March 15, 2007

Ubuntu Linux Training

© Copyright Thibauld Favre – thibauld@allmyapps.com

www.allmyapps.com
 Today's Training Overview

This morning : Theory
Introduction to the Free & Open Source Software World
Linux Distributions Explained
The Hardware Support Challenge

This afternoon : Hands on!
Ubuntu Installation
Package Management
Ubuntu Usage
Conclusion

Objective of the day :
Optimize your knowledge of Ubuntu Software – Desktop & Server
 Introduction to the
Free & Open Source Software World
 Some History

All began with a printer...
Richard Stallman, American
Launches the GNU Project in 1984

Linux, child of the Internet
Linus Torvalds, Finnish
First Linux kernel released as he was a student in 1991
 Achievements

IT accessible and affordable for everyone

Fosters innovation
Proprietary software players are bound to innovate
“good­enough” isn't acceptable anymore from a proprietary software vendor

New business models emerge, more customer friendly (service oriented)
Open Source
Software­as­a­Service
 Threats

Software patents
Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt (FUD)
Already in America, Japan
Tough battle in Europe to fight software
patents

Content control
Digital Right Management (DRM)
Protecting Intellectual Property (IP)

DMCA
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Dissuasion strategy
Linux Distributions Explained
 The Free & Open Source Software Galaxy

Time

2005

F­spot

Amarok

2000 Nautilus

OpenOffice.org

Gnome
KDE
1995 MySQL

X11
Sendmail
GNU Tools
1991 kernel
Applications Organization & Dependencies

Sugar CRM
v1.2
Scribus
v1.2.4

Amarok PHP
v1.4 v5

Apache
v1.3.35
Qt
Kde v3.4 Gnu tools MySQL
v3.5 v5.0
J2EE
Kernel
App
v2.6.17 Jboss
JAVA v4.0.5
v1.5
X.org
v7.1

Firefox Other toolkits
GTK
v2.0.1 v1.2
OpenOffice.org
v2.1
Gnome
v2.16

F­spot
 What is a repository ?

Time

v5
v1.5
v1.2

v2.6.18
Which applications to include?
v0.18
Which version of each application to include?
v5.0.1
v4

v3.5
v2.6.17 A Linux distribution repository
v0.17 v5
v1.4 i.e. Edgy
v2.1
v2.16
v1.2

v1.1
v2.6.16

v2.15

A repository is a coherent and stabilized set of selected applications
 Ubuntu repositories (i.e. Edgy)

main restricted
Key FOSS applications
maintained by Canonical employees Free applications but with limitedcopyright
maintained by Canonical employees
i.e. Kernel, KDE, Gnome...
i.e. Nvidia & ATI video drivers...

commercial
universe Commercial applications
FOSS Applications maintained by Canonical employees
maintained by the Ubuntu community i.e. Opera, Realplayer...
i.e. TinyERP, Wine...

multiverse custom
Non­free applications Custom applications
maintained by the Ubuntu community maintained by ??
i.e. Extra multimedia codecs, Microsoft fonts, Acrobat Reader, Java... May be dangerous to use
 Ubuntu Server & [Ubuntu | Kubuntu] Desktop

Ubuntu Server

Kubuntu Desktop

Ubuntu Desktop
 A repository lifecycle

Time Time

v1.3 backport

v1.5.1
bugfix

v2.6.18.1

v1.2.1 security
v5
v1.5
v1.2
v2.6.18
v0.18
v5.0.1
v4
v3.5
v2.6.17
v0.17 v5 Edgy repository
v1.4
v2.1
v2.16 v1.2
v1.1
 Debian Linux release mechanism

Time

Released 6th, june 2005

Sarge
Released 19th, july 2002

Woody
Released 14th, july 2000

Potato

Free & Open Source software Debian Unstable Debian Testing Debian Stable releases

 Ubuntu Linux release mechanism

26th, october 2006

6.10 ­ Edgy
1st, june 2006
sync

6.06 ­ Dapper

13th, october 2005
sync

6th, june 2005 5.10 ­ Breezy
Sarge
8th, april 2005
sync

5.04 ­ Hoary
20th, october 2004
sync

4.10 ­ Warty
sync
19th, july 2002

Woody
14th, july 2000

Potato

Debian Testing Debian Stable releases Ubuntu Stable releases

 Linux Distributions release overview
Time

RHEL 5

Core 6

Core 5
Edgy

Core 4 Dapper
RHEL 4
Breezy
Core 3 Sarge

Woody
Debian
Fedora stable
10.2

10.1 FOSS Debian Debian Ubuntu

unstable testing stable
SLE 10
10.0
OpenSuse
 Linux distributions quick comparison

Novell / Suse
Main specificity : YAST

Red Hat
Main specificity : Leader

Ubuntu
Main specificity : Free

Free & OpenSource Software

 Windows platform development comparison
Time

Microsoft Adobe Intel Macromedia Symantec

ISV
ISV ISV
ISV ISV
ISV
ISV
ISV
ISV ISV

Windows XP
 Challenge : Mixing proprietary & free software

? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ?
? ?
? ?
? ?
?
?
?
? ?

FOSS
The Hardware Support Challenge
 The Kernel

APPLICATIONS Appli A Appli B Appli C Appli D

KERNEL Module A Module B Module C Module D

MACHINE

HW A HW B HW C HW D

 A political issue

Linus [..] explained that while the user­visible Linux ABI tries to remain 
static,  the  internal  ABI  is  not  at  all.  When  it  was  pointed  out  that  a 
stable internal ABI would help binary­only module authors, he added :

"It's not going to happen. I am _totally_ uninterested in a stable ABI for 
kernel  modules,  and  in  fact  I'm  actively  against  even  _trying_.  I  want 
people  to  be  very  much  aware  of  the  fact  that  kernel  internals  do 
change, and that this will continue." Kerneltrap – 9th, december 2003
MACHINE KERNEL APPLICATIONS
What it means

APPLICATIONS KERNEL MACHINE

Appli A Appli B Appli C Appli D Appli A Appli B Appli C Appli D

upgrade
2.6.18 2.6.19
Module A Module B Module C Module A Module B Module C Module D

HW A HW B HW C HW D HW A HW B HW C HW D

 The Hardware Compatibility Challenge

Hardware Compatibility

A B

v2.6.20 Dapper
Driver B
Hardware B
v2.6.19

Breezy
v2.6.18

Driver A
Hardware A
v2.6.17

Hardware Vanilla Kernel Stable Linux

Vendor development Distribution kernel
 Kernel lifecycle : 3 strategies

Bugfixing (corrective maintenance)
Pros: Safest and easiest way to proceed
Cons: No new drivers are included, so the distribution quickly
becomes “hardware obsolete”
Who: Ubuntu, Mandriva

Upgrading (evolutive maintenance)
Pros: New drivers get included, the distribution is always “hardware
up-to-date”
Cons: Put the system stability at risk, new bugs can find their way in
Who: Gentoo, Fedora

Backporting
Pros: The distribution stays up-to-date whithout sacrificing the system
stability
Cons: Requires heavy exponential work
Who: Red Hat, Novell
Who we are?
2 former entrepreneurs