A Brief Introduction to Linux ChengHan Du History

A Brief Introduction to Linux Cheng-Han Du

History

GNU Founded by Richard Stallman n GNU = GNU’s Not Unix n Free software n GPL, Copyleft n

Linux Founded by Linus Torvalds n Linux kernel n

Linux Distribution Ubuntu n Red Hat (Fedora) n SUSE n Mandriva n

Shell A user interface using command lines n bash, csh, ksh, … n

X Window System (X) It is not required if you run Linux in command-line mode. To use GUI, however, X is definitely necessary. n If hardware acceleration of graphics is needed, you need to further configure X. n

Linux Desktop: GNOME

Linux Desktop: KDE

Why Linux? Many downloadable packages which are free of charge. n Much better computation performance. n Less system restriction on resources. n Kernel is open-sourced and fully customizable. n

Disadvantages of Linux Progress on device driver update New hardware may not be operational when older Linux is in use. n Something not expected may happen. n Sometimes, you should work in terminal (command lines). n You should “google” to solve your problem. n

Recent Development n Some companies sell computer with Linux system included. ¨ Dell laptops -- Ubuntu ¨ ASUS Eee. PC -- Xandros n Many guidelines can be found online about installing Linux on desktop PC and laptops. ¨ Example: Think. Wiki for Lenovo Think. Pad

Some More Interesting Trivia For those Micro$oft users, upgrading the OS may be a hard task. n In several Linux system such as Ubuntu, it allows users to update their systems without too much work. n

n You can read and write data into Windows drives. (“ntfs-3 g” package needed)

Still Afraid of Linux? n Finalized Ubuntu 8. 04 (Hardy Heron) will be released in these days. ¨ n n However, you can use a beta version. The system will be automatically updated if final release is available. A new function called “wubi” allows you to install Ubuntu in Windows. If you don’t mind slow performance, you can even install Ubuntu without creating a new disk partition! That is, installation of Ubuntu is just as easy as of general applications. ¨ Uninstalling it is even easier! ¨