Computer-Science Homework 1 Topic 1 Homework 1 Topic 1 5 Linux Flavors Look up t

Question

Computer-Science Homework 1 Topic 1 Homework 1 Topic 1 5 Linux Flavors Look up the different types of Linux and Unix and type up a 1 page listing them out what benefits do each have and where you found the OS at. Your second page and on should contain the following: Write a Paragraph about each one listed below. 1. Students study more about the philosophy of free software and the relationship between GNU and Linux. Students can visit the site http://www.fsf.org/. 2. Students study the OpenSource initiative. Students can visit the site http://www.opensource.org/. 3. Students list two free software projects and discuss their progress and updates. Students can visit the following sites: http://www.slashdot.org/, http://www.freshmeat.net/, and http://www.sourceforge.net/. 4. Students prepare a review of Linux Weekly News for the current week. List some hot topics in linux going on right now. Students can visit the site http://www.lwn.net/. 5. What are the Prerequisites for an install of a Linux distro. Make sure to cite any references!!!

Explanation / Answer

1)Types of linux with functions and benefits:

RedHat Linux

Practically all of the Linux of RedHat series are based on this distribution, so the introduction of a new kernel is earlier than in other distributions. However, it might have more trouble in the first version (version *.0) than other distributions of the RedHat series.
For neophilia, I recommend version *.1 or later.

Turbo Linux

It is moderately good for use in companies. There are various types, such as for servers in Turbo Linux.

LASER5 Linux

This distribution allows for the easy use of Japanese, developed on the basis of RedHat Linux. (Note that RedHat can be used in Japanese as well.)
Most of the software for RedHat Linux can be used.

Kondara MNU/Linux

Based on RedHat Linux, this distribution has introduced new useful software. Therefore, it has different parts from other distributions of RedHat series.
For anyone liking novelties.

Vine Linux

A Distribution with emphasis on the stability and enhancement of Japanese environments, Based on RedHat Linux. There are fewer version upgrades than other distributions of RedHat series.
For anyone wanting to use Japanese in plenty.

Slackware

The oldest distribution of Linux. Considerable knowledge is required for package management. It is also necessary to personally set up the Japanese environment.
For professionals or anyone wanting to understand the system "with a will".

Plamo Linux

Distribution which supports Japanese, based on Slackware.
Although it supports Japanese, considerable knowledge is required, as in the case of Slackware.

Debian GNU/Linux

Distribution with enhanced package management. It was developed mainly by users.
For anyone wanting to engage in the development of distribution

More Advantages of linux:

Linux is very stable!

Linux systems rarely crash, and when they do, the whole system normally does not go down. The “blue screen of death” familiar to Windows users is not a worry for Linux users.

Linux is less vulnerable to computer malware!

Because most computer malware are designed to attack Windows (often through Active X which is not typically found in Linux) the odds are considerably less for Linux to be infected with a virus than Windows [2]. The same holds true with spyware, trojans, and worms. While Linux malware does exist, they are relatively few in number and none have become widespread so far [3]. While Linux is very secure by its nature, users should still employ good sense while surfing the Internet; click here to learn more [4]. As long as Linux users download and install only from their distro’s official software repository, then security is greatly increased. One nice security feature In Linux is that files must be made to be executable by someone with administrator privileges, which requires a password. So even if a Linux virus is loaded on a Linux computer, it will not be able to run without the user who has administrator privileges intentionally making it executable. Another important aspect of Linux security is the fact that it is open source. Because the programing code is available for anyone to view, there are many eyes constantly examining it, which makes it highly difficult for malware to be hidden within the code . Also, security patches normally come much quicker to Linux than other operating systems because so many people are contributing to it. Here are some resources with more information about Linux security and why Linux computers are much less likely than Windows to ever become infected with a virus:

2)

A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:

A program is free software if it gives users adequately all of these freedoms. Otherwise, it is nonfree. While we can distinguish various nonfree distribution schemes in terms of how far they fall short of being free, we consider them all equally unethical.

Relation between Gnu and Linux:

Linux is an operating system: a series of programs that let you interact with your computer and run other programs.

An operating system consists of various fundamental programs which are needed by your computer so that it can communicate and receive instructions from users; read and write data to hard disks, tapes, and printers; control the use of memory; and run other software. The most important part of an operating system is the kernel. In a GNU/Linux system, Linux is the kernel component. The rest of the system consists of other programs, many of which were written by or for the GNU Project. Because the Linux kernel alone does not form a working operating system, we prefer to use the term “GNU/Linux” to refer to systems that many people casually refer to as “Linux”.

Linux is modelled on the Unix operating system. From the start, Linux was designed to be a multi-tasking, multi-user system. These facts are enough to make Linux different from other well-known operating systems. However, Linux is even more different than you might imagine. In contrast to other operating systems, nobody owns Linux. Much of its development is done by unpaid volunteers.

Development of what later became GNU/Linux began in 1984, when the Free Software Foundation began development of a free Unix-like operating system called GNU.

The GNU Project has developed a comprehensive set of free software tools for use with Unix™ and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux. These tools enable users to perform tasks ranging from the mundane (such as copying or removing files from the system) to the arcane (such as writing and compiling programs or doing sophisticated editing in a variety of document formats).

While many groups and individuals have contributed to Linux, the largest single contributor is still the Free Software Foundation, which created not only most of the tools used in Linux, but also the philosophy and the community that made Linux possible.

The Linux kernel first appeared in 1991, when a Finnish computing science student named Linus Torvalds announced an early version of a replacement kernel for Minix to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix. See Linux International's Linux History Page.

Linus Torvalds continues to coordinate the work of several hundred developers with the help of a few trusty deputies. An excellent weekly summary of discussions on the linux-kernel mailing list is Kernel Traffic. More information about the linux-kernel mailing list can be found on the linux-kernel mailing list FAQ.

Linux users have immense freedom of choice in their software. For example, Linux users can choose from a dozen different command line shells and several graphical desktops. This selection is often bewildering to users of other operating systems, who are not used to thinking of the command line or desktop as something that they can change.

Linux is also less likely to crash, better able to run more than one program at the same time, and more secure than many operating systems. With these advantages, Linux is the fastest growing operating system in the server market. More recently, Linux has begun to be popular among home and business users as well.

3)the following are the linux software projects:

a)

Build a media server

Linux is brilliant at serving files. It's this ability that keeps the enterprise world turning to Linux for its heavy lifting jobs and that keeps the world Googling 24/7. But it's just as good at serving files from a computer tucked away under the stairs or stuck in the loft, and a server in your house is now becoming an essential accessory. Mobile phones, games consoles and even televisions are rapidly developing the ability to read, display and play files held on a media-centre PC, and Linux is the perfect free software solution. All you need is a relatively low-powered PC, a decent amount of storage and somewhere safe to hide it.

b)

Host a photo album

There are plenty of online services that offer to host your photos for free, and sites like Flickr and Picasa are excellent tools for expanding your online social presence. But for most of us, they're not ideal for sharing personal photos with family and friends. Even when they offer password-protected collections with restricted access, sometimes you want to keep your own photos closer to your own storage. S

The software we've opted to use is called Zoph. It's built using PHP and a MySQL database, and enables you to import your collection of photos through a Zip or Tar file, organise them into albums, set attributes for author and geographical location, and share them with your friends and family.

4)Linux weekly news includes:

a)Log into most any Linux system by hitting backspace 28 times:Security researchers have discovered a ludicrously simple way to hack into a number of Linux distributions: Just tap the backspace key 28 times in a row. A team from the Cybersecurity Group at Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) in Spain found that doing so for builds utilizing the ubiquitous Grub2 bootloader -- that's to say just about all of them -- immediately bypasses the lock screen, initiates the "Grub rescue shell" and grants the user access to the system for whatever nefarious things they have in mind.

b)Linux Foundation teams with fintech firms for blockchain development project:

The project will develop an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework, and the Linux Foundation says this will allow developers to ‘focus on building robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support business transactions’.

‘Distributed ledgers are poised to transform a wide range of industries from banking and shipping to the “Internet of Things”, among others,’ says Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation.

Hot topics going on linux going on right now:

a)Is your browser safe against tracking? Use Panopticlick to find out

b)5 open source frameworks every application developer should know

http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/5-open-source-frameworks-every-application-developer-should-know-151217072435.html

http://www.linuxtoday.com/security/is-your-browser-safe-against-tracking-use-panopticlick-to-find-out-151217143837.html

5)The prerequisites for an install of a linux disro are:

1)Hardware Requirements:

For the Intel versions, a hardware configuration that looks like the following is required:

Any 80386, 80486, Pentium or Pentium II processor will do. Non-Intel clones of the 80386 and up will generally work. You do not need a math coprocessor, although it is nice to have one.

The ISA, EISA, VESA Local Bus and PCI bus architectures are supported. The MCA bus architecture (found on IBM PS/2 machines) has been minimally supported since the 2.1.x kernels, but may not be ready for prime time yet.

You need at least 4 megabytes of memory in your machine. Technically, Linux will run with only 2 megs, but most installations and software require 4. The more memory you have, the happier you'll be. I suggest an absolute minimum of 16 megabytes if you're planning to use X-Windows; 64 is better.

Of course, you'll need a hard drive and an AT-standard drive controller. All MFM, RLL, and IDE drives and controllers should work. Many SCSI drives and adaptors are supported as well; the Linux SCSI-HOWTO contains more information on SCSI. If you are assembling a system from scratch to run Linux, the small additional cost of SCSI is well worth it for the extra performance and reliability it brings.

You'll want a CD-ROM drive; effectively all Linux distributions are now CD-ROM based. If your machine was built in 1998 or later, you should be able to actually boot your Linux's installer right off the CD-ROM without using a boot floppy.

If your CD-ROM is ATAPI, SCSI, or true IDE you should have no problem making it work (but watch for cheap drives advertising "IDE" interfaces that aren't true IDE). If your CD-ROM uses a proprietary interface card, it's possible the installation kernel you're going to boot from floppy won't be able to see it -- and an inaccessible CD-ROM is a installation show-stopper. Also, CD-ROMs that attach to your parallel port won't work at all. If you're in doubt, consult the Linux CD-ROM HOWTO for a list and details of supported hardware.

If your CD-ROM isn't in your machine's boot sequence, you will need a 3.5" floppy drive. While 5.25" floppies are supported under Linux, they are little-enough used that you should not count on disk images necessarily fitting on them. (A stripped-down Linux can actually run on a single floppy, but that's only useful for installation and certain troubleshooting tasks.)

You also need an MDA, Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA, or Super VGA video card and monitor. In general, if your video card and monitor work under MS-DOS or Windows then they should work under Linux. However, if you wish to run the X window system, there are other restrictions on the supported video hardware. The Linux XFree86-HOWTO, contains more information about running X and its requirements.

If you're running on a box that uses one of the Motorola 68K processors (including Amiga, Atari, or VMEbus machines), see the Linux/m68k FAQ for information on minimum requirements and the state of the port. The FAQ now says m68k Linux is as stable and usable as the Intel versions.

2)Space requirements and coexistence

You'll need free space for Linux on your hard drive. The amount of space needed depends on how much software you plan to install. Today most installations require somewhere in the ballpark of a gigabyte of space. This includes space for the software, swap space (used as virtual RAM on your machine), and free space for users, and so on.

It's conceivable that you could run a minimal Linux system in 80 megs or less (this used to be common when Linux distributions were smaller), and it's conceivable that you could use two gigabytes or more for all of your Linux software. The amount varies greatly depending on the amount of software you install and how much space you require. More about this later.

Linux will co-exist with other operating systems, such as MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, or OS/2, on your hard drive. (In fact you can even access MS-DOS files and run some MS-DOS programs from Linux.) In other words, when partitioning your drive for Linux, MS-DOS or OS/2 live on their own partitions, and Linux exists on its own. We'll go into more detail about such ``dual-boot'' systems later.

You do not need to be running MS-DOS, OS/2, or any other operating system to use Linux. Linux is a completely stand-alone operating system and does not rely on other OSs for installation and use.

In all, the minimal setup for Linux is not much more than is required for most MS-DOS or Windows 3.1 systems sold today (and it's a good deal less than the minimum for Windows 95!). If you have a 386 or 486 with at least 4 megs of RAM, then you'll be happy running Linux. Linux does not require huge amounts of disk space, memory, or processor speed. Matt Welsh, the originator of this HOWTO, used to run Linux on a 386/16 MHz (the slowest machine you can get) with 4 megs of RAM, and was quite happy. The more you want to do, the more memory (and faster processor) you'll need. In our experience a 486 with 16 megabytes of RAM running Linux outdoes several models of expensive workstations.

3)Time requirements

Start to finish, a modern Linux installation from CD-ROM can be expected to take from ninety minutes to three hours.

4)Choosing a Linux distribution

Before you can install Linux, you need to decide on one of the ``distributions'' of Linux which are available. There is no single, standard release of the Linux software---there are many such releases. Each release has its own documentation and installation instructions. All distributions pretty much share the same underlying codebase, however.

Linux distributions are available both via anonymous FTP and via mail order on diskette, tape, and CD-ROM. There are many checklists and comparative reviews of Linux distributions out there. The Linux Weekly News site, in addition to being an excellent general source of news and information, carries a weekly report on distributions with pointers to many of them.

In the dim and ancient past when this HOWTO was first written (1992-93), most people got Linux by tortuous means involving long downloads off the Internet or a BBS onto their DOS machines, followed by an elaborate procedure which transferred the downloads onto multiple floppy disks. One of these disks would then be booted and used to install the other dozen. With luck (and no media failures) you'd finish your installation many hours later with a working Linux. Or maybe not.

While this path is still possible (and you can download any one of several distributions from Metalab), there are now much less strenuous ways. The easiest is to buy one of the high-quality commercial Linux distributions distributed on CD-ROM, such as Red Hat, Debian, Linux Pro, or WGS. These are typically available for less than $50 at your local bookstore or computer shop, and will save you many hours of aggravation.

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