Abstract: If you wish to setup Linux on your own machine, read these notes written in the context of courses such as CEG 333, CS 400, CEG 433, CEG 434, CEG 730, CEG 830.
The Linux distribution we installed on the machines in the OSIS Lab is Mandrake 9.2 (www.mandrakesoft.com). Our courses depend only on "the" general Unix environment, not on specifics of Linux or a distribution of Linux.
www.linuxnewbie.net/, New to GNU/Linux? Scan the various forums of this site to get a feel for what is involved in setting up Linux on a machine that you will be in charge,
Linux driver releases for various hardware items are often several months behind the corresponding Windows drivers. Typical hardware items that have this problem are video cards and wireless devices (mice, keyboards, and 802.11). I suggest you chose hardware that is about six-months old. Linux does work on 386, 486, ..., but it is going to be difficult to install a modern Linux distribution on such old systems.
Linux is also available on non-PC platforms with non-x86 CPUs, such as Apple Macs, Sun, and SGI, but it is easiest and cheapest to do it on a PC clone.
Linux has no problems with x86 CPU clones such as AMD Athlon. As long as the CPU is a Pentium III (equivalent) or above, the MHz GHz speed is unimportant. Memory should be at least 256 MB. Hard disk size depends on how carefully you will prune the Linux installation. Given the current prices of hard disk drives (HDD), you will save a lot of your time during install if you were to "everything"-install Linux on a HDD of at least 8 GB. WSU electronic surplus often sells machines for under $200 that would be suitable for your Linux setup.
Linux is open source. It is cost-free only if you download ISO images available from certain sites. OSIS Lab has several ISO images available for download. Your instructor is willing to provide burned in ISO image CDs in exchange for blank CDs. These CDs do contain al the documentation and several books in the .html and .pdf formats. If you were to buy Linux distributions from a BM or on-line store, you will also get a printed copy or two.
There is not much point, in this document, to go into the polemics of why we chose Mandrake for OSIS Lab. So, for your Linux system on your own computer, you may wish to chose other distributions. Here are some suggestions.
Visit www.distrowatch.com for pointers to distributions. Consider either the "major", "live CD" distributions or the ones mentioned below.
The typical distribution will require you to devote one or two partitions exclusively for Linux use. Currently (Jan 2004), Mandrake, Red Hat/ Fedora, Suse/Novell are the leading choices.
If you are not comfortable partitioning a HDD, do not chose such a distribution; consider a live CD Linux.
There are excellent "live CD" distributions that run entirely off the CD. These do not alter the contents of your HDD in any way. However, these lock the CD in the drive. If you have only one CD drive, you cannot eject the live-Linux-CD to play another CD. Obviously, your own work must be saved somewhere else -- removable media or a separate file server. Currently (Jan 2004), Knoppix (www.knopper.net/knoppix/) , Mandrake Live CD, and SLAX (www.slax.org/ ) are the leading choices.
The Linux distributions Lycoris http://www.lycoris.com/ and Xandros http://www.xandros.com/ have a GUI that copies Windows XP.
Linux installation is now quite easy. Power on the PC, insert the CD before BIOS finishes, and answer questions. However, there are two places where you must be careful.
Linux has several GUI to chose from. But, you won't be a power user until you learn shell, and other scripting languages such as Perl. You won't be a programmer until you learn C/C++ native libraries, and Unix/Linux system calls.
For all this, look at my link collection that is deliberately kept minimal.
Quotable quote? "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual
property
sense to everything it touches." -- Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, June 1, 2001.
The following caught my attention for one reason or another. Their descriptions are not by me. They are cut-and-pasted.
Lorma Linux http://linux.lorma.edu/ is developed by Lorma Colleges in the Philippines. It is built on top of Red Hat Linux - recompiled and optimized for the i686 computers, so it is faster and leaner. Perfect as a workstation and it comes on only 1 CD. It also contains software from the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) for setting up diskless workstations. It uses KDE for its desktop environment and is constantly being updated. Lorma Linux is a full-featured Linux distribution specifically made for ease of use and functionality.
Vector Linux www.vectorlinux.com/ "is a small, fast, Intel based Linux operating system for PC style computers. The creators of Vector Linux had a single credo: keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be. What has evolved from this concept is perhaps the best little Linux operating system available anywhere. For the casual computer user you have a lightening fast desktop with graphical programs to handle your daily activities from web surfing, sending and receiving email, chatting on ICQ or IRC to running an ftp server. The power user will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile their own programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for their home or office computer network. Administrators will be equally as pleased because the small size and memory requirements of the operating system can be deployed on older machines maybe long forgotten."
Beehive Linux
http://sourceforge.net/projects/beehivelinux/ (Old, now broken, link
http://www.beehive.nu)
"Our goal in creating Beehive Linux was to provide a fast, simple, secure i686
optimized Linux distribution without all the cruft and clutter. What we wanted
was something that was fast to install and setup, something that didn't by
default include 500 megs of stuff we didn't want or need. And something that had
native ReiserFS support built in. We just wanted something better. Something
tighter. Something cleaner. Beehive Linux is a distribution made by system
administrators, for system administrators. It's intent is to provide fast and
clean setup of workhorse servers and workstations. If you're looking for wizards
and whiz-bang gizmos, you are in the wrong place. If you want to setup servers
with the services you and/or your users need, you are in the right place.
Beehive also works well as a workstation and X, E, BlackBox and KDE are included
- this is not the primary focus of Beehive but hey, every admin needs a
workstation as well right? Beehive Linux is not for the inexperienced, or those
new to linux/*nix. Beehive Linux is for people that know what they're doing and
want to get the job done as well as possible in the least amount of time."
last revised: January 2004; last edited: January 04, 2004 17:44:47 -0500