An Introduction to the Development,

Features, and Usability of the GNU/Linux

Operating System
Version 1.41, April 2004. First
Released: May 2001.
N Deepak, Bangalore INDIA
Linux is pronounced as luh-nuhks or ly-nuhks. Some even say lee-
nooks.

• History of Linux
• Features Supported Under Linux
• A Few Myths About Linux
• Unresolved Issues in Linux
• Major Supporters of Linux
• Some Reasons to Use Linux
•
Online Resources and Contact Information
Linus’ Home page: www.cs.helsinki.fi/~torvalds

The Beginning

The core of the Linux operating

system was coded by a Finnish
programmer called Linus
Benedict Torvalds in 1991,
when he was just 21! He had got
a new 386, and he found the
existing DOS aand
In those days, UNIX tiny,
UNIX-like too free OS called
expensive
Minix was andextensively
inadequate. used for academic
purposes. Since its source code was available,
Linus decided to take Minix as a model. In his
own words, ‘I wanted to write a better Minix
More stats are at the Linux Counter. If you run Linux, you can
also add your machine there.

Growing and Growing...

In order to encourage
wide dissemination of
his OS, Linus made
the source code open
to public. At the end
of 1992 there were
about a hundred Linux Linux: No of Users

developers. Next year Source: The Linux Counter

there were 1000. And

the numbers
Recent estimates say about 18 million people
multiplied
use Linux every year. This doesn’t include non-
worldwide.
personal computers, such as server machines
on the Internet and other networks.
Linux 2.6 has over 6 million lines of source code and measures
212 megabytes. Source: A Brower

Linux Today
Though Linus never imagined it, Linux quickly
became a general tool for computing. People
stopped looking at Linux as a toy, and began to
think about it seriously. Today there are
thousands of applications that can be run on
Linux, from Office Suites to 3D games.
Hundreds of Linux User Groups the world over
discuss ways to make Linux work better.
Umpteen number of web sites, and thousands
of newsgroups and mailing lists talk about
Linux. Bangalore hosts a Linux convention
every year, called Linux/Bangalore.
You can create your own Linux distribution. Visit LinuxFromScratch.org

Distributions of Linux

In tune with the power-of-choice

tradition of Linux, many companies
and communities now offer it along
with lots of applications. Though the
OS is the same, the bundled
software do vary from one
distribution to another. Red Hat,
SuSE, Mandrake, and many other
firms sell Linux this way, and their
CDs are called distributions. Usually
the distributors charge a nominal fee
for the media and for technical
support in the future. Debian is a
Sidewa
lk I

Any software, at heart, contains binary

instructions -- a continuous stream of 0’s and
1’s -- to the processor so that it works the way
it is supposed to. Encoding software directly in
binary is no doubt uses
So a programmer a tedious, if not impossible,
an English-like higher-
proposition.
level language to write software. This program
text is the source code; it is compiled or
assembled to obtain
Microsoft gives awaythe
onlyfinal
the executable.
executable; Linux
also gives you the source code -- hence it is
open-source. Does this matter? A lot. Buying
closed-source software is much like buying a
car with its bonnet welded shut.
COMPILER EXE
C
/
ODE
ASSEMBL
ER
Google is backed by tens of thousands of servers, all running Linux. Source:
NetCraft

Why Linux is Built Upon UNIX

• UNIX has been time-tested for

30+ years, which is eons by
computer age
• The basic design of UNIX is
elegant, being the brain-child of Thompson and Ritchie, the
two master programmers: creators of UNIX, working
on a PDP-11 machine.
Thompson and Ritchie. Ritchie
• UNIX developed with contributions from many
also co-invented the C
different
language. sources; today it hosts a huge
collection of excellent software
• UNIX is very well-documented, and source
code is available for much of the system --
Did you know that the special effects in Titanic were created using
computers running Linux?

Features Supported in Linux: True Multitasking

• All applications in Linux are
preemptively multitasked. The
OS handles all scheduling of
processes (and kernel threads).
No application can hog the Multitasking under Linux:
resources unless the system can The number of apps you
run is limited only by

administrator specifically defines the memory you have.

it
• as
All high-priority.
applications inThisLinux
leadsrun
to in their own
smoother memory
private performance and better
space. This means that a
load-balancing
poorly-written application cannot tamper with
the memory of another application (or the
kernel). If an application does try to access
memory it doesn't own, it is immediately halted
49% of IT professionals think Linux is essential or important for their
corporate strategies. Source: MERIT

Multi-User and Customisable

UNIX was designed with the notion that multiple
people would be sharing use of the system at
the same time. Several people can log into a
Linux machine and each of them can run
whatever programs he likes. UNIX applications
are written from scratch with the idea that
multiple people will be using them, and each
may have entirely different preferences. Many
people can use the same application at the
same time accordingUSER
to 1their Compile
liking!a program
Linux Machine USER 2 Talk with another user

USER 3 Run a script

It would have cost a firm over US$1 billion to develop Red Hat Linux 7.1 by
itself Source: David Wheeler

Easy Remote Administration and DLL Handling

• Because of the fundamental design of UNIX,

every application can run on one machine and
display its interface on another. This is
extremely
• Windowsuseful
allowsforthe
remote administration
use of DLLs (Dynamic
Linker Libraries) to modularise applications and
reuse code. But version conflicts often arise,
or the might
which whole make
OS useless. Linux
some applications
also handles DLLs (called
shared objects), but it checks
the version of DLL each app
is asking, and then links the
correct version. In Windows, A DLL Goof-up in Windows

the program may simply crash

In a performance test by SysAdmin, Linux beat Windows NT, Solaris and
FreeBSD by a margin >35%

Efficient Memory Management

• Linux is outstanding in the area

of memory management. It will use
every scrap of memory in a system
to its full potential. It runs fine How shall I get 64 MB
even on a P1 with 32 MB RAM. AGAIN for Win 2000?

• Linux uses a copy-on-write scheme. If two

or more programs are using the same block of
memory, only one copy is actually in RAM, and
all the programs read the same block. If one
program writes to that block, then a copy is
made for just that program. All other programs
still share the same memory. When loading
DLLs, this is a major memory saver
Linux/Netscape ran 30-40% faster than NT4/IE4in rendering simple HTML:
Microsoft Source: The Halloween Documents

Efficient Memory Management (Contd.)

Demand-loading is very useful as well. Linux

only loads into RAM the portions of a program
that are actually being used, which reduces
overall RAM requirements significantly. At the
same time, when swapping is necessary, only
portions of programs are swapped out to disc,
not entire processes. This helps to greatly
Finally,
enhanceany RAM not being
multiprocessing used
performance.
by the kernel or applications is
automatically used as a disc
cache. This speeds access to Why waste money on

the disc so long as there is upgrades when you can

use it with Linux?

unused memory.
Sidewalk
II

Richard Stallman is the founding father

of the GNU Project and the Free
Software Foundation (estd. 1985),
which aim to code software which give This goat is the
freedom to the user -- freedom to logo of GNU

share,
Stallman modify
likedand
UNIXdistribute
so much-- that
whichhenowanted to
proprietary
make a freesoftware does.
alternative to it. The GNU [guh’-noo]
project, started in 1984, has developed
thousands of software which do all that the
original UNIX tools did, but with a difference: you
can modify GNU them,
andshare
Linuxwith your afriends,
share and
symbiotic
use however you want.While the Linux kernel still
relationship.
lies at the core, GNU software make the
Images: gnu.org system much more functional. Hence
The Linux ext2 file-system supports up to 4000 GB of data

Powerful File System

• Linux normally uses its own high-
performance file system, which uses disc
space much more efficiently, optimises for
speed on reading and writing, and
automatically prevents fragmentation. The
Linux file-system literally does not need a
defragmenter, though one is available. It also
sees when programs make errors writing to the
•disc andcan
Linux automatically
also read prevents
and writethem,
all so there
is usually
FAT no need(FAT12,
variants to run a disc checker unless
FAT32),
you noticeNT's
Windows a problem
NTFS, OS/2's HPFS,
and many others you've never heard Linux can use your
of. Often it can use them faster than hard disc better

their native operating system can!

Linux represents a best-of-breed UNIX, trusted in mission-critical
applications, with a long term credibility that exceeds most other
competitive OSes: Microsoft. Source: The Halloween documents

Linux has the Unmatched Stability of UNIX

• Linux enforces a strict separation between
the kernel and other applications. Most services
like mail, file and print serving, web serving
and so on are applications, and can usually be
changed dynamically. At worst, a specific
application may need to be restarted, and not
the whole system. Reboots are only for kernel
updates andprovides
• Linux also hardware
thechanges.UNIX
ability systems
have uptimes in increase
to dynamically terms of years!
swap
space and then reduce it later
without a reboot, unlike
Windows, where it grows and The Blue Screen of Death
grows until a restart
With Linux, you can set up a 486 to be an Internet gateway, a firewall, or
even an FTP server for your LAN

Inbuilt Networking Support

TCP/IP networking and the Internet
was originally developed on UNIX
systems, and most of the high-power
networking in the world is done on
UNIX. About 75% of the web servers Linux is network ready
on the Net
In fact, run has
Linux a version of UNIX.
the largest market share for
the entire Internet, running 25.7% of the news
servers, 26.9% of the web servers, and
33.7% of the FTP servers in the world. Apart
from extremely fast and reliable networking,
dozens of major and minor network services are
usually provided when you get Linux. Web
servers, file and print servers, ftp servers, NIS
servers, IRC servers, news servers, and more
>50% of small businesses expect to increase their usage of Linux, and over
75% of large businesses expect to deploy additional Linux systems: Zona
Research Study Report

High Level of Security

Linux is a very secure operating system, much
better than Windows 9x and even Windows
NT.
Source: toonshome.com
• As each application runs
in its own protected
memory space, it is not
possible for a virus to
infect another application
running in memory. Linux Oh, was that you? I thought it was a virus and
also has file permission I deleted the mail.

structure whichprone
• Linux is less greatly
to hacker attacks than
limits the damage
most OSes. a virus
This is partly because of its design
can
anddoits open-source nature. Security bugs are
fixed very quickly, often within hours!
Sidewalk
III

Linux is emerging as a strong competitor to NT. It

has given enough scare to Microsoft, that it
circulated a memo on the damaging effects of
Open-Source revolution! This table, built by a
Microsoft certified NT professional, shows a
feature by feature comparison of Linux and
Windows
Component NT. Linux 2.x Windows NT Server 4.0
Operating System Free, about $49 for a CDROM Depends on no. of users: $899 to $3999
Kernel Source Code Yes No
Web Server Apache IIS
Telnet Server Yes No
POP3 / SMTP Server Yes No
X-Window Server Yes No
C / C++ Compilers Yes No
No. of file systems supported 32 4
Disk quotas support Yes No
No. of GUIs 4 1
Free Online Technical Support Yes No
Platforms x86, SPARC, PowerPC, StrongARM Intel x86, Alpha
SMP Support Upto 16. Beowulf supported 2 in Workstation, 4 in Server. No Beowulf
Source: www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch
Bugtraq reported only 20 vulnerabilities in Debian Linux for 2000, while
Windows NT had as many as 85.

⊗ Linux is open, so insecure

√ This might be a valid
argument, but thankfully, our
world is still a very good place.
When programmers find a piece
of bug in the source, they
quickly try to fix it, rather than
capitalise on it. If you hack into a
system based on a bug you
⊗found
LinuxinisLinux,
not as it is only
nice so long
as Windows
as another guy finds out the bug
√and
KDE 2.2
fixes it was rated by PC
Magazine as the most user-
friendly GUI, beating WinXP!
The number of enterprise level applications available for Linux in the
first half of 2000 grew by 30%: IBM

⊗ There are not many applications for Linux

√ As of today, there are about

15,000 applications built for the
Linux platform. You can code in
C, C++, Java etc.; listen to
music; browse the Web; play an You can do everything in
action game; watch a movie; Linux as in Windows
and even modify this slideshow
with
⊗ OpenOffice!
Linux does not have a centralized authority
√ Linux might be coded by programmers
around the world, but there is a group of
people headed by Linus who have the
ultimate say on it. They decide on the next
version of Linux
Linux is POSIX compliant, making it easier to port code to it, as well as
integrate it with other systems

⊗ The various UNIXes are fragmenting into a

plethora of incompatible versions
√ This was the trend sometime back, Some
but since the past ten years, they all UNIXes
are converging. UNIX systems now Caldera
broadly adhere to ANSI and POSIX UnixWare
standards, that allow software to be DEC Digital
source-compatible across different UNIX

platforms, ranging from embedded FreeBSD

micro-controllers to supercomputers. HP-UX
The X/OPEN standard allows a IBM AIX
common desktop across all platforms. Linux
On the Intel x86 platform, for
SGI IRIX
example, Linux can run SCO UNIX
Sun Solaris
binaries, and FreeBSD can run Linux
Linux is the No. 1 threat to Windows: Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft

Linux is not very beginner-friendly

Linux can be overwhelming for a new user from
Windows. Stop comparing Linux with Windows
every once in a while, and you will gradually
appreciate Linux.
Installing Linux is difficult
Installing Linux is an adventure for a novice
accustomed only to Windows. Ever heard of
swap partitions and mount points?
It is sometimes hard to work with Linux software
To quote Stallman, ‘Freedom is much more
important than technical superiority or ease of
use.’ Patience!
Linux: Best Desktop Operating System 1996. Source: InfoWorld

There is a lack of user-friendly help in Linux

Be prepared to read long technical manuals,
and subscribe yourself to your local Linux user-
group mailing lists!
Linux is still heavily command-dependent
Though KDE and GNOME are
great GUIs, you still cannot
forgo commands. Sooner or
later, you will use the prompt.
Linux is choosy on hardware
Most hardware work well in Linux, but a few,
especially win-modems and certain brands of
video- and sound-cards, can be notoriously
uncooperative. As more firms realise the power
of Linux, getting drivers won’t be a problem.
Linux is the fastest growing server operating system in 2000, with a
growth rate of 166%. Source: IDC

In spite of all these setbacks, Linux has found a

large following, from a broad spectrum of
organisations. Here is a short list of major
supporters and users of Linux.

Click on any logo to visit the company’s Web-

site. Full list.
Summary

• Linux has legendary stability. Blue screens are unknown;

crashes, very rare.
• Linux is ideal for networking: You can freely set up a
functional and stable router, firewall, Web server, mail
server, or FTP server right out of the box.
• Linux can talk with many other systems, including NT,
NetWare and Sun. It supports multiple-processes and
-processors, and a variety of file systems.
• Low resource requirements of Linux means you can
bring even a 386 to glory
• Linux gives you choice from GUIs and shells to
everything. The range of applications is huge, and
powerful package management systems exist.
• Linux is reliable, secure, easily upgradeable, and has an
open design, logical file system layout and supportive
My Linux advocacy page has other useful documents if you are
interested in using Linux. Link below.

www.linux.org The Linux portal

www.kernel.org The official Linux kernel Web
site
www.linuxdoc.org The Linux
documentation project
www.ssc.com/lj Linux Journal is a fine Linux
periodical
www.linuxapps.com Download Linux
softwarehere
www.slashdot.org Slashdot mirrors the
Linux community
www.sourceforge.net SourceForge is the
place for Linux projects
www.cheapbytes.com CheapBytes sells cheap Linux
CDs
www.oreilly.com O’Reilly sells the best
books on Linux