Introduction to Linux

Prayas Mohanty (Red Hat Certified Instructor)

Red Hat Certification ID: 100-005-594
 Let us have
our
Introduction
Introduction to Linux

● History of Operating System

● Development of Linux

○ GNU Project

○ POSIX

● Advantage of Linux

● How Linux is Free

What is Linux?
Operating System

● OS is the interface between hardware and user

● All computers need an OS

● OSes are used to run applications and control hardware

● Popular OSes include Windows, Linux, Mac OSX

OS History

● In 60's, AT&T Bell Lab Developed Unix.

● In 80’s, Microsoft’s DOS was the dominated OS for PC
● Apple MAC was better, but expensive
● UNIX was much better, but much, much more expensive. Only for minicomputer for
commercial applications
● People was looking for a UNIX based system, which is cheaper and can run on PC
● Both DOS, MAC and UNIX were proprietary, i.e., the source code of their kernel is
protected
● No modification is possible without paying high license fees
GNU project

Established in 1984 by Richard Stallman, who believes that software should be free from
restrictions against copying or modification in order to make better and efficient computer
programs.
GNU is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix”
Aim at developing a complete Unix-like operating system
which is free for copying and modification
Companies make their money by maintaining and
distributing the software, e.g. optimally packaging the
software with different tools (Redhat, Slackware, Mandrake,
SuSE, etc)
Stallman built the first free GNU C Compiler in 1991. But still,
an OS was yet to be developed
History of Linux

● Inspired by the UNIX OS, GNU was started in 1984 with a mission to
develop a free UNIX-like OS.
● A famous professor Andrew Tanenbaum developed Minix, a simplified
version of UNIX that runs on PC
● Minix is for class teaching only. No intention for commercial use
● In Sept 1991, Linus Torvalds, a second year student of Computer
Science at the University of Helsinki, developed the preliminary kernel
of Linux, known as Linux version 0.0.1
● Linux was the best fit as the kernel for the GNU Project
● Linux kernel was passed onto many interested developers throughout
the Internet
● Linux today is a result of efforts of thousands of individuals, apart from
Torvalds
Linux on 1991

● Linux version 0.02, released on October 5, 1991, consisted of only the Linux kernel and

three utilities:

● bash : a command-line interface

● update : a utility for flushing file system buffers

● gcc : a C++ compiler

Linux Today

● Can be controlled through command-line (CLI) or Graphical User Interface (GUI)

● GUI run through Desktop Environments (DE)
● KDE, GNOME, Xfce, E17 are popular DEs
● The GUI interface is easy-to-use and much like that of Windows and Mac OSX
● The CLI is similar to that of UNIX/BSD
Is Linux = Unix ? POSIX

● POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) is a set of specifications.

● It Describes how the operating system should behave both to the user, and to other
programs.
● POSIX was created to bring similarity between all the UNIX like OS in the 1980,when all of
which had a different look and feel.
● The latest POSIX specification has been merged with the UNIX specification.
● For more information see:
○ http://www.pasc.org
○ http://www.opengroup.org/
Other POSIX OSes

● IBM AIX
● Sun Solaris
● SGI IRIX
● HP HP--UX
● Compaq TRU64 UNIX
Does Linux has
Advantage
Over other OSes
Are you bother for software Cost

● Linux is free and always will be as compared to Windows and Mac OSX.

● Using pirated Windows is illegal.

Are you scared for blue screen of death (BSoD)

● Have you ever lost your precious work because Windows crashed? Have you ever gotten
the "blue screen of death" or error messages telling you that the computer needs to be
shut down for obscure reasons?

● Crashes or freezes are not prevalent in Linux

Linux Advantages in sort

● No threat of viruses
● Linux systems are extremely stable
● Linux is Free
● Linux comes with most of the required software pre-installed
● Update all your software with minimum efforts.
● Linux never gets slow
● Linux does not need defragmentation
● Linux can even run on oldest hardware
● Adding more software is a matter of a few clicks
● Most Windows-only apps have their either their native version or alternatives for Linux
● With Linux, you get the highest degree of possible customizability
Linux not just OS
● When the system has installed, why would you still need to install stuff ?
● Common software such as music player, web browser, video player, image editor,
PDF reader, chat messenger, office apps
How Linux is Free
● In 1880, the French government awarded
Alexander Graham Bell the Volta Prize of
50,000 francs, (about $250,000 in current
rate)
● Bell used the award to found the Volta
Laboratory (Alexander Graham Bell
Laboratory) in Washington, D.C
● In 1925 American Telephone & Telegraph
company (AT&T) was Taken over Bell
Laboratories.
● Researchers working at Bell Labs are
credited with Eight Nobel Prizes for their
contribution to society
AT&T & OS
● AT&T had dropped out of the Multics
(time-sharing operating system) project.

● Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (working

on Multics at AT&T Bell Laboratories)
conceived UNIX OS in 1969 and first released
in 1970.

● The availability and portability of Unix caused

it to be widely adopted.
Software freedom
● University of California copied and modified
the Unix code In 1977 for research work

activist “BSD” (Berkeley Software Distribution).

● AT&T filed a lawsuit against the University of

California.

● This resulted in strongly limiting the

development research software like BSD.

● Academic institutions are vouch for software

freedom

● Richard Stallman stated campaigns for

software to be distributed in a manner such
that its users receive the freedoms to use,
study, distribute and modify that software.

Richard Matthew Stallman

Free Software ● The Free Software Foundation was founded
by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to
Foundation support the free software movement.

● FSF promotes the universal freedom to study,

distribute, create, and modify computer
software.

● FSF's funds were mostly used to employ

software developers to write free software
for the various projects.
Open Source ● Open-source software (OSS) is computer
software with its source code made available
Software with a license in which the copyright holder
provides the rights to study, change, and
distribute the software to anyone and for any
purpose.

● The main difference between open-source

and traditional proprietary software is in user
and property rights.

● OSS users are granted the right to both the

program's functionality and methodology.

● Proprietary software users only have the

rights to functionality.

● Examples of popular open source software

products include Mozilla Firefox, Google
Chromium, Android and OpenOffice.org.
Open Source Example

Source Code Object Code

OS (Linux) Services.

● It provides users the services to execute the

programs in a convenient manner.
● It provides programs an environment to
execute.
○ Program execution
○ I/O operations
○ File System manipulation
○ Communication
○ Error Detection
○ Resource Allocation
○ Protection
What More?

“The most unfortunate thing is that India still seems to believe

in proprietary solutions. Further spread of IT, which is influencing the
daily life of individuals, will have a devastating effect on the lives of
society due to any small shift in the business practice involving
these proprietary solutions. It is precisely for these reasons open
source software needs to be built which will be cost effective for the
entire society,"

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,

Ex President of India
What is your
Conclusion