Linux

This is dependent on what filesystem is in use.

The de facto standard filesystem in Linux is ext4, which supports up to 255 characters on its filenames.

But if you are using something else it's better to look it up on Wikipedia.

Wow.. no one has answered you yet huh.. I think for that kind of laptop to go ahead and try ubuntu. It seems to pretty much work with anything. Hope this helps

Check the realted links. Try to go to the Linux for laptops site to see what successes and failiures others have had.

basically, if i understand your question, you want to know in plain ol' english what a kernel is. Basically it is just the main part of the operating system that gets information from applications and submits it to hardware for processing. If you want more specific info regarding a kernel, check out the wikipedia page for it.

That depends on the file system and the environment used. When you delete something from the console, it is intended to be permanent, although depending on the file system, you may still be able to retrieve it. In a desktop environment, files are moved to a folder akin to the recycle Bin in Windows, and can be retrieved at any time until permananently deleted.

grep can match the beginning of a line with the '^' character and the end of a line with the '$' character. Any character is matched by the '.' character, so to match a literal "." you will need to use the escaped '\.' sequence. Thus to match a line beginning with a dot and ending with a dot you would use:

grep '^\..*\.$'

This will match any line that both begins with a dot and ends with a dot, and has any characters in between.

it can be modified to fit the specific needs of the company

That's debatable, as most can be heavily customized to present a certain look. JWM and IceWM somewhat resemble Windows 95 out of the box. KDE has a taskbar that is fairly similar to Windows, but the default window decorations and most UI widgets are very different.

There are a HUGE amount of packages available in Linux.

Thousands upon thousands.

You have to keep in mind that even a program that, to you, is just one program, is actually made up of several packages.

For example, if you want to install the VLC media player, you have to install a package called VLC, but also a package called VLC-NOX, VLC-Data, libvlc2, libvcdinfo0, etc...

Once upon a time, all computers were controlled by typing instructions. There was no GUI 'Graphic User Interface' as on modern computers. Whilst there is nothing wrong in using GUI entirely, some users would rather use the CLI 'Command Line Interface' on a terminal, either entirely or partly. Provided the user knows the code to type, it is often faster using CLI than the mouse and GUI.

Well you can get aMSN wich is a clone of msn i have it, Its GREAT!!! but the problem is i dont know what type your using soo.. go to http://www.google.co.uk and search how to install amsn on <your version> linux! HOPE I HELPED !

As Linux can be tailored to suit different needs, many contradictory, there is no single distro that is perfectly adapted to all of them. And "best" is a matter of opinion; some may think one looks better than another; some may want more features while others want better performance on lower-end hardware.

This is a question without a simple answer. If by "Linux", you mean the Linux kernel, then yes. The source code is available free of cost, and you are free to modify it with only a few restrictions. If you meant "a Linux distro", then maybe. Most Linux distros, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Slackware are available free of charge as well, and with similar rights to modify and redistribute. However, a few Linux distros, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Xandros use a lot of proprietary software, and are not made available free of charge.

Mac OS X is based on BSD, which is similar to Linux. Because of this, it is fairly easy to port programs between the two operating systems. However, the two operating systems are not the same, and programs for one don't work on the other. Linux also uses the X window system, and Mac doesn't, though Mac has a program to support programs that use the X window system. Because of this, Linux programs can be configured to run on Mac OS X with a little elbow grease, but not the other way around.

There are dozens of shells for Linux. The most popular are:

bash (Bourne-Again Shell)

ksh (Korn shell)

zsh (Z Shell)

ash (Almquist shell)

dash (Debian Almquist shell)

BusyBox (based on ash)

fish (Friendly Interactive Shell)

/sbin/reboot

I personally think Linux is the future. Because of it's closed nature, MS Windows has more difficulty adapting to a changing world and MS's tactics in the past have been to bludgeon the industry into complying with it. This is resulting in an increase of resentment in the industry, especially as recent Windows release Vista has had a less than stellar performance.

As Linux gains popularity it also gains contributors, MS can only gain contributors if it hires them raising costs. Most Linux contributors do it for free. Users can also contribute more to the development by becoming involved in support and even fixing problems themselves if they have the know-how. Where Linux encourages users to dissect it, tweak it and problem solve themselves, these actions are illegal with a MS product leaving users at the mercy of the corporation. Windows is very susceptible to viruses and malware, and this is unlikely to change in the future, due to the enormous internet security industry that relies on a compromisable OS in order to stay in business. While Linux is certainly not immune from viruses, it has no commercial interest in compromising it's security and it's developers and users have access to source code so solutions are implemented more rapidly.

Also, recent Windows releases have simply become a layering or essentially pointless features on top of an already bloated operating system making it unstable and unresponsive. This is unlikely to change, as expensive commercial software which demands backward compatibility is stopping MS from just being able to start things from scratch. As most Linux software is open source, many applications can be ported from one platform to another by developers and users, reducing the need for backward compatibility.

Also the main drawback of Linux at the moment is lack of support for some hardware, but already many hardware manufacturers are beginning to take Linux seriously and either publish propriety drivers or assist in the implementation of open source ones.

The Linux kernel is named for its creator, Linus Torvalds. The practice of appending an X was for Unix and Unix-like systems.

Absolutely. Dual boot is a very popular deployment for Linux. And some people even completely remove Windows and just have Linux.

Windows, to the PC, is just another operating system. It has to follow the same rules to the computer as any other OS, including the fact that the system is never hardcoded for an operating system.

Completely free. If someone sells you Linux, it is legitimate, however, it will not be for a license to use the software. The GPL is not that kind of license.

However, it is still free as in freedom, not free as in beer, meaning it is entirely valid under the GPL to sell Linux.

My first guess is preventive and reactive.

A longer answer includes lists of antivirus, antispam, intrusion countermeasure, proper network settings and OS updates. Many of them can be found in Linux blogs, SANS security white papers, Cnet free downloads and DriverGuide.com

There are a series of commands, depending on what and how much information you want on logged in users. The commands are:

who

w

users

finger (if installed)

The root directory is usually /.