An Introduction to Linux Name: Haixin Wang ID : 98903

What is Linux? Linux, properly known as GNU/ Linux, is a free, UNIX-like OS. It developed originally for home PCs, but now runs on a variety of platforms including PowerPC, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari, DEC Alpha, Sun Sparc, ARM, and many others.

Linux aims for POSIX compliancy to maintain maximum compatibility with other UNIX -like system. Linux is probably the most popular UNIX-like OS in the world.

The Linux System The central nervous system of Linux is the kernel. The kernel design is modular, so that the actual OS code is very small yet able to load whatever functionality it needs when it needs it and then free the memory afterwards.

The kernel is under constant development and is always available in both the latest stable release and latest experimental release.

Stability Linux boxes are known for running month or even years at a time without crashing, freezing, or having to be rebooted. Linux is Y2K -compliant. Viruses for Linux do not exist.

Speed Linux machines are known to be extremely fast, because the OS is very efficient at managing resources such as memory, CPU power and disk space.

Graphical Interface Linux has at least a dozen different highly configurable graphical interfaces ( known as window managers) which run on top of Xfree 86. The most popular window managers now are KDE( the K Desktop Environment) and the GNOME ( the GNU Network Object Model Environment). These offer the point

-and click, drag- and -drop functionality associated with other user-friendly environments, but are extremely flexible and can take on a number of different looks and feels.

Software Development Nearly all development for Linux is free and covered under the GNU Public License, which guarantees that it will always remain free. Linux systems come standard with C and C++compilers and an assembler, and often include Pascal, FORTRAN and BASIC implementations as well.

Modern languages like Perl and Python and classic languages like LISP are all available, full functional and completely free. The source code for nearly any Linux program is freely available ( and often included by default).

Networking Since Linux is based on UNIX, where computer networking more or less developed, probably all networking protocols in use on the internet are native to UNIX and /or Linux, so one can expect the UNIX and Linux would network better than any other platforms.

Setting up a network on a Linux machine is simple, because Linux handles most of the work. Linux is made for networking. A large part of the Web is running on Linux boxes.

Productivity Linux has always strived for compatibility and openness. Linux productivity packages can usually read and write files from productivity packages on other platforms. Linux is happy to coexist on the same machine as other operating systems.

What software is available for Linux? Linux’s open Source approach to software development has produced thousands of pieces of all varieties, which are constantly being improved. Almost all Llinux software are completely free along with source code. There are also many excellent archives of Linux software as well as GNU software and other UNIX compatible software.

Application From household appliance control to World Wide Web tools, Linux has a lot to offer. GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program is similar to Photoshop but highly extensible and completely free.

Linux also has audio applications. You can use Linux for ham radio and video applications.

Development software C, C++, and an assembler come by default on all distributions. Linux has all sorts of other languages available, including Ada, APL, BASIC, Fortran, GOM script, INTERCAL, LISP

Logo, Mercury Objective C Pascal and a lot more. Programmers can choose between using gcc and egcs, the GNU C Compiler and the Experimental GNU Compiler System..

Games Linux has loads of games---the Linux Tome lists over 230 entries. Free Linux games, however are often of very high quality and most entertaining.

Scientific Software UNIX was originally used by scientists, so there is a lot of scientific software available for Linux, including the TeX and LaTeX scientific typesetting packages.

There are scientific applications for astronomy, biology, cartography, chemistry, laboratory work, mathematics, graphing and visualization and so on. Linux is quite at home in scientific applications and is often used by laboratories.

System software Since Linux is based in UNIX and very much compatible with it, there is an abundance of system software for Linux. System software includes things from daemons to networking, to file systems,

hardware support, emulation, benchmark s and generic file utilities. Linux supports parallel processing and RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), and has resources for managing all sorts of hardware issues which are very important to mainframes and supercomputers.

Utilities Linux has file utilities. It also has command-line and even graphic interfaces for all sorts of disk and file operations, from converting sound and audio formats to compressing, archiving, and encrypting files.