An Introduction to the Development, Features, and

Usability of the GNU/Linux Operating System

Version 1.4, August 2002. First Released: May 2001.

Deepak, VII Semester BE (CSE), 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 now works for Transmeta Corp. in California. 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
and UNIX too expensive and inadequate.
In those days, a UNIX-like tiny, free OS called Minix was
extensively 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 than
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 developers. Next year
there were 1000. And the
Linux: No of Users
numbers multiplied every Source: The Linux Counter

year.
Recent estimates say about 18 million people use Linux
worldwide. This doesn’t include non-personal computers,
such as server machines on the Internet and other networks.
Red Hat has over 30 million lines of source code, mostly in C. Source: David Wheeler

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
Bang!inux.
There are more than 200 distributions of Linux today. To create your own, 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 high-quality non-commercial
distribution of Linux, funded and run by about
900 volunteers.
Sidewalk 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 a tedious, if not impossible,
proposition.
So a programmer uses an English-like higher-level
language to write software. This program text is the source
code; it is compiled or assembled to obtain the final
executable.
Microsoft give away only the 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 hood welded shut.

COMPILER / EXE
CODE
ASSEMBLER
Google, Amazon, CNN and Yahoo all run UNIX based operating systems. 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 two master
programmers: Thompson and Ritchie. Thompson and Ritchie, the
Ritchie also co-invented the C creators of UNIX, working
on a PDP-11 machine.
language.
• UNIX developed with contributions from many different
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 -- unlike MS Windows,
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 resources unless the system Multitasking under Linux:
administrator specifically defines it as can The number of apps you
run is limited only by

high-priority. This leads to smoother the memory you have.

performance and better
• All applications load-balancing
in Linux run in their own private memory
space. This means that a 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 by the operating system,
without disturbing any other process on the system
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 according to their liking!

USER 1 Compile 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 useful for remote
•administration
Windows allows the use of DLLs (Dynamic Linker
Libraries) to modularise applications and reuse code. But
version conflicts often arise, which might make some
or the whole OS useless. Linux also
applications
handles DLLs (called shared objects),
but it checks the version of DLL each
app is asking, and then links the
correct version. In Windows, the
program may simply crash A DLL Goof-up in Windows
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. The Linux kernel occupies just 2 How shall I get 64 MB
MB, whereas NT takes 16 MB! 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 enhance
multiprocessing performance.
Finally, any RAM not being used by the
kernel or applications is automatically used
as a disc cache. This speeds access to the
disc so long as there is unused memory. On Why waste money on
upgrades when you
the other hand, memory management is can use it with Linux?
poorest in Windows!
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 freedom to the user -- freedom to share, This goat is the
modify and distribute -- which no proprietary logo of GNU

software
Stallman does. liked UNIX so much that he wanted to make a free
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 them, share with your friends, and use however you
want. GNU and Linux share a symbiotic relationship.
While the Linux kernel still lies at the core, GNU
software make the system much more functional.
Images: gnu.org Hence the awkward but accurate: GNU/Linux
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 and automatically prevents them, so
there is usually no need to run a disc checker unless you
•notice
Linuxa problem
can also read and write all FAT
variants (FAT12, FAT32), Windows NT's
NTFS, OS/2's HPFS, and many others you've
never heard of. Often it can use them faster Linux can use your
hard disc better
than 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 and
hardware changes.UNIX systems have uptimes in terms of
years!
• Linux also provides the ability to
dynamically increase swap space and
then reduce it later without a reboot,
unlike Windows, where it grows and
grows until a restart MS Word has frozen
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 on the Net run a version of UNIX. Linux is network ready
In fact, Linux has 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
are available for free or very little cost.
>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 also has file
permission structure which greatly Oh, was that you? I thought it was a virus and
limits the damage a virus can do I deleted the mail.

• Linux is less prone to hacker attacks than most OSes.

This is partly because of its design and its 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 NT.

Component 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
in Linux, it is only so long as another
guy finds out the bug and fixes it
 Linux is not as nice as Windows
KDE 2.2 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 action game; watch a movie; You can do everything in
and even modify this slideshow with Linux as in Windows
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, but since Some
the past ten years, they all are converging. UNIXes
UNIX systems now broadly adhere to ANSI Caldera
and POSIX standards, that allow software to be UnixWare
source-compatible across different platforms, DEC Digital
ranging from embedded micro-controllers to UNIX

supercomputers. The X/OPEN standard allows FreeBSD

a common desktop across all platforms. On the HP-UX
Intel x86 platform, for example, Linux can run IBM AIX
SCO UNIX binaries, and FreeBSD can run Linux
Linux binaries. In a nutshell, there is as little a
SGI IRIX
difference as among, say, Windows 3.1,
Sun Solaris
Windows 9x, and Windows NT.
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 community, which make it a
zero-maintenance system
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
www.gnu.org The official GNU Web site
www.linuxlinks.com Links to many Linux-related Web sites
comp.os.linux The Linux USENET newsgroup
symonds.net/~deep/stuff/linuxMy Linux advocacy page
[email protected] My e-mail address: comments/feedback