| So What Is
This Linux Thing Anyway ?
Linux is a completely separate system to traditional Unix, having it's roots in a programming project undertaken by a student who found the commercial versions of Unix too expensive. Linus Torvalds decided to write his own version of unix, which would provide him with a true multitasking operating system that ran on the PC architecture. The rest, as they say, is history. For a more than adequate introduction (with links to whet your appetite) try clicking here. Linux is free, comes with complete source code, runs on anything from a 386 with 4Mb to the very latest multi-processor architectures and DEC Alpha. It is fully Internet-ready, with telnet (server & client), FTP (server & client), Usenet News (server & client), E-mail (server & client), TCP/IP, PPP, SLIP, X-Window GUI etc etc. The Apache web server comes packaged with some of the inexpensive 'commercial' versions of Linux e.g. RedHat, Slackware, Caldera etc. Commercial versions generally imply that they will load fairly easily from a CD, will have all the necessary bits and pieces, plus some fancy extras, and you wont need to spend hours downloading what is one of the leading desktop operating systems from an FTP site on the Internet. For the privilege you will pay between $ 2 and $ 99, depending on where you buy your CD. Linux is arguably the best desktop operating system available, has won numerous awards in recent years for its constantly advancing functionality and provides outstanding support for its user community via Usenet newsgroups. Developed as it has been and continues to be, by a dedicated group of people spread across the globe, it manages to incorporate new features faster than any other system, is available with source allowing greater peer-review of any code that is eventually to be incorporated in the 'official' versions and is very efficient with system resources. I know. This all sounds too good to be true doesn't it ? Surely nothing you can get for free can possibly be more reliable, more efficient and more feature-rich than Microsoft Windows NT and still work on the Intel platform can it ? Don't just take my word for it, check out the Linux Home Page where you will be pointed to press articles, reviews, news, The Linux Documentation Project and a whole host of other links that will explain far better than I ever could what you may have been missing.... While I was managing the Alternative TPF Homepage from my own server I had it running on Linux. It did not have a single outage for nine months, except for when I had to swap out a failing parity-memory module. I switched to Windows NT 4.0 when I co-located the server and it had to be re-booted regularly to cure memory leaks and a series of other problems (and the NT software cost me over $ 800 at the time too !?). List Price: $29.95 From the Publisher Click here to buy this book now !
Linux, a UNIX-compatible operating system that runs on personal computers, is a pinnacle within the free software movement. This guide provides an introduction to all Linux software related to networking. It touches on all the essential networking software included with Linux, plus some hardware considerations. Click here to buy this book now ! List Price: $54.95 Book Description |
