Linux

"Older computers" can encompass a wide range of hardware going back nearly 20 years. To simplify the variables, I'll give some example configurations, along with some appropriate Linux distros you may like to try.

Pentium 4 2.8 GHz

1 GB DDR RAM

60 GB IDE hard drive

This is within the spec of pretty much every Linux distro. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, PCLinuxOS, and Debian are all good choices for a computer like this. If you demand an extremely responsive desktop, try Xubuntu, Debian with an Xfce desktop, or Dreamlinux.

Pentium III 1 GHz

256 MB PC133 RAM

20 GB hard drive

Things start to get a little tighter here. More RAM on such a system would improve performance immensely. On a Pentium III, an Xfce desktop (as found in Xubuntu or Dreamlinux) is ideal. Puppy Linux (with JWM) would also run well.

Pentium II 400 MHz

128 MB PC66 RAM

10 GB hard drive

While Xubuntu and Dreamlinux will still run decently, they no longer exude a large amount of speed. Puppy Linux should still be good. Debian does not provide a JWM CD by default, but it can be installed from the netinstall version from the command line. Damn Small Linux, based on an older version of a Knoppix LiveCD, begins to look attractive.

Pentium MMX 233 MHz

32 MB of DIMM modules RAM

4 GB hard drive

From this point on, Linux becomes a little more "down to basics." Desktops are still available, but they lack as much "user-friendliness" as many distros aimed at newer computers have created. Damn Small Linux is one of the best choices for a desktop system. Puppy Linux is no longer usable, as it requires 128 MB to boot a LiveCD. A Slackware install with a JWM or Fluxbox desktop is a decent choice. Xubuntu is still technically bootable, but will take so long to boot as to be useless. Debian is still possible, as long as you know how to use the command line to install a desktop.

Intel 486DX-66 MHz

16 MB of RAM

1 GB hard drive

This is likely the end of the line for most users. Beyond this point lies only ancient console-only distros, kernel recompiling, alternative C libraries, and FPU emulation. Only the brave, daring, and masochistic dare tread this path. These requirements are the bare minimum for Damn Small Linux, the most minimalistic Linux desktop still developed. You could skimp slightly on the processor (say a 486DX-40) and hard drive (Damn Small Linux needs only 50 MB) but the X server will probably not run under less RAM.

Intel 386SX-33 MHz

4 MB of RAM

40 MB hard drive

Linus Torvalds began the Linux kernel on a machine similar to the above. In the ye olden days, a 386 with 8 MB of RAM was enough to run a state-of-the-art web server (and a crude X server). Today, you'd be hard pressed to even fit the kernel into such a small amount of memory. Honestly, you'd probably get more of the functionality you want on such a machine from FreeDOS than an ancient Linux kernel.

The 2.6 Linux kernel supports up to 4,294,967,296 user IDs. The 2.4 kernel only supports 65,536.

In the normal sense of a "file"system, swap is not formatted as a file system.

It is formatted similar to memory or RAM.

No. Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS, OpenVMS, Z/os, IBM i are all examples of operating systems.

Operating system software is what you see when you turn on your computer and wait for the computer to go through its Initial Program Loading (IPL) process reading software from a designated device, and going through the process of setting things up so it can process user requests.

Application software would be a programs that are used to perform tasks and jobs requested by a user. Sometimes these do turn themselves on at startup automatically - like antivirus software.

tar is one of the basic commands in Unix. tar command in unix is used for achriving purpose, you can create archive, update or extract from archieve using tar command in unix.you can also create compressed archieve by combining bzip2 and gzip along with unix tar command

Absolutely. Very widely used.

Actually, this very site runs on Linux...

Linux has a large and healthy variety of web browsers. Mozilla Firefox is equally popular on the Linux desktop. Opera also has a decent following on Linux. Konqueror, which uses a rendering engine similar to Safari and Google Chrome, also has some usage.

There are lots of smaller web browsers, such as Dillo, Lynx, or Arachne, that are sometimes used in less powerful computers.

There are many different utilities - everything from vi, vim, nano, pico, emacs, etc. Each can be different depending on the power of what they do to the ease of use (beginners vs power users).

The accronym "GNU" stands for Gnu Is not Unix.

Technically speaking, it's "GNU/Linux" because Linux is the kernel, not the whole thing, we just shorten it to Linux (I do this myself, but I do know that Linux is just the kernel).

It is made up of the Linux kernel and several GNU programs (try typing a basic command into a terminal with --help, chances are you could easily find one that says GNU somewhere at the bottom).

the cp command would copy "do" over "done"

if this isn't the behavior you want, you can do "cp -n" to not overwrite if "done" exists, or "cp -i" to prompt you whether you want to overwrite or not.

most people use their last names, pets, favorite food, etc. but it is not reccommended to do this because its easier for people to get in your computer and access your files.

To understand what makes Linux relatively more stable than, say, Windows, you must understand what makes Windows unstable in the first place.

1. Drivers. Most of the blue screens seen in Windows 2000 and newer are the result of poorly written drivers. Microsoft does not make the drivers for the hardware on computers; the manufacturers of the hardware do. By contrast, the drivers for hardware in Linux are developed by the authors of the kernel. They can check the code themselves to be sure that it works properly.

2. Separation of processes. When "Windows Explorer crashes, when browsing a folder for instance, not only will the folder disappear, so will the taskbar and Start Menu. The same process, Explorer.exe, controls both the folders and the taskbar. Traditionally, it also controlled Internet Explorer. On Linux desktops, different programs control the file manager, the web browser, and the taskbar. One crashing will not affect the others, so you can continue to work productively with little interruption.

3. User privileges. In Windows XP and older, the default user was automatically made an "Administrator." This allows the user complete control of the system, but also allows any programs he launches to do whatever they want. This is how spyware takes over the system. In a Linux system, a user is encouraged (and in "newbie" distros, forced) to use an account with more limited privileges. This account cannot install software, or make any changes to files that he doesn't own. When the user wants to make a change to the system, he just needs to enter a password, to assume maximum privileges. This lowers the likelihood of installing software without the user's knowledge.

Linux actually has the largest share of the web server market, so you're probably not wondering about it's popularity in that regard.

Many people point to different issues with desktop Linux, and think that once this barrier is overcome, it will become the "year of the Linux desktop." However, it is likely a combination of these factors that slow the growth of Linux in this area.

The first reason is that in order to take a significant market share, you have to market. When was the last time you saw a commercial on TV, telling you to get a computer with Ubuntu on it, instead of a Mac or a PC with Windows? If no one hears about it, they aren't going to be interested in trying it.

The second reason is the (perceived) complexity that people like to portray Linux as having. Not to be cruel, but a large number of internet users one will come across will communicate on a third-grade level. They don't understand relatively simple computer terms like "partitioning", "formatting", or "open-source." They want to know why they can't play RuneScape out of the box, or play MP3 files, or DVDs.

The third reason is probably the fact that they first have to deal with an operating system already being dominant. Many manufacturers don't provide any sort of drivers for Linux, or supply specifications so that others can write them. Many software companies that make popular products don't make a Linux version. Many computer retailers are locked into licensing agreements with Microsoft, so that they effectively can't sell a computer without bundling the cost of Windows with it. Not many people are going to be interested in Linux if it costs them exactly the same as Windows, but can't run half of its programs.

"/" is the root directory in Linux. Make sure not to confuse this with the "/root" directory, which is the home directory for the user "root" (similar to "Administrator" on Windows)

sudo is a Linux command used to execute programs as the root, or "super user." sudo is a shortening of "super user do." One uses sudo when they need to run a command or program as root, but do not wish to log out or switch their entire shell to root privileges (like they could do with the su command). The file sudoers defines per user or per group what commands can be run with sudo. This file is edited with the command visudoers

According to NetApplications, in October 2008, the most-used operating systems are as follows: 1. Windows XP (68.1%) 2. Windows Vista (19.3%) 3. Mac OS X (8.2%) 4. Windows 2000 (1.7%) 5. Linux (0.7%) The main five families of operating systems are: 1. Windows 2. Mac OS X 3. Linux 4. FreeBSD 5. SunOS

A "root" user has the power to do anything on a Linux system. A "normal user" will be assigned some of these capabilities based on what group they are in, but is generally prevented from running any commands that may affect the system outside of their home directory. Users can be granted "sudo" rights, which allows them to run the sudo command and temporarily be granted root privileges.

This largely has to do with Linux's relationship to Unix. Unix itself was a multi-user operating system built for mainframes and minicomputers.

For practical purposes, however, multi-user operating systems are probably the most useful nowadays when it comes to systems where more than one user will be on the same system at the same time. Servers most frequently use this but a Linux desktop may also use this in cases where another user might run an X session remotely off the same machine or SSH in.

It simply means - the software has been designed so that the 'end user' (you & me) doesn't have to think too hard to actually use it. Some software (especially in the engineering trade etc) - requires at least a working knowledge of the subject in order to use the program.

The ability to run a GUI is commonly called X11 with different implementations. The most popular in the Linux world is called X.Org Server. There are several but the most popular it seems are Gnome, KDE, and Xfce.

Linux is an operating system which is free and has an open source unlike Microsoft Windows. An embedded Linux is a small independent program used within all sorts of appliances to control its operation and its functions.

From the manpage of the bc(1) command:

The following is the definition of the recursive factorial function.

define f (x) {

if (x <= 1) return (1);

return (f(x-1) * x);

}

So you could enter that definition of f(), and then call it, for example f(10)

Technically, there is none. Different groups for accounts can be created based on the type of permissions they have. User accounts are then assigned to one or more of these accounts based on what permissions the system administrator wants them to have. There is a group called "admin", but it does not work in the same way as the Administrator group. People sometimes cite that the "root" account is the equivalent, but this is incorrect. The root account is never used directly on a properly-designed Linux system. Users in the "admin" group can perform tasks with root permissions, but they must enter credentials whenever they need to do so; Administrators in Windows do not.