Linux

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 /.

Linux has a number of schedulers available in its kernel, plus at least one scheduler available as a patch. But the default schedler is the Completely Fair Scheduler. Like most modern schedulers, it is pre-emptive, meaning that instead of the process deciding when to give up the CPU, the kernel decides for it when to give up the CPU. This keeps even the most uncooperative process from starving the other processes on the computer of CPU time. From what I understand of how CFS works: It keeps an eye on how much of an assigned quantum (length of time.) is actually spent on the CPU by a process and how much of the quantum is spent blocking (Keeping off the CPU to wait for I/O requests to complete, a process can't usually proceed and keep going without requested data. During the time a process is waiting for the hardware, other processes make use of the CPU.) The less time a process actually uses the CPU on its given quantum, the higher a priority it gets so that when the data from an I/O operation is complete the process can quickly execute to the next I/O request and block again. This keeps the CPU busy, but the system responsive to just about any event.

I don't know what sort of process scheduling is used on Windows. Windows, unlike Linux, is given a pretty heavy black box treatment when it comes to its users and a great deal about its kernel is not common knowledge. Presumably it is a pre-emptive, priority-based scheduler. Doubtful it's as efficient as CFS.

There's no single file that contains the boot information. Nor is the method of booting uniform across all platforms and distributions. There are dozens of bootloaders, each of which have their own configuration files in various locations.

'dir <directory>' Read the 'dir' manual with the command 'man dir'.

NOTE: The 'ls' command is more commonly used instead of 'dir'.

Below are some examples.

$ dir

Desktop Documents Music Pictures

$ dir Documents

test.txt test.odt test.pdf

$ dir /

bin etc lib lost+found opt run srv usr

boot home lib32 media proc sbin sys var

dev initrd.img lib64 mnt root selinux tmp vmlinuz

Super block is supposed to be the first sector of any file system that can be mounted on Linux operating system.

It is supposed to contain information about the entire file system in that partition.

It has magic number to specify which file system is used in that partition and other parameters to help read/write to that file system.

One can find a Linux game server hosting from most web hosting companies. The best thing to do is to look around the different web hosting companies and choose one which offers what your looking for at the best price.

The following installation methods are available:

CD-ROM

Hard Drive

Network Install (via NFS, FTP, or HTTP)

Kickstart

PXE

Red Hat Network Provisioning