Introduction to Free and Open Source Software - August 2005

1. GNU/Linux
● JMI-LUG(Linux/Open Users Group)
● Topics to be discussed
– History
– Installation
– Configuration
Saleem A. Ansari
B.Tech(Comp. Engg.)
Semester-V

2. What is FSF/GNU
● Richard Stallman – Emacs, GCC, ...
● Paul Vixie - BIND
● Linus Torvalds - Linux
● Brian Behlendorf – Apache
● Bruce Perens – Debian Linux Package
● Larry Wall - Perl

3. Richard Stallman
● MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971
● GNU ( GNU's Not Unix ), January 1984
● ”So, in 1985 we created the Free Software
Foundation, a tax-exempt charity for free
software development” -- Richard
● ”It is due to Linux that we can actually run
a version of the GNU system today.” --
Richard

4. Linus B. Torvalds
● University of Helsinki, Finland, 1991
● Made Linux open source under GPL
● OSDL (Open Source Developement Labs)
● Linux Version 0.99 ---> 2.7.x

5. ....and many others
● People work over the internet by `will`
● Mostly includes academic people:
Students , Professors, etc...
● Business Contributor Companies like:
RedHat, Novell, IBM, HP... and many more
● Voluntary Contributors

6. What is Linux?
● Its is just the Kernel( 0.1-0.3% ) of the
total GNU/Linux System
● REVOLUTION OS
● Most Versatile OS : from Mainframes -->
Embedded Devices
● Most Stable OS: Stable for Years
● Its Free as in 'Freedom' but not
necessarily free of cost

7. Installation
● Basic Pre-Installation
● Partitions
● Bootloader

8. Basic Installation
● Distros ( Linux Distributions )
● What to choose?!
– RedHat, Fedora, SUSE, Knoppix, Debian...
etc.
● Partitioning the Hard disk
● BootLoader ( LILO, GRUB, Yaboot ... )

9. Partitions /
Mount Points /home
Installation

10. GRUB – Grand Unified
Bootloader

11. Configuration
● Adding the Users
● Screen Resolution
● Sound Configuration
● Network Configuration
● Terminal

12. Directory Structure
/bin, /sbin, /usr, /dev , /etc, /boot, /mnt, /proc *
. current directory Some Common Files
.. parent directory .bash_login .bash_profile .bash_logout
.[_________] hidden files /etc/inittab
[__________] regular files /etc/fstab
/etc/xinetd.d/
/etc/passwd
/etc/init.d/
/etc/rc.d/

13. Shell Variables: PATH, USER, HOME, LANG,
CVSROOT...
Commands: ls, find, cat, grep, ps, env, kill, mount...
Utilities: vi, gcc, emacs, ldd, as, ld...
For more references: man pages, info pages