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What
is Linux all about?
Many people know of, or have at least heard of,
Unix. Unix is both one of the oldest and one of
the most powerful operating systems available
today. "How can Unix be old and yet powerful by
today's standards?", you ask. The answer to this
question lies in the history of Unix; Unix is
a sort of subset of a much larger and more complex
operating system called Multics. Both Unix and
Multics were developed decades ago for very large
computers; only now, decades later are personal
computers finally powerful enough to tackle these
multitasking, multiuser systems with advanced
features. Getting back to the crux of our first
fact, Linux looks like Unix. Linux is not officially
Unix simply because it wasn't written by the same
programmers as was the original Unix system. However,
Linux runs Unix programs and shares the Unix command
set. Linux is, for all general intents and purposes,
a full-featured Unix-type operating system.
Linux, that is, an entire Linux installation,
can be as large as 300 Megabytes before installation,
in compressed form. An entire Linux distribution
can contain tens of thousands of separate files
which oversee and control various parts of the
system, provide various kinds of program or application
functionality, and outline the data structure
of the environment. Because of this complexity,
it is imperative that prospective Linux users
be able to read and to effectively use the Internet
and usenet (newsgroups). Installing Linux is not
a simple process, and new users will, in all likelihood,
need to consult the Linux newsgroups (such as
comp.os.linux.setup or comp.os.linux.help) often.
Even after installation, you must not expect
a miracle. Do not believe that you are some sort
of computer guru who just doesn't know Unix yet.
You aren't. These may seem like harsh words to
you, but far too many users with little or no
Unix experience feel that they can jump in and
crack Linux in ten minutes simply because they
have been using MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 95, or (listen
up, you nerds) Windows NT for years. These other
operating systems do not provide any meaningful
background for Unix use. Unix is a much larger
and more involved system than any of these, with
a completely new (and extremely large) set of
commands. You will require a Unix reference book
(of several hundred pages, at least), no matter
how smart you think yourself to be. Luckily, these
are available at many public libraries, and almost
always apply to Linux.
The philosophy behind most other modern operating
systems (Windows, OS/2, etc.) says that the system
should take control whenever it can, hiding the
complex "internal workings" of the system
from the user and preventing undue complexity. Unfortunately,
simple systems can only provide correspondingly
simple functionality. In short, there are a limited
number of things which you are allowed to do, and
there is no way to change things which are part
of "the system". The user must simply
adapt to the computer.
Linux and Unix, however, are different. You must
master the computer, and the computer must adapt
to service your needs. You become the system administrator,
and Linux assumes that you know what you are doing.
This kind of flexibility is very, very powerful;
you'll have no idea just how powerful it can be
until you've used and mastered a system of this
kind effectively. However, if you tell Linux to
erase your hard drive, Linux will do it; this
functionality is not hidden from the computer's
owner, and Linux will not ask you to reconsider
your rash decision. You are the boss, and you
gave the command.
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