Introduction to Linux

What is an Operating System?

• An operating system (OS) is a resource

manager. It takes the form of a set of
software routines that allow users and
application programs to access system
resources (e.g. the CPU, memory, disks,
modems, printers network cards etc.) in a
safe, efficient and abstract way.
A Brief History of UNIX

A Brief History of UNIX

 Architecture of the Linux
Operating System
• Kernel
The operating system kernel is in direct
control of the underlying hardware. The
kernel provides low-level device, memory
and processor management functions
(e.g. dealing with interrupts from hardware
devices, sharing the processor among
multiple programs, allocating memory for
programs etc.) .
• The kernel (in raw binary form that is
loaded directly into memory at system
startup time) is typically found in the file
/boot/vmlinuz, while the source files can
usually be found in /usr/src/linux. The
latest version of the Linux kernel sources
can be downloaded from http://
www.kernel.org.
 Shells and GUIs
•
Linux supports two forms of command input:
through textual command line shells similar to
those found on most UNIX systems (e.g. sh - the
Bourne shell, bash - the Bourne again shell and
csh - the C shell) and through graphical
interfaces (GUIs) such as the KDE and GNOME
window managers. If you are connecting
remotely to a server your access will typically be
through a command line shell.
 System Utilities
• Virtually every system utility that you would
expect to find on standard implementations of
UNIX has been ported to Linux. This includes
commands such as ls, cp, grep, awk, sed, bc,
wc, more, and so on. These system utilities are
designed to be powerful tools that do a single
task extremely well (e.g. grep finds text inside
files while wc counts the number of words, lines
and bytes inside a file). Users can often solve
problems by interconnecting these tools instead
of writing a large monolithic application program.
 Application programs
• Linux distributions typically come with
several useful application programs as
standard. Examples include the emacs
editor, xv (an image viewer), gcc (a C
compiler), g++ (a C++ compiler), xfig (a
drawing package), latex (a powerful
typesetting language) and soffice
(StarOffice, which is an MS-Office style
clone that can read and write Word, Excel
and PowerPoint files).
 Why Not Red Hat?
Red Hat is in a tough spot. Most of their revenue streams are
based on sales, support, and training while the open nature of
Linux has resulted in thousands of freely-available Linux
resources on the Web. Their survival depends on having a
product that is proprietary enough to make you dependent upon
them for upgrades and support. And now that they are a
publically-held company they are under pressure to meet the
expectations of Wall Street analysts for revenue growth and
cash flows every quarter. (Did you think it was just a coincidence
that they churned out new versions at an average of two a
year?) In time, Red Hat's dominance will likely kill off smaller
commercial distributions like Mandrake (France) and TurboLinux
(Japan) and dealing with Red Hat will be no different than
dealing with Microsoft.
 Why Debian ?
Debian is the world's leading non-commercial
totally free Linux distribution. Remaining loyal to the
concept upon which Linux was created, it is
produced by hundreds of volunteer developers
around the world. Contrary to a common
misconception, Debian is not for Linux gurus only. As
a matter of fact, as you will see on the guide pages,
its advanced package management system makes it
one of the easier distributions for new Linux users to
work with. Here are just a few of its advantages:
· Non-Proprietary: Debian is a true GNU/Linux distribution using
the standard UNIX style commands. This ensures that what you
learn today won't be obsolete in two years and makes it easier to
also learn how to work with UNIX systems.

· Easy Maintenance: A seamless, totally-integrated package

management system makes it easy to keep your system up to
date and free of orphan files and incompatible products. Most
dependent packages are handled automatically so you don't get
the "Failed dependencies" error commonly encountered when
trying to add software on RPM-based systems like Red Hat and
Suse.
· Automated Patching: The Debian package system also allows
you to use a single command to update your entire system
(operating system and installed packages) over the Internet. This
allows you to use a scheduler to routinely run a shell script to
automatically update your system with the latest program, OS,
Extensive: Only free software packages (applications, utilities,
etc.) are allowed to be included in the official Debian distributions,
and the current binary distribution comes on 14 CDs because
there are over 10,000 of them. With Debian, you don't have
different "server“ and "workstation" or "personal" editions. It's
everything all in one.

· Support Options: Peer support is available through a

community of listservs (mailing lists) and chat rooms. Replies to
messages may even be from those who helped develop the
product. And since you're likely not the first person to encounter a
given issue, there are also searchable archives of listserv
messages. If your company requires commercial support
contracts fear not. Numerous for-profit support operations offer a
variety of technical support options. With Debian, you don't have
to worry about forced upgrades due to vendors dropping support
for older versions.
Minimal Investment: Debian's peformance is excellent even with
the modest hardware requirements Linux is famous for. While
most OSs require newer, faster, bigger hardware, Debian allows
you to utilize those old Pentium systems instead of throwing them
into a landfill. This, along with the fact that you can load a single
copy of Debian on as many systems as you want, means you can
set up a full-blown enterprise at very little cost.

· Reliable: Debian's focus on stability and reliability results in

servers that you may have to reboot once a year, rather than once
a month.

· User-centric: New versions of Debian are developed when

major changes warrant one, not to generate revenues from
upgrades. (You need only look at the version numbers of the
various distributions to verify this.)
Simplicity = Limitations
Complexity = Capabilities
Debian /etc/network/interfaces

Red Hat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

(A separate file for each interface)

Suse For versions >= 8.0

/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth0
(A separate file for each interface)
For versions < 8.0
/etc/rc.config
 Using Linux
You can use your Debian Linux software to set up the
following types of systems:
•Web servers for external (Internet) or internal (Intranet) use.

•Mail servers to handle both internal and Internet e-mail.

•Other Internet-type application servers such as FTP, news, IRC

(chat), etc.

• Web cam servers to keep an eye on your home or business

operations from a remote location.

•Proxy/NAT servers that allow all the systems on a network to

share a single broadband Internet

•connection at home or the office.

•Packet-filtering firewalls which allow you to control what traffic
goes out of and comes in to your network (while also performing
the proxy/NAT function).

•Internal LAN servers for file and print sharing much like Novell or
NT/2000. There's even a Linux software package available called
Samba that makes a Linux server appear as an NT server to
Windows workstations.

•DNS servers to resolve Internet and/or internal LAN host/domain

names.

•Database servers running MaxDB - formerly SAPDB (free),

MySQL (free), or Oracle ($$$$) database software.
•Fax servers running HylaFax and utilizing old fax-
modems allow all users on your network to send faxes
from their desktops rather than printing out a hard-copy
to stuff in a fax machine.

•LAN and WAN routers which offer an inexpensive

alternative to those $5,000 Cisco boxes.

•Syslog servers which allow you to centralize the

monitoring of your network and systems operations.

•IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) to monitor your

Internet address space for hacking and attack activity.