Introduction of LINUX

WHAT IS LINUX

Linux is a free operating system that was created by linus torvalds when he was a student at the university of Helsinki in1991.Torvalds started Linux by writing a kernel—the heart of the operating system—partly from scratch and partly by using publicity available software.
Today, there are hundreds of software developers around the world contributing software to the Linux effort. Because the source code for the software is freely available, anyone can work on it, change it, or enhance it. On the top of the Linux kernel effort, the creator of Linux also drew on the great deal of system software and applications that are now bundled with Linux fro the GNU software effort, which is directed by free software foundation.
If you heard Linux describer as a free version of UNIX, there is good reason for it.

INTRODUCTION OF RED HAT LINUX

Red hat Linux 8 represents a bold new direction for most popular commercial Linux distribution. While continuing to add powerful, professional server features, red hat inc. has made a major move on the desktop as well. Highlights of desktop enhancements in red hat 8 include:
Providing a more common red hat look and feel across the KDE and GNOME desktops that come with the destination.
Adding and enhancing home grown red hat graphical administrative tools, to simplify administrative tasks.
Nearly 1500 individual software packages are included in this latest release. These packages contain feature that would cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars to duplicate if you bought them as separate commercial products.

COMMON LINUX FEATURE
MULTIUSER:- Not only can you have many user accounts available on Linux system, you can also have multiple user logged in and working on the system at the same time. Users can have their own environments arranged the way they want: their own home directory for storing files and their own desktop interface. Users accounts can be password protected, so that user can control who has access to their application and data.
Multitasking:- in Linux, it is possible to have many program running at the same time, which means that not only can you have many programs going at once, but that the Linux operating system can itself have programs running in the background. Many of these system processes make it possible for Linux to work as a server, with these background processes listening to the network for requests to log into your system, view a web page, print a document, or a copy a file. These background processes are referred to as daemons.
Graphical user interface(X window interface):-The powerful framework for working with graphical applications in Linux is referred to as the X window system. X handles the function of operating X-based graphical user interface applications and displaying them on an X server process (the process that manages your screen, mouse and keyboard).
Hardware support:- you can configure support for almost every type of hardware that can be connected to a computer. There is support for floppy disk drives, CD-ROMs, removable disks, sounds cards, tape drives, video cards, and most anything else you can think of.
Networking connectivity:-To connect your Linux system to a network, Linux offers support for variety of local area network boards, modems, and serial devices. In addition to LAN protocols, all the most popular upper- level net working protocols can be built- in. The most popular of these protocols is TCP/IP. Other protocols, such as IPX and X.25 are also available
Network servers:- Providing networking services to the client computer on LAN or to the entire internet is what Linux does best. A variety of software packages are server, news server, or workgroup server.
Application support;- Because of compatibility with POSIX several different application programming interfaces, a wide range of freeware and shareware software is available for Linux. Most GNU software from the free software foundation will run in Linux

ADAVANTAGES OF LINUX

When compared to different commercially available operating system, linux’s best assets are its price and its reliability. Most people know that its initial price is free (or at least under $100 when it comes in a box or with a book).however, when people talk about linux’s.
Affordability, they are usually thinking of its total cost, which includes the capability of using inexpensive hardware and capability free add- on applications. Although commercial operating systems tend to encourage upgrading to later hardware, Linux doesn’t
In terms of reliability, the general consensus is comparable to many commercial UNIX systems but more reliable than most desktop- oriented operating systems. This is especially true if you rely on your computer system to stay up because it is a Web server or a file server.
Another advantage of using Linux is that help is always available on the internet. There is probably someone out there in a Linux newsgroup that is willing to help you get around your problem. Because the source code is available, if you need something fixed you can even patch the code yourself! On the other hand, I’ve seen commercial operating system vendors sit on reported problems for months without fixing them. Remember that the culture of Linux is one that thrives on people helping other people.

HARDWARE NEEDED FOR LINUX
CD ROM
FLOPPY DISK
HARD DISK(MIN 3GB)
RAM (32MB)
80386 PROCESSOR

TYPE OF TERMINAL

DUMB TERMINAL
TERMINAL EMULATION
DIAL IN TERMINAL

1) DUMB TERMINAL:-A terminal that does no have any processing unit. Example :-keyboard and monitor are dumb terminal
2) Terminal emulation:-Attaching a PC which has its own microprocessor, memory and disk driver to the host machine. From this PC we can emulate it to work on different terminal. If it is a dumb terminal at such time memory, processor and driver of the PC are not used and PC can not carry out any processing on its own