Redhat linux Notes

Redhat Linux                   

UNIX is one of the most popular operating systems in the world and was originally developed in 1969 by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others at AT&T. Four years later, the UNIX kernel was rewritten in the C programming language. In 1974, UNIX was released for academic license. As UNIX (especially the University of California Berkeley's enhanced version) spread from university to university, it was ported to different mainframes and minicomputers, and quickly spawned legions of users and fans around the world. Designed from the ground up to support multiple users and multiple processes at the same time, UNIX was one of the firstmultiuser and multitasking operating systems.

UNIX, and its offshoot brethren such as BSD, AIX, and HP/UX, will run on just about every platform made. Over the years, various vendors purchased the source code and developed new versions. The vendors (such as Apollo, Digital Equipment Corp., IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun) added special touches, such as changing directory structures, improving networking services, and modifying configuration schemes. When UNIX entered the commercial operating system market, each vendor touted its version of UNIX as superior, more reliable, faster, and so on.

Linux was originally created by Linus Torvalds during his graduate studies at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus wrote Linux as a small PC-based implementation of UNIX. During the summer of 1991 Linus made Linux public on the Internet. In September of that same year, version 0.01 was released. A month later, version 0.02 was released, with version 0.03 following several weeks later. In December, Linux was numbered at 0.10, and by the end of the month, virtual memory (disk paging) was added. Within a year, Linux had a thousand more features and was well on its way to becoming a self-compiling, usable operating system. Linus made the source code freely available and encouraged other programmers to develop it further. They did, and Linux continues to be developed today by a worldwide team, led by Linus, over the Internet.

Linux shares many of the same traits and characteristics of UNIX: Linux is written in C and is very portable; source code is available; and it has a good design. The current stable version of Linux is version 2.2.17, but you'll find special features, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) support in Red Hat's 2.2.16 kernel included with this book.

 You can always check for the latest version of the Linux kernel at  http://www.kernel.org/.

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The Magic of Red Hat Linux

The magic of Red Hat Linux happens the moment you boot to your first install. Unlike early installations of Linux and some current installations of other Open Source operating systems, such as BSD UNIX, you'll be greeted with a graphical, point-and-click interface to speed you through the process. Although every Linux distribution using a specific Linux kernel is the same underneath, there are several good reasons to use Red Hat Linux:

• Red Hat Linux is the most popular Linux distribution— Red Hat Linux has consistently been one of the top sellers in its category for several years, and provides distributions for the Compaq Alpha and Sun SPARC CPUs. Red Hat Linux offers superior flexibility in installation, better hardware recognition, and a wealth of easy-to-use system administration tools.
• Red Hat Linux incorporates some of the features based on the upcoming 2.4-series of the Linux kernel— The current version of Red Hat (version 7) is based on the latest stable version of the Linux kernel and incorporates many improvements included with the newer kernel, such as Universal Serial Bus support for mice, keyboards, and selected scanners.
• Red Hat Package Manager— Red Hat's Package Manager (RPM) is the leading software management tool for Linux. This means that after you load Red Hat, you'll never have to load it again in order to update the system or its software. The rpmcommand is a sophisticated tool that includes intelligent file handling across package upgrades, shared file handling, documentation searching support, and package installation via FTP. You can install, uninstall, query, verify, and upgrade individual RPM packages.
• "Pristine Sources"— Red Hat's commitment to providing clean, untouched sources, as well as patches and a control file, define the state of the art in building and packaging software. This method easily, effectively, and clearly separates and documents changes made to the software author's source code used in a software package included with a Red Hat distribution. Benefits include proper credit for bug fixes and the ability to track software versions and modifications.
• Graphic administration tools— Tools such as linuxconf, Disk Druid, and others mark Red Hat Linux as the distribution of choice for easy-to-use administration tools. Red Hat Linux can be entirely managed from a graphical interface.
• Security— Red Hat leads the industry in providing the most up-to-date security features and fixes.
• Community— Red Hat, Inc. develops many software tools and improvements for its Linux distribution, then turns around and returns the source code to the world via the GPL. This shows that Red Hat, unlike many other companies still grappling with the Open Source paradigm, definitely "gets it," and is firmly committed to the Open Source ethics of the worldwide online community.
• Documentation— Red Hat provides a user and installation guide in several formats, available in electronic form on its official and free CD-ROMs, or for free download from http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/. Online help is present throughout the Linux installation process or through help buttons when using graphic administration tools.
• Standards— Red Hat tracks both UNIX and Linux standards. Red Hat conforms to the Linux filesystem standard (FSSTND).
• Support— Red Hat, Inc. provides official product support for registered buyers of its official copies throughhttp://www.redhat.com/apps/support/. Users of free versions (such as the one included with this book), although not eligible for registered support, can still get help with links to tips, FAQs, HOWTO documents, timely changes, errata, and other bug fixes. Updates are available to anyone through http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/updates.html.
• Testing— Red Hat depends on the open development model Linus started with. Thousands of people working around the world are testing applications and providing solutions for today's business and personal needs.

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