ferret on 2/11/2002 at 17:19
If I knew of a good newbie guide to Linux, I would point you there and have done with it, but I don't so I'll give you the basics.
0. Linux is pronounced with an 'i' as in 'bint', not as in 'bite'.
1. Linux is based on a fairly old OS (operating system) called Unix, which was very much different from Windows. It works on more specialised machines rather than normal home PCs, and is useful for internet/network applications. It can tun on various 'architectures', such as IBM compatible (aka x86), PowerPc, Arm, SPARC. If these mean nothing to you, then don't worry about it. Let's just say Linux works on a lot of things.
2. Linux is "free". It can be downloaded off the internet (although there are some more advanced versions of Linux that cost a fortune). If you don't have a broadband connection, you can find a friend to copy it for you, look for it on PC magazine covers, or order CDs off the websites (this way you get a manual too, but altogether that can be quite expensive).
3. Linux comes in many 'flavours'. The core of the operating systems is developed and owned by a single man, Linus Torvalds (aka God). Other companies/people have created operating systems based on this 'core'. These have their own names, examples include SuSe, Caldera, RedHat, Gentoo (there are very very many of them). Some are specialised, for example there are versions that are less than one MB, and there are versions designed to be booted off the CD with all system files and programs loaded straight into the RAM (assuming you have about 256MB RAM or more). In the future, a lot of devices such as cars, kitchen things like washing machines, TV set-top boxes may run with a mini-version of Linux. Currently a fair amount of specialised hardware already runs on Linux, such as print machines. The reason why Linux is suited to this is explained in 4.
3a. About here, a distinction is needed between 'OS' and 'GUI', as well as 'Desktop environment'. It's very rarely clear-cut. For Windows 3.11, 9x, the OS is technically DOS, rather than Windows (although people argue). In Windows NT, 2k, XP, the OS is the NT kernel (although that doesn't really make sense, the kernel is not entirely the same as the OS - you shall have to accept that for now). In both of the above, Windows was the GUI. In, for example, Caldera Linux, the Linux kernel (again, this isn't absolutely right, but bear with it) is the OS, Caldera is partly the OS and the GUI, but on top of that, you have the Desktop Environment, of which there are several types (I'm not entirely sure on this, I know X (or X11) is one, Gnome is another, is SunOS(Solaris) one?). This is your actual desktop basically, and your window system (if your Linux is a window-based one). The Caldera bit in this case is a whole lot of code which enhances the kernel, makes alterations to it (although they can't to the extent that programs expecting certain kernel behaivour won't get it...), controls messages between programs (although IINM Linux doesn't use a system of communication between programs anywhere near like that of Windows: in Windows the controls and such (like buttons, text boxes) on a Window are Windows in their own rights, and are controlled by messages. In Linux, a Window is just a non-specialised are an application can write to. Or something. I'm not sure).
4. The keyword with Linux, Linux OSs and Linux programs is 'Open Source'. This means you can look at plain text , pre-compiled code, make minor changes and compile it, to make a program do exactly what you want. There are rules, however, you can't just slightly alter people's programs and release them, for example. This is what really makes Linux rise above Windows, in that Software Licenses in open source applicationss often try to give you as much freedom as feasibly possible. I recommend you read some articles at (
http://www.gnu.org)
4a. A lot of programs for Linux are free. Not all of them, but a fair number. StarOffice, for example, which is a complete replacement for Microsoft Office, runs all of it's formats, and more besides. Replacements for Internet Explorer in Linux put IE to shame (although most of these programs are also available in Windows).
5. There are some more things you need to know. You can run Windows and Linux on the same machine, but (in most cases) you either need seperate hard-drives, or partitions (If you don't know what this means: they are, if you like, where you split a single hard-drive into multiple 'imaginary' hard-drives). You can't (with exceptions, see 6.) run Windows programs on Linux, or vice versa. A lot of programs are released with Linux and Windows version, especially open source programs. Theoretically, if someone releases source files in say, Java, it can then be compiled on any operating system, although in reality the source files would be optimised for the different operating systems.
6. Windows programs can be run on Linux through a program called WINE (there are other similar programs and some emulators, which I don't know of). WINE stands for 'Wine Is Not an Emulator' (a recursive acronym, like PHP). Why is it not an emulator? This requires some explanation:
- Windows programs communicate to each other through little messages. There are special formats for these messages, etc.
- To control hardware, programs in windows use something called API calls. Basically, it's best to assume that if you make an API call that is supposed to make some bit of hardware do something, it will do it. Windows has never released information about how these APIs work, the only information they have really given is a file called WinAPI.txt, which is basically a list of all the APIs and how to call them. With some development kits more information is given on usage, but not on how they work (specifically: no source code).
- WINE runs windows programs by recieving messages, processing them through normal Linux methods, then giving the correct 'responses' where required. Certain specific programs within Windows that are expected to 'exist' by programs are kind of 'emulated', but it's much more complicated than that.
- WINE has recently evolved to such a stage that really quite compicated Windows programs (like Deus Ex) can be run on it, and at quite a speed. In some cases, on the same machine this speed can be more than with Windows (although this is rarely the case with games, and some games would still not work on it: WINE is a work in progress, though, and is definitely not a finished work. I predict by the time it is done it will beat the crap out of Windows at running it's own software :p)
7. Where were we? Oh yes, if you are interested in Linux, you really should read up on it more. I am in the process of doing this myself now. If you're ever going to university in the UK, you will almost certainly be using *nix (the collective term for Unix, Linux, and similar) there. There are, for example, 'newbie' versions of Linux (although they are still fairly complicated), basically offering an interface that users of Windows can feel comfortable with. Despite this, they are powerful (all Linux are more powerful than Windows in virtually every way).
8. In summary: Linux is faster than Windows, cheaper than Windows, better than Windows, more powerful than Windows, somewhat more complicated than Windows, more conscious than Windows...
