Re: Of mice and men

Pete Dashwood wrote: 
Cheers for the info. I saved the link and wull check it out when I have the
system.

I really need some kind of "Introduction to Linux" because I have no idea
what the products are that you mentioned. "Suse"?, "White Hat"?.


Well, it looks like I have an hour before I can do much, so let me see if I can fill you in on a few basics.

To talk about "Linux" is really a bit of a misnomer ... the real topic is the GPL, or general public licence. That is a legal agreement of copyright ... that the software under it will be distributed in *source code*, and may be used freely under that licence *provided* that all subsequent code using it also includes source, original source, and attribution to the authors. That is the gist of it. The full agreement and thousands of articles are freely available for further reading.

Thousands of programs have been written under the GPL. They include everything from the Appache web server, to the Openorg office suite (spread***, word processor, etc.). They also include *several* Gui's, that run under Linux as clients. Most of them run using the GPL Xorg screen routines, so are compatible. As well, it includes Linux itself (normally called the kernel), and compilers to compile it all. Strictly by the licence,though, you are entitled to and get *source code*. And that on a module by module basis, from the owners.

In theory then, you can go out and get the kernel source, compile it for your specific machine, gather in a gui and a set of tools, compile them, and then arrange it all in the spiffiest one-off that has ever been designed for a home system. In fact, not many people (including me) have the knowledge or the time to do so.

In come distributions. A distribution (Mandrake, Red Hat, Suse, etc.) is a group or company that have done exactly that. The typical distribution is put together in standard install disk(s). Load and go. It will contain a pre-compiled kernel for a class of machines, and a huge amount of "other" software ... whatever the distributers care to test and package as part of the distribution. Mandrake, for example, comes in two forms ... a 32 bit and a 64 bit. Each is a single boot DVD, or a set of boot CD's.

There are really dozens and dozens of distro's ... the install for an advanced distro, for example, will normally be a special Linux that runs with memory disks only. Knopix is a distro that will load and go from a CD with *no* native disks. It can look at drives for other systems though, and can run tests, and can do things like re-partition a hard disk. There are special distro's for PDA's, for game boxes, etc. The Mac OSx is a distro by them specifically set up for their hardware. And so on.

Mandrake, Suse, and Red hat seem to be the main distro's, and each of them contains several things. They come with Kernal, two or three GUI's, and a whole slew of pre-compiled applications, all tied up neatly into menu's and stuff. The result may look like a window system, but really is not.

It is an open OS, that runs as a client/server model, full fledged multi-user system ... unix at the command line, with enough security that logged in as a normal user, I cannot change even another user's data, let alone the OS software (as with a virus). You can log in remotely, have a web server and/or FTP server, etc. All the goodies of a "main frame" service bureau timesharing service.

Then, on top of that, you have a user logging in and using a GUI, browser, etc., in the local user space. That is the reason the security is so good ... if I log in as a user and erase everything I can find on the disk, I only harm my own account. I can then log out, log in as an administrator, and create a new account for myself that will be set up from scratch. That user will start with a brand new "welcome to" screen etc., just like a new OS for a single user. I digress.

RPM files. The RPM file is a relatively new way of packaging Linux software. This is a system, actually, that unpacks, compiles, installs and keeps track of software installed in a local data base. It has facilities for checking specified sites for changes, upgrades etc, and automatically installing them. It can also remove software, give you lists of dependancies, etc. I would recogmend to any beginner that they stick to RPM packages until they have their feet wet. Mandrake and Suse both use this package by default.

KDE and Gnome. KDE and Gnome are the two more poular GUI's. Both run under Xorg screens, so can co-exist. The Xorg screen's can run remotely under both Windows and Linux, so you can run a program on a windows machine that is actually running on a remote Linux server. KDE is a more business-like look to me ... quite a formal screen. Gnome looks more like a kid's toy, bright colours, larger icons. Lots swear by it, though, and I understand it is extremely good for those with bad eyes.

There are also several stripped down GUIs that would be ideal for building OEM systems. I can start with a blank screen and no menu's, for example, and build a very restricted GUI for something like a cash register.

Caveats. The learning curve is horendous. After a year, I am past the screaming in rage and banging on my screen with the keyboard stage, but not by a lot. Documentation ranges from not too bad to "what?". There are a million variations for everything, and only 75 of each have been tried. The people that tried them in 70 of those cases will be rude and obnoxious. They will talk to you, but probably not until after you have figured it out for yourself (what else is new?).

Bottom line ... I am having more fun than I've had for years, and the damned thing does *exactly* what you tell it to. If you are really stuck ... check the source. There are no secrets. Backup and restore work, without having to jump through hoops. The annoyances are of the "so *thats* the way it works!" sort rather than "those bastards! they screwed me AGAIN!" type. I like it.

Donald








.