N O R T H C O A S T T IM E S E A G L E , MARPRIL 2006
P A G E 15
WHA T’S ALL THIS ABOUT LINUX?
BY TERRY J. ERICKSON
In 1991 Linus Torvalds, a nice 21 year old Swedish­
speaking Finn was a computer programming student at Helsinki
University. He learned programming by working on a big main­
frame machine at the institution. Huge computers like that ran
Unix, a powerful standard operating system software created in
the 1960's and which is still very much in use today on Internet
servers, and for other purposes.
Linus enjoyed creating programs to run on these Unix
machines. He loved the simplicity, efficiency and power of the
multi-user Unix OS (operating system). However, one aspect
of working in this field was a real bummer. At home, on his little
386 PC, Linus had only a couple of lame choices of software to
run. MS-DOS was okay for a home user, but never could hold
a candle to the beauty and power of Unix. Minix was sort of a
commercial version of Unix that was made to run on personal
computers (PC's) but Minix had programming limitations and
was not free.
So Linus Torvalds decided to use his programming skills
to create an all-new, free, Unix-type OS for his 386 PC. Actually
at first he meant it only to test some aspects of the 386 chip. It
was part of his schoolwork. It was to improve his programming
skills. When he posted the following article to an Internet bulletin
board in 1991 heads turned:
From: torvalds@klaava. Helsinki. FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.Minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in Minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava. Helsinki. Fl>
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University o f Helsinki
Hello everybody out there using Minix —
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, wont
be big and professional like GNU) for 386(486)A T clones. This
has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I'd
like any feedback on things people like/dislike in Minix, as my
OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file­
system due to practical reasons among other things). I've
currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to
work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few
months, and I'd like to know what features most people would
want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I wont promise I'll
implement them.
Linus (torvalds@kruuna. helsinki. fi)
PS. Yes — it's free o f any Minix code, and it has a multi­
threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc),
and it probably never will support anything other than AT-
harddisks, as that's all I have...
A few people expressed real interest, and some contri­
buted useful code. This was a point when it actually worked on
Linus's machine, but imagine the problems he would have faced
at first, such as not being able to see the output until making the
display work! How can you type instructions to your new OS
without a keyboard driver? Seems tricky to me. During the next
year, however, with the help of collaborators all over the Internet
Linus was able to create a new kernel. The Linux kernel allowed
folks to use — at home, on their PC's — a great body of free
software that had been created by open-source developers
during the last couple of decades for use on UNIX, and in antic­
ipation of a viable, free kernel being released (google Richard
Stallman, GNU license.)
Linux is free software. This means more than simply that
its price is $0. It means you can take it and do anything you want
to it. Hack it, modify it, make it do anything. But you must extend
these rights to anyone to whom you provide the software! And
you can charge money to distribute the software and/or to
provide support — as long as the Source Code remains freely
available to view and modify. The GNU Public License takes
care of that.
This is the hugest difference between Linux on the one
hand and proprietary OS's like Windows, Mac, and Unix on the
other. Joe Blow programmer isn't allowed to (and can't) see the
Source Code of the operating system. Source Code means the
OS itself, in the form of programming language. When a person
buys a CD or downloads a program from the Internet, that
program is most likely already compiled. This means it has been
reduced to its lowest common denominator of ones and zeros
and can no longer feasibly be read by the human eye. Reverse­
engineering compiled software like Windows is next to impos­
sible as far as I know. Only company programmers are allowed
to see the code Windows is made of. Likewise for Mac and SCO
Unix, to name a few examples.
GERALD MOSS
Unix is a powerful train that is owned by big corporations
and conglomerates. Anyone can get on for a fee, and it'll take
you to a lot of great places, but you can't drive it home.
DOS is a cheap bike that you could probably fix yourself
if it broke.
A Mac is a turbine-driven Volkswagen or a sort of space
ship. It'll take you anywhere a civilized human would want to go,
but the engine compartment is hermetically sealed. Take it to
the Mac Store if anything goes wrong. And it costs money to own
these. They're for folks who want the very best and will pay for it.
And since only 5% of people have Macs, it's sort of become a
club.
Challenged by the upstart Apple Macintosh in the 1980s
and early 1990s, DOS was transformed by a great surge of
business-like creativity at its home company, Microsoft. Windows
became a fancy Cadillac with power steering and power brakes
— and an (after-market?) radio that just might also be a spy
listening device — or might not be. We can't tell for sure because
its engine and the radio are hermetically sealed. And the price of
Windows is still around a hundred bucks (unless you live in some
countries in Asia, in which case it's a fraction of that.)
Linux is a free, freely moddable sport-utility vehicle that
goes anywhere, emits no pollution, carries as many as you like,
goes a million miles an hour, and costs nothing to operate. True,
you will need some basic skills to set it up. It may not be for
everyone, but the engine and transmission are easily accessible
to those who have the inclination to tinker.
It's easy to install and use. I've installed several versions
of Linux operating systems on hundreds of machines. It’s usually
just as easy or easier to install than Microsoft Windows. If you’re
choosing a Distro (flavor?) these days, I recommend Ubuntu.
, It’s super easy. During the installation, you choose or create the
hard disk partitions to be used. Ubuntu will not overwrite your
Windows partition if you choose not to. It's a pretty hairy
proposition installing another OS alongside your Windows, but
Ubuntu has always performed admirably, creating a dual-boot
situation perfectly every time. You see, the Ubuntu developers
know that the average user will not give up his Windows or other
OS before trying Linux. Ubuntu is just as easy to use as Mac
OSX or Windows XP, and it has some enhancements I like a lot.
Security? Linux is created by expert programmers for
their own use. It's put to use by all types of computer users
worldwide, including corporations like IBM (which also sells Linux
Servers). It's well known to be much more secure than Windows.
Your Linux box can't catch the same worms and viruses users of
Windows get.
Aside from a little difficulty finding the 'History' button
in Mozilla (there is none: hit “Go" and then “History”), most
people, including Pierce Christie at the Mallternative Music
Exchange in Astoria, find Linux to be a feasible alternative
to Windows E-mail and the web work fine. Writing a letter,
creating a database, burning a CD, opening a Microsoft Office
Document, all can be done with ease on a machine equipped
with a recent version of Linux. Many of today's most awesome
3D games have a version for Linux, 'Unreal Tournament' and
America's Army’ to name two. I find that the Linux versions
of these games is generally more robust (don't crash) than
the Windows version. I think this results from the OS's native
stability.There’s a growing community of Linux-only games, too.
I watch movies, play high-quality music, create web
pages, type documents (eg. this one). Although GNU/Linux has
its own native programs that can fulfill the average user's needs,
some may yearn for more Windows-compatibility. How about
using Wine and running 90% of Windows programs under
straight Linux? Or how about using a “virtual machine “ program
to actually run Windows itself in Linux. (Too cool, huh?)
Linux, along with Apache Server, has been commonly
used for many years for practical Internet purposes such as for
a Web server, FTP server, Mail Server, DNS, etc., and is known
to be among the very best and most secure for these jobs.
In the past couple of years, however, great advances
have been made in the graphical interface department, and in
making existing and new programs more user-friendly. Those of
us who grew up with Windows but have always wished for more
now can have a rich and rewarding experience using a choice
version of Linux!
Why should any normal human be interested in Linux?
I confess I don't know, unless s/he wanted privacy, security, the
real true power of the Internet, and a computer OS that never
crashes, all for free.
To learn more on the Web, you can search with
google.com for Linux or 'Linux distributions' or ‘free software
GNU’ or 'Ubuntu' or something like that. Or just go straight to
http://ubuntulinux org or www.linux.org or www.kernel.org or
maybe linux-mandrake.com.
Terry Erickson lives Astoria You can also read this
article at astoria doesntexist.com.
THÉ COAttWNlTySToRE
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