Introduction to Linux

Liam Green-Hughes
http://www.greenhughes.com

AACS-SSIT
http://intranet.open.ac.uk/aacs/usg/ssit/

25th February 2008

What is Linux?
 A Unix-like Operating System

 A famous open source project

 Free to use, distribute, modify under a compatible licence

 Produced by a large developer and user community

 A combination of many projects

 Cost of commercial development estimated at USD 7 billion

 Companies often make money by selling:

 Support

 Training

 Custom changes
What can it do for you?

Full operating system


Works well on a variety of hardware, including older hardware

 You can adapt it to fit your needs

 Thousands of programs available

 Secure by design

 LAMP stack

 Supports a wide range of programming languages

 Scalable
Where might you find Linux?
History
 GNU project started 1984 to produce a Unix-like OS
 Founded by Richard Stallman

Wrote the GNU manifesto in 1985 outlining philosophy

Software that is free means more than free of charge
"It means that much wasteful duplication of system
programming effort will be avoided. This effort can go
instead into advancing the state of the art."

By early 1990s many of the GNU OS utilities were complete

Meanwhile....
Linus Torvalds starts work on the Linux Kernel

First version released in 1991

Changes Linux to GPL licence in 1992
 Combined with GNU to make an OS

The first “Distros”...

 1992 - MCC Interim Linux

1992 - Softlanding Linux System (SLS)

1993 - Debian
Some previous issues...
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)
“If you just drag this out in a typical litigation path, where it takes years and years to settle
anything, and in the meantime you have all this uncertainty clouding over the market...”


SCO vs IBM
 Microsoft patents

Lock-out

IE only websites

Hardware support

Prejudice/Safety Zone

For new users...

 User has choice

 Terminal

 Communities can be intimidating

 Ubuntu code of conduct designed to help this

Linux Today
High profile adoptions:

French Police

French Parliament

City of Munich

Amazon

Google

Dreamworks (to produce Shrek)

Preinstalled:

Sub notebooks: EEE & OLPC

£99 laptop

Dell

Server hardware

Better support for Linux users

Edubuntu

A version of Ubuntu aimed at schools

Able to use thin clients

Makes use of older hardware
Case Study: OLPC
Background:
"Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are
inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does
not complete the fifth grade."

Why do they use Linux?

“Linux...holds the promise of long-term
sustainability by the local community—and,
being free and open. The opportunity for
local capacity-building abounds.”

 Hardware designed for tough environment


Features radical Sugar UI:
“since the laptop will be the first experience
of computing for many children, activities do
not have to be overly true to legacy
behaviors or expectations. This frees
developers to innovate.”
Case Study: SecondLife
Linden Labs uses Linux for SecondLife Servers

Uses 2000 servers

 Servers located in San Francisco and Dallas


Uses Debian Linux


CTO: Cory Ondrejka said Debian chosen as
can scale massively with a small number of IT
staff


Each geographic area corresponds to a
processor running software known as a “sim”

 Have plans to use more open source tools

Linux on the desktop
 Different desktop systems available
 Choose the one you like the best!

 Can adapt to Mac & Windows styles of operation

Where to from here?
Kubuntu and the *buntus

Grab a CD!

Kubuntu Website:
http://www.kubuntu.org

Ubuntu User Sites:

http://forums.ubuntu.com
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/

Switching From Windows:

http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/switching/

My blog:
http://www.greenhughes.com