What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system that evolved from a kernel created by Linus Torvalds when he was a student at the University of Helsinki. Generally, it is obvious to most people what Linux is. However, both for political and practical reasons, it needs to be explained further. To say that Linux is an operating system means that it's meant to be used as an alternative to other operating systems like MS-DOS, the various versions of MS Windows, Mac OS, Solaris and others. Linux is not a program like a word processor and is not a set of programs like an office suite.

A brief history of Linux

When Linus Torvalds was studying at the University of Helsinki, he was using a version of the UNIX operating system called 'Minix'. Linus and other users sent requests for modifications and improvements to Minix's creator, Andrew Tanenbaum, but he felt that they weren't necessary. That's when Linus decided to create his own operating system that would take into account users' comments and suggestions for improvements.

Free Software pre-Linux

This philosophy of asking for users' comments and suggestions and using them to improve computer programs was not new. Richard Stallman, who worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had been advocating just such an approach to computer programming and use since the early 1970's. He was a pioneer in the concept of 'free software', always pointing out that 'free' means 'freedom', not zero cost. Finding it difficult to continue working under conditions that he felt went against his concept of 'free software' he left MIT in 1984 and founded GNU. The goal of GNU was to produce software that was free to use, distribute and modify. Linus Torvalds' goal 6 years later was basically the same: to produce an operating system that took into account user feedback.

The kernel
We should point out here that the focal point of any operating system is its 'kernel'. Without going into great detail, the kernel is what tells the big chip that controls your computer to do what you want the program that you're using to do. To use a metaphor, if you go to your favorite Italian restaurant and order 'Spaghetti alla Bolognese', this dish is like your operating system. There are a lot of things that go into making that dish like pasta, tomato sauce, meatballs and cheese. Well, the kernel is like the pasta. Without pasta, that dish doesn't exist. You might as well find some bread and make a sandwich. A plate of just pasta is fairly unappetizing. Without a kernel, an operating system doesn't exist. Without programs, a kernel is useless.

1991, a fateful year

In 1991, ideal conditions existed that would create Linux. In essence, Linus Torvalds had a kernel but no programs of his own, Richard Stallman and GNU had programs but no working kernel. Read the two men's own words about this:

Linus: "Sadly, a kernel by itself gets you nowhere. To get a working system you need a shell, compilers, a library etc." RMS: The GNU Hurd is not ready for production use. Fortunately, another kernel is available. [It is called] Linux. So combining the necessary programs provided by GNU in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a kernel, developed by Linus Torvalds in Helsinki, Finland, Linux was born. Due to the physical distances involved, the means used to get Linus' kernel together with the GNU programs was the Internet, then in its infancy. We can say then that Linux is an operating system that came to life on the Internet. The Internet would also be crucial in Linux's subsequent development as the means of coordinating the work of all the developers that have made Linux into what it is today.

Linux is introduced
Late in 1991, Linus Torvalds had his kernel and a few GNU programs wrapped around it so it would work well enough to show other people what he had done. And that's what he did. The first people to see Linux knew that Linus was on to something. At this point, though, he needed more people to help him. Here's what Linus had to say back in 1991. "Are you without a nice project and dying to cut your teeth on an OS you can try to modify for your needs?... This post might just be for you." People all over the world decided to take him up on it. At first, only people with extensive computer programming knowledge would be able to do anything with that early public version of Linux. These people started to offer their help. The version numbers of Linux were getting higher and higher. People began writing programs specifically to be run under Linux. Developers began writing drivers so different video cards, sound cards and other gadgets inside and outside your computer could use Linux. Nevertheless, throughout most of first part of the 1990's Linux did not get out of the 'GURU' stage. GURU is a term that has evolved to mean anyone who has special expertise in a particular subject. That is, you had to have special expertise in how computers worked to be able to install Linux in those days.

Linux, at first, not for everybody

Other popular software companies sold you a CD or a set of floppies and a brief instruction booklet and in probably less than a half an hour, you could install a fully working operating system on your PC. The only ability you needed was knowing how to read. Those companies had that intention when they actually sat down and developed their operating systems. Linus Torvalds didn't have that in mind when he developed Linux. It was just a hobby for him. Later on, companies like Red Hat made it their goal to bring Linux to the point where it could be installed just like any other operating system; by anyone who can follow a set of simple instructions, and they have succeeded. For some reason, though, Linux hasn't completely lost its 'Gurus only' image. This is largely because of the popular tech press' inability to explain in a meaningful way what Linux is. The truth is that few tech reporters have real life experience with Linux and it is reflected in their writing.

Linux Today

Today, Linux is enjoying a favorable press for the most part. This comes from the fact that Linux has proven to be a tremendously stable and versatile operating system, particularly as a network server. When Linux is deployed as a web server or in corporate networks, its downtime is almost negligible. There have been cases when Linux servers have been running for more than a year without re-booting and then only taken down for a brief period for routine maintenance. Its cost effectiveness has sold it more than anything else. Linux can be installed on a home PC as well as a network server for a fraction of the cost of other companies' software packages. More reliability and less cost - it's ideal. If you're reading this, you're obviously here to learn how to use Linux. Any learning experience means opening up to new ideas and new ways of doing things. As mentioned before, Linux is in the UNIX family of operating systems. UNIX is primarily designed to be used by professionals. You will have to learn some UNIX concepts in this lesson, but that doesn't mean that Linux is a professionals-only operating system. In fact, most major versions of Linux are designed to be as user-friendly and as easy to install as any other operating system on the market today. Now that you know what Linux is and how good it is, there's one more thing we have to do install Linux!

Installing Linux
Some preliminary considerations.
There are many different versions of Linux. Unlike other commercial operating systems that are controlled by one company, Linux is free to distribute and use. So, in the Linux world, there is a situation unlike what occurs in the proprietary operating system world: a number of companies, organizations and individuals have developed their own "versions" of the Linux operating system, known as distributions. There are versions of Linux that were developed to be installed on computers that receive heavy traffic, so to speak, like webpage servers. Some were developed to be used in networks where security is a priority; where sensitive information should only be accessed by a privileged few. There are versions of Linux that are meant to be installed on top of an existing operating system like Windows so people can try out Linux under familiar conditions. There are versions of Linux that are designed to be installed on platforms like Macintosh. There are versions of Linux with funny names like "Chainsaw Linux" (no kidding) and "Tutti-Frutti Linux" (yes, it's a joke)

What Linux is right for me?

This is a very difficult question to answer. To use an analogy, if I were going mountain climbing, I would need specific clothes to protect me from scrapes, the cold, wind, rain and other adverse climactic conditions. If I were going to a formal dinner, I would need a tuxedo. If I were going about my daily routine, I would wear "normal" clothes. There are computer world equivalents of mountain climbing and formal dinners as well as just sitting around the house. Linux has been fit into all those environments and more. There is even the equivalent of a swimsuit in Linux - a very scaled down version - just to cover the essentials. Most PC users probably just need the everyday version. This kind of Linux has been widely available for some time now. Since Microsoft makes its living selling people "ordinary"

operating systems, they have a lot to lose if Linux ever gets popular with the masses. For this reason they have done everything in their power to "warn" the public that Linux is something that you probably don't want and don't need. But in reality, Linux is just as easily installed and supports just as wide a range of hardware as Microsoft Windows does. The PR department at Microsoft is coming up with fewer and fewer reasons not to use Linux.

Linux on PCs containing Intel-based CPUs

It would be impossible to cover all of the different types of Linux so this lesson will only deal with standard versions of Linux that are meant to be installed on PCs with Intel-based CPUs. You may have heard of some of the companies and organizations that have created distributions for this platform, like Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat and SuSE . There are others as well. There are even versions of Linux that offer documentation and install programs in languages other than English. We should say here that it is not our intention to endorse the products of the companies we have mentioned here nor do we want to slight those companies that we haven't mentioned. Linux Online maintains a list of all kinds of distributions. We invite you to consult that list before deciding on installing any version of Linux.

Prepare your manuals

As we mentioned before, the major versions of Linux have perfected their products to such a degree that they are very easy to install. Well designed programs will take you through the process of installation step by step so that you will be able to get Linux up and running in a relatively short period of time without any headaches. But even commercial operating systems that are billed as being the most user-friendly in the world can't guarantee a 100% problem-free installation. The best thing to do before attempting to install Linux is to get the manuals that came with your PC out of the closet and dust them off. Major distributions of Linux have taken into account most standard hardware such as video cards, modems and sound cards, but as we said before, nobody can guarantee a problem-free installation for any operating system. Though you probably won't need them, they may help to track down a problem or prevent a future one. Now, go get those manuals, and we'll meet you in the next lesson!

What we can say about dual-booting

If you happen to have MS Windows 9.x you must repartition your hard drive to make room for Linux. You can either erase the drive and repartition a blank drive or you can attempt to repartition a working hard drive. Ideally, what was done in the "old" days was to install Windows in C: and D: partitions. This is relatively easy to deal with. As a matter of fact, my first install of Slackware Linux was on the D: partition of my Windows workstation. If you've got one partition with Windows on it, there are some supposedly non-destructive resizing tools. They always tell you to back up your data before proceeding, so I always figure what's the use in re-sizing when you can start clean from scratch. You may decide you want to throw away Windows all together!

Summing up, I recommend Linux-only installations. Linux has become quite "mature" as an end-user operating system, so I find these stories about being "weaned" off Windows to be ridiculous (the exception, supposedly, being those who run the financial software 'Quicken'). If you've bought a new car, you don't have to be "weaned" off that. You just trade in the old one and start driving the new one. The graphic user interfaces available plus the ever-growing numbers of productivity applications (office suites, browsers, email applications, etc.) make it such that a MS Windows user could have his/her workstation switched with a Linux machine overnight and they would barely break a sweat getting used to it. Everything works very much in the same way.

Booting from a CD
Chances are, if your PC is less than 5 years old, you can start a Linux installation right from the CD-ROM drive. The way to find out is to look at your computer's BIOS. There's really no need here to go into what your BIOS is or what it does. Let's just say that it's there and you need it for your computer to work. When you turn on your computer, there's a little message that says 'Press DEL to enter setup'. Anything that mentions the word DEL usually scares people. It shouldn't. Pressing DEL when your computer boots up will just get you into the BIOS setup tools. It won't get you into trouble, unless of course you start pressing buttons randomly. You'll see a blue screen pop up with some menu items. What you need to select is the item 'BIOS FEATURES SETUP' You'll see some more menu items. There's one that says 'Boot sequence'. That's the one you want. If you use the page up/ page down keys, you can set this item so that it says CD-ROM first. That just means that it will look for the disk in your CD-ROM drive first when the computer boots. Press ESC and then choose the item 'SAVE AND EXIT SETUP'. Don't forget to set it back to 'C' when you're finished installing Linux. We'll remind you later. If you can't boot from your CD there's an option to create a boot floppy. In your machine's BIOS, you might just see A,C - C,A and there's no CD-ROM mentioned there. Don't panic. You can make a boot floppy. They often come with boxed sets, but if you yours didn't come with one, we'll cover how to create one further along.

Partitioning
Your hard disk is like a pie. You can divide it into sections. Unlike a pie, after you've divided it, you can't give a piece to the dog. My dog did try to eat my hard disk once and he really relishes the floppies I leave lying around, but alas, I digress. For example, if you had two partitions, popular operating systems would generally call them C and D. You can call them Ginger and Fred, or Ginger and Marianne or even the Professor and Marianne if you like. I just use these bad jokes as a way of saying that C and D are naming conventions that belong to other operating systems. Linux doesn't use them. Linux may call them /hda3 and /hda5 for example. We'll get to that in a minute. Then you will need another partition known as a 'swap' partition. This 'swap' partition is just a way that Linux uses to get more memory so that you don't run out of it. The classic way of partitioning your hard disk is with a program called 'fdisk' The program comes with a lot of whistles and buzzers and flashing messages that say "Danger, Will Robinson". There's a version for Linux but it doesn't mention Will Robinson. We want to say here that this is the SWAT team method of doing it - the scorched-earth policy of partitioning. If you have that important term paper on your hard disk, or pictures of that

dream vacation to Hawaii that you haven't shown to your Aunt Betty yet or your best DOOM scores, you'll need to make back-up copies of them. The re-partioning using this method will get rid of them - forever! [cue ominous organ music]. But installing Linux isn't dangerous and if you choose to install you may not need such a drastic solution to your partition problem. As we mentioned before, If you're fortunate enough to have a hard drive with more than one partition (the old C: and D: routine), then it may be just a question of moving some files around. Unfortunately this lesson can't take into account everybody's individual circumstances. There's a tool called FIPS that comes with major Linux versions. This will re-arrange your hard drive so you can install Linux. There are also other commercial products that will do the same. That may be an option for you, unless you've got a hard drive that's bursting at the seams. You should know that any decent working Linux system - and by decent, I mean, having the programs that will let you do anything you did with your Windows system- will take at least 2 gigabytes. Please keep that in mind. And if you want those photos of Hawaii on there, I'd plan for a bit more To talk about where Linux and other operating systems should go. In any situation where you've got two things sharing the same space, like two people sharing the same apartment, one person will always exert his rights over the other. Other operating systems usually want to be the only ones in the computer, so even though it's really not going to be this way, you have to install them in the first 'primary' partition, and that way it thinks it's the only one there. That means installing it in /hda1 in Linux speak. So remember, if you've chosen to go the fdisk route, the other operating system should be re-installed first. When you've got that re-installed, you are free to install Linux in what's left. Once you've installed Linux, you can actually see the other system's partition, sort of like those phony mirrors at the supermarket. We'll talk more about that in another lesson.

Reboot and basic configuration

Your new Debian GNU/Linux system is now rebooting. When that's finished, you'll have to answer a few questions about configuration. You'll now be asked if you want to use Md5 passwords. Without getting into a lot of technical jargon, Md5 passwords are protected with an extra layer of security. You should choose this if you think you'll be needing extra security. You'll have to evaluate this on your own. If you don't choose this, you'll be asked if you want a 'shadow' password system. Once again, without going into any technical jargon, this is another Unix scheme for extra security. You should always answer 'yes' to this one because without it, your password, especially if it's some dictionary word, would become very easy to crack. By the way, you should never use a dictionary word as a password. As we're on the subject of passwords, now it's time to enter the password for the famous 'root' account. 'root' is the administrator of the system. It's also known as the superuser account. We'll get into more detail on the duties and privileges of root later on. Suffice it to say, you should now type in a password for the 'root' account. Please choose one that's easy for you to remember but would be difficult to guess or "crack". For example, if I were a Star Trek fan, I might be tempted to use Spock as a password. Spock probably isn't in the dictionary, but it

might be so well known now that it would be found in any program that crackers use to get into systems. Therefore, I would choose something a little less well-known in Trek lore and modify it somewhat. Trek fans will remember that mutant brat who once tried to take over the Enterprise, Charlie X. Well, 'ch4rl13X' might be a good password. Taking some letters and replacing them with similar looking numbers is an acceptable password procedure. The most secure method is, of course, creating a random string of lower case and capital letters and numbers and just remembering it. 'C2jl7y2B' is an excellent password. It is, however, difficult to remember. In the end, everybody comes up with his/own own scheme that works. Now you should create an account to work with normally. What I mean by "normally" is that Linux is a true multi-user system, so one machine can be used by hundreds of users. When each logs in, he/she is restricted to modifying only the files owned by him/her. This insures a lot of security and removes a lot of headaches. You should never do routine work as root. This account should be only used to perform important administrative tasks. Feel free to use your first name or the first letter of your name and your last name as the login for this account. Follow the password convention you're comfortable with. Now, you'll be asked to remove PCMCIA from the system if yours doesn't use it. Feel free to do so. You will now be asked if you want to configure your system to use your ISP. If you have a dial-up connection, this is a good time to use it. If you connect by way of broadband or better, you can skip this part. At this point, we're ready to choose the rest of the packages that will make up our Debian system.