Number 198 - November 1999

COMPUTING ON THE BLEEDING EDGE Exploring Linux - Part 1
by Neil Stahfest, TAPCUG's August 1999 Data Line
I first heard about Linux four or five years ago. Linux is a computer operating system, like MSDOS, Windows 98 and the Mac OS. It operates the internal works of your computer. It is the interface between your word processing program, web browser, etc. and your computer's hardware.     Linux is the invention of Linus Torvalds. He created it while a student at the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 1991. It started out as a hobby, a sort of challenge, to create a computer operating system based on UNIX. Those of you who have been around computers for a while will know that UNIX was invented by AT&T back in 1969. It became widely used by universities, the military and business on what were called mini-computers in those days. Today's PCs are much more powerful than those old mini-computers and can easily run UNIX. Sun Microsystems makes a lot of money selling UNIX based systems. Back to our story.     Torvalds announced what he was doing on the Internet (this was in the days just before the World Wide Web), asking for volunteers to help with his project. Many people responded and on March 14, 1994, Linux version 1.0 was released. In releasing Linux to the public, Torvalds did something very unique. He made Linux FREE and created an "open source license". This license means that you can get Linux FREE, from a number of locations, along with the source code. You are allowed to make enhancements to it but they also must be released to the public, for FREE. This may have been the idealistic whim of a college student but it was picked up by many others who volunteered their time to work on this project. The volunteers now number in the thousands, worldwide.     In my first attempt to use Linux, I downloaded the software and instructions from a university file site. I then proceeded to install it on an old computer with an Intel 386 CPU. It was interesting to play with but didn't do much, as far as I was concerned. I found a copy of the game DOOM that would play on Linux. It was every bit as good as the PC version, but I already had the PC version. My kids beat me frequently when I tried to play against them. I removed Linux and let the kids play their DOS and Windows based games on the 386 computer.	This spring, someone in my office got a copy of Linux and started to talk about it. I'm not what I consider to be a computer hacker but I enjoy exploring new things related to computers. I was curious.     Linux has grown over the past few years. It's now up to version 2.2. There is a Windows front end that you can run on it called XWindows. It's kind of like Windows 3.1 in that it is separate and sits on top of the Linux operating system. It is different in that there are a number of different versions, about two dozen the last time I checked, and they are all FREE and customizable.     Another thing that's happened is that Linux has become very popular to run network servers. In fact, last year Linux was installed on more network servers than any other operating system except Windows NT! Its main advantages are that it is smaller than NT, has less demanding hardware requirements, is more stable (Linux servers have been known to operate for months without needing to be touched) and, of course its FREE.     Recently, Linux has started to become popular on standalone PCs. It runs on 386, 486, Pentium and Pentium II PCs very well, although you'll want at least a Pentium to run XWindows. It will run on 8 megs of ram but I wouldn't try it on less than 16 megs. You can still obtain it for free but I would recommend that you purchase a packaged version, as I did, like RedHat 6.0. It may cost you as much as $70, although I've seen it for less. That will get you an installation guide book (350+ pages), a CD to install Linux with XWindows and a number of fundamental programs, a CD with hundreds of Linux application programs and a third CD with four Linux books in digital format. Another source is "The Complete Idiots Guide to Linux" by Manuel Alberto Ricart, a Que book for $19.99 that includes the Caldera distribution of Linux on a CD.     That's enough background information. Next month I write about my attempts, successful and unsuccessful, to install Linux.
Number 198 - November 1999