Linux: Difference between revisions

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written from scratch
 
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Linux is a UNIX-clone.  It tries to do everything the same or better than the Unix you can buy. Oh did I mention it was sorta-free?  Yeah you can change its freely available source code but then you have to share all your pretty changes with the world. This is because of the GNU license. Linux is still somewhat cool because you can read its source and learn off it.
Linux is a UNIX-clone, written from scratch.   
 
It was [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.minix/browse_thread/thread/76536d1fb451ac60?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&rnum=9 created by Linus Torvalds] in 1991 as an alternative to [[Minix]].  Since then, many programmers around the world shaped Linux into a modern operating system. Most commonly today found as [http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html GNU/Linux].  Linux is written using mostly the [[C]] programming language.
 
If you want to try Linux without affecting your computer permanently, all you need is to obtain a "live-on" cd such as [http://www.knoppix.org/ Knoppix]. You can either download it from their site and burn it, get a friend to, or buy it. Then when you boot off this cd-rom it will load the image into [[RAM]]. It won't delete anything you have on your harddrive. At any time you can decide you want to just got back to the operating system on your hard drive by taking out the cd, or you might want drop knoppix from cd onto your harddrive so it is a lot faster and more customizable. Or you might want to move onto a common distribution.
 
If you have a spare computer, or are ready to move to linux, you can download and install any of the following for absolutely free.
[http://www.distrowatch.com Common Distributions] include the following:
 
[[Slackware]]
[[Debian]]
[[Suse]]
[[Redhat]]
[[Gentoo]]
[[Mandriva]]
[[Ubuntu]]
 
 
Handy Documentation can be found here:
 
[http://www.tldp.org tldp.org]

Latest revision as of 07:47, 28 October 2010

Linux is a UNIX-clone, written from scratch.

It was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 as an alternative to Minix. Since then, many programmers around the world shaped Linux into a modern operating system. Most commonly today found as GNU/Linux. Linux is written using mostly the C programming language.

If you want to try Linux without affecting your computer permanently, all you need is to obtain a "live-on" cd such as Knoppix. You can either download it from their site and burn it, get a friend to, or buy it. Then when you boot off this cd-rom it will load the image into RAM. It won't delete anything you have on your harddrive. At any time you can decide you want to just got back to the operating system on your hard drive by taking out the cd, or you might want drop knoppix from cd onto your harddrive so it is a lot faster and more customizable. Or you might want to move onto a common distribution.

If you have a spare computer, or are ready to move to linux, you can download and install any of the following for absolutely free. Common Distributions include the following:

Slackware Debian Suse Redhat Gentoo Mandriva Ubuntu


Handy Documentation can be found here:

tldp.org