated into cagtegories such as security, distributions, development, and commerce, are generally pertinent.

Newsforge
A project of the Open Source Development Network and hosted by VA Linux, Newsforge is a public bulletin board for news of the Open Source development world. It's a commercial site with occasionally irritating and intrusive ads, but it is a valuable resource. Like Slashdot, Newsforge postings include threaded commentary.

Slashdot
Billed as "News for nerds, stuff that matters," Slashdot is an extremely popular country cousin to Newsforge (above), a news and discussion board for the IT world. It functions as a high-gloss bulletin board, its individual postings flagged with icons (a penguin for Linux, a padlock for security) that quickly identify their subject matter. The postings, which generally contain links to news stories recorded elsewhere, afre followed by threaded comments. Incidentally, the software that supports the site, called Slashcode, is open source and freely available. The page also includes a large number of links to other resources relevant to computer and information technology.