Linux Grows Up? A Look at Linuxs past, Review of Its Present, and some Speculations on its Future. Bill Latura

What is Linux? A free UNIX-like operating system A kernel A software distribution Working towards POSIX compliance A phenomenon A hobby gone wild...

Who is Linus Torvalds? A former Finnish college student Author of Linux kernel Arbitrator of kernel changes Employee of Transmeta

How long has Linux been around? First public release in 1991 Version 1 released in 1994 Version 2 released in 1996 Kernel 2.2 released January 25, 1999 Development kernels released from daily to monthly

What is a Linux Distribution? A collection of software Automated installation routines Distributor specific tweaks Package managers Third-party software Manuals and support

What are some distributions? Red Hat SuSE Debian Slackware Caldera TurboLinux, LinuxPro, Mandrake et al...

What platforms does Linux run on? X86 (Intel, AMD, Cyrix) Alpha SPARC PowerPC MIPS m86K (Mac, Atari, Amiga) ARM SGI/Indy

What hardware does Linux support? All SCSI devices, IDE hard drives VESA and PCI buses CD-ROMs and ROM burners Sound cards All but the very latest video cards Zip, tape, scanner and misc. devices

How many people use Linux? , ,500, ,500,000 Today8-10,000,000 Its all just guesswork anyway...

Where can I get Linux? FTP sites Distribution publishers Software mail order houses Bookstores and swap meets Friends, neighbors, countrymen...

How much does Linux cost? $0FTP and friends $1-2Cheap CDs $20-200Distributions Not counting man-hours...

Can I get Linux pre-installed? YES Dell, Compaq, Gateway VAResearch, Aspen Systems, HiTech USA Installation fairs

What is open-source software? Source code freely available free redistribution of code modification and derived works allowed registered as certification mark GNU GPL, BSD, X Consortium newest trade rag buzz-word

What is GNU? GNUs Not Unix free Unix-like operating system project GNU Hurd kernel GNU General Public License (Copyleft) Richard Stallman used extensively by Linux

What is Xfree86? Freely redistributable X Window System For UNIX, UNIX-like and OS/2 OSs not specific to X86 platform base technology for developing GUIs draw GUI elements on screen hardware independent, remote capable

What is KDE? Integrated graphical desk environment Window manager, file manager, control center, tools, apps, utilities Common look, customizable Drag and drop, file associations uses Qt toolkit from Troll Tech

What is GNOME? GNU Network Object Model Environmt built entirely with freely available s/w consistent look and feel, tools and apps Enlightenment window manager GTK+ GUI toolkit second to KDE in terms of support

What other window managers are there? Fvwm Afterstep, WindowMaker, Blackbox for the NextStep look CDE Enlightenment Qvwm, fvwm95 for the Win95 look the old standbys: twm, ctwm. olwm, mwm, etc...

Can Linux run DOS apps? DOSEmu DOS emulator XDOSEmu for running under X cant run all DOS apps uses FreeDOS kernel 100% Microsoft-free code

Can Linux run MS Windows apps? WINE sorta runs Win 3.X and Win32 developer only release does not require MS Windows 100% Microsoft-free code WABI best bet…dual boot

What other emulators are available? Atari 800, 800XL, 5200 Executor Macintosh iNES, SNes9X Nintendo UAE Amiga Frodo Commodore 64 ZXZ, XZ80 Sinclair ZX Spectrum Stella96,Virtual2600 Atari 2600

Who has announced Linux ports? IBM and Lotus Oracle Corel Sybase, Informix Microsoft (?) Others

What office suites are available for Linux? Applix Star Office Word Perfect Other word processors Other spreadsheets Development projects

What databases are available for Linux? IBM DB2 Oracle8 Sybase PostgreSQL mini-SQL ADABAS D Raima Empress Essentia FlagShip Informix InterBase Ingres Yard

What graphics and sound apps are there? GIMP Blender XV POV Ray ImageMagic Moonlight Creator Mp3 players Real Audio midi and wave players many CD players etc, etc, etc...

What science and eng apps are available? MapleV Mathmatica MicroStation Varkon-3D VariCAD Khoros GAMESS Astronomy Chemistry Finite Element Anal. Mapping Scientific Plotting Signal Processing Statistics

What utilities are available for Linux? System admin tools Networking tools Shells and scripting languages File managers Security tools But what about viruses and defraggers?

How do I get help? Buy it Usenet Mailing lists HOW-TOs and FAQs On-line manuals and docs Third party books

What is Linux currently being used for? Web servers File servers Database servers Program development Vertical apps Self-education

What about SAMBA and Netware? SAMBA integrates Windows boxes to UNIX environment NT and LAN Manager file, print services NETBIOS nameserver Caldera Netware client Netware on Linux 4.10b file, directory and print services still a bit flakey targeting the enterprise

Will Linux replace Microsoft Windows? Pros:Cost, low hardware requirements, stability, cross-platform Cons:Installed base, perceived lack of support, Microsoft marketing, application support, tricky installation, lack of common interface Not yet….

Who (or what) is Tux? A penguin A logo A mascot A stuffed toy A favorite of Linus Torvalds

Where can I find out more about Linux? World Wide Web - Linux Today, Freshmeat, Slashdot, Linux Doc Project USENET groups Mailing lists Magazines - Linux Journal Books - everybody and their brother

What about Free BSD? I dont know, you tell me...