The Linux Project: An attempt at investigative journalism. By Pappy McFae
I: FOREWORD:
Welcome to the Linux Project: An attempt at investigative journalism. As the title implies, this project marks my first real foray into the world of investigative journalism. The project began when I pulled an old Pentium II computer out of mothballs. At the time, I was unemployed and looking to pad my resume a bit. Since I was looking for a job in computers, either straight IT work, hardware repair/upgrade, or system administration, I figured it behooved me to tackle the world of Linux as I had twelve years ago. Besides, it's always good to perform mental exercises as often as possible to keep the mind keen and the wits sharp.
The first Linux package I installed on that system was called PHLAK (Professional Hacker's Linux Assault Kit). I installed PHLAK before the idea for this project became nestled in my brain. At the time, the intent was just to see how much different Linux was from the first time I played with it about twelve years ago. Immediately, I was struck with how much easier simple installation of Linux had become in the intervening years. What was a two day affair just to get Linux on a hard drive had turned into a mere two hour job of sticking the install image CD into the drive, booting from it, and clicking on the option to install it to my hard drive. Once the system rebooted, I had a Linux system installed on my hard drive. No muss, no fuss, just stick in the CD, click the install, and viola, Linux
Of course, after that, then came the demon I remember with Linux. Due to its nature, Linux is a rather buggy system. While PHLAK installed with incredible ease, getting it to a point where it would work the way I wanted it to work became an adventure of the likes I hadn't experienced in some time. Then I remembered just what Linux actually is.
i: What is Linux?
Simply put, Linux is a flavor of UNIX. It is referred to as an open source operating system. Technically speaking, Linux actually refers to the kernel, or operational root of Linux. In the time since it was first created, Linux has come to mean not only the kernel, but also the rest of the software that is built around that kernel. That software includes device drivers, compilation libraries, shells, applets, and complete applications such as spreadsheet and word processing.
UNIX is a very old computer operating system. When I say very old, I mean it came into being in the 1960's. As with most high tech things of the time, it was birthed at Bell Labs, the same people that brought us the transistor and the integrated circuit. It was first compiled for use on mainframe computers. As research continued on it, it became the operating system for a host of computer systems from the original VAX systems to PC's and other microcomputers, as they exist today. Simply put, UNIX is as close to a universal computer operating system as there is. It runs on pretty much anything that has a microprocessor inside. (source: Wikipedia: UNIX)
In 1983, Richard Stallman founded the GNU Project, with the goal of developing a complete Unix-like operating system composed entirely of free software. By the 1990's, the GNU project had compiled a great amount of software for its project. However, what it lacked was the operational kernel. They began working on a kernel, but it was a very difficult process.
At about the same time as the GNU project was working on its kernel, Linus Torvalds, a Finnish student at the University of Helsinki was also working on a kernel built upon a system known as Minix. The creator of Minix didn't permit others to build upon or extend his operating system. Torvalds created his kernel specifically to replace Minix. Originally known as "freax", it became known as "Linux" when Ari Lemmke, who administered an FTP server belonging to the Finnish University Network invented the name Linux for the directory from which Torvalds' project was first available for download. (source: Wikipedia: Linux)
ii: Open Source.
Linux is an open source system. Open source means that anyone who knows anything about computers (or, in practice, THINKS they know anything about computers) is welcome to try their hand at making Linux work. In this way, Linux stands out from Microsoft offerings because work on Microsoft products is limited to Microsoft employees and their outsourced operations.
By virtue of the GNU project, from its inception, Linux has been and remains a group effort. While there are some people who ask for donations, and others who want payment for their contributions to Linux, for the most part, Linux exists as a free operating system readily available from the Internet.
Also, due to the open system nature of Linux, there are numerous different flavors of the system. When beginning the research for this project, I went to the web site http://www.linux.org/dist/ , I found out there were hundreds of different distributions available in numerous languages. Just a search for English distributions netted ninety-five different distributions. Basically put, there's a flavor of Linux out there for just about everyone, from the ultra-nerdy geek type, to the guy who just wants to set it up and make a portal of his own on the internet.
Because of the sheer number of Linux distribution flavors that exist, I will probably not delve into all of them. Of course, if someone were to decide this project was of enough interest to pay me to continue researching all the various flavors, I'd be hard pressed to find a reason to not continue this research. Since that highly unlikely scenario is not in the cards, I have decided to pick five flavors. Three of the five have already been decided at this point, and I will pick two more as the project continues. Since it will be an ongoing thing, I have time to decide which distributions will be worked, and which won't.
On the downside, open source also means there are numerous bugs in the system. Because there are so many individuals working on various portions of Linux, and since each person is somewhat limited to the systems they have available to them, it is next to impossible to get each function working properly on all systems that exist. While ideally the number of people sharing applications and drivers means that eventually, the system will work on all available computer hardware, in actual practice, you can rest assured that no matter who makes the Linux distribution you are installing, there are going to be glitches. If this is enough to scare you away from experimentation with Linux, now would be the time to run!
