< Linux Basics

Why Linux? Linus Torvalds showed that MINIX isn't available for x86(it was only available for education purposes), so he programmed a kernel for x86.[1]

In 1991 Linus Torvalds was sophomore student in University of Helsinki at the faculty of Computer Sciences. He was a self-educated hacker, and wanted to write his own operating system, so he decided to write one. Why? He wanted to explore the Intel 80386 CPU's protected mode, task-switching capabilities. That was around the summer of 1991.

GPL - The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, which was created by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project. The aim of GNU GPL is to grant the copying and distributing of free software ensuring the free use of the software for every user.

Linux is surrounded by shells - command prompts, and X Window System can be built on it.

What are Linux distributions/distros? Operating systems that has Linux kernel under the hood. Under the list there are some examples. You can find all the others on Distrowatch.com with ratings for each one.

Distributions

Most important distributions

  1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is one of the most successful Linux distributions which is developed by Red Hat for commercial usage, RPM package manager can be associated with it.
  2. Fedora
    It's from the USA, it's the "demo version" of the incoming RHEL versions or how I should say it. RHEL is the strengthened version.
  3. Slackware
    The oldest alive Linux distribution. The first version was released in 1993, based on the widely spread SLS Linux, on floppy disks back then. For the design the primary aspect were simple usability, stability and security. It doesn't have automatic dependency handling. The aim since its release to become the most Unix-like distribution.
  4. Debian
    Debian is one of the oldest versions, it was announced on August 13, 1993 by Ian Murdock. Debian in contrast to RHEL is not commercial-oriented, volunteers take part in it. It's the base of many distributions (like Ubuntu, Knoppix). Debian comes from Debora (Ian's wife) and Ian's name.
  5. Ubuntu
    One of the most popular distributions, which is developed by Canonical Ltd. since 2004. The first release was 4.10 and since then, in every 6 month a newer version and in every 4th month of even year a Long-Term Support releases.
  6. Arch Linux
    Arch Linux is an independent distribution for advanced Linux users. It uses Pacman package manager. It has rolling-release model, which means that it updates continuously instead of bigger releases.
  7. openSUSE
    OpenSUSE is the sequel of SUSE Linux and it's a project which promotes of using Linux ensuring by this a free and complete distribution to the users.
  8. Gentoo
    Gentoo Linux is a flexible, fast distribution using Portage package manager. In contrast to other distributions, you have to compile the whole system from source, so the installation process may take hours depending on hardware.
Tux, the mascot of Linux

Graphical User Interfaces

  • KDE, Gnome, MATE, Xfce, Cinnamon, LXDE, LXQt, Pantheon, Budgie stb.
  • Desktop Managers: SDDM, GDM, LightDM

The mascot of Linux is Tux, the penguin, which was planned by Alan Cox and Linus, and was drawn by Larry Ewing.[2]

RPM and DEB-based distros

RPM: Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, openSUSE stb.

DEB: Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, MX Linux stb.

repository: container; programs and drivers can be found for the distros

package manager: it solves the dependency tree if there is an incompability issue a függőségi fát megoldja, ha inkompatibilitási gond van

Logos of some distributions

Sources

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
  2. https://www.maketecheasier.com/the-origin-of-the-penguin-tux/
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