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Mon Apr 25 13:37:00 UTC 2011 Slackware 13.37 x86_64 stable is released! Thanks to everyone who pitched in on this release: the Slackware team, the folks producing upstream code, and linuxquestions.org for providing a great forum for collaboration and testing. The ISOs are off to be replicated, a 6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD. Please consider supporting the Slackware project by picking up a copy from store.slackware.com. We're taking pre-orders now, and offer a discount if you sign up for a subscription. As always, thanks to the Slackware community for testing, suggestions, and feedback. :-) Have fun!
122 lines
5.6 KiB
HTML
122 lines
5.6 KiB
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<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" />
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<title>An Introduction to Slackware Linux</title>
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alink="#0000FF">
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<div class="NAVHEADER">
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<table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"
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cellspacing="0">
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<tr>
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<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href="book-preface.html"
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</div>
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<div class="CHAPTER">
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<h1><a id="INTRODUCTION" name="INTRODUCTION"></a>Chapter 1 An Introduction to Slackware
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Linux</h1>
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<div class="TOC">
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<dl>
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<dt><b>Table of Contents</b></dt>
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<dt>1.1 <a href="introduction.html#INTRODUCTION-LINUX">What is Linux?</a></dt>
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<dt>1.2 <a href="introduction-slackware.html">What is Slackware?</a></dt>
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<dt>1.3 <a href="introduction-opensource.html">Open Source and Free Software</a></dt>
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</dl>
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</div>
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<div class="SECT1">
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<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="INTRODUCTION-LINUX" name="INTRODUCTION-LINUX">1.1 What is
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Linux?</a></h1>
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<p>Linus Torvalds started Linux, an operating system kernel, as a personal project in
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1991. He started the project because he wanted to run a Unix-based operating system
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without spending a lot of money. In addition, he wanted to learn the ins and outs of the
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386 processor. Linux was released free of charge to the public so that anyone could study
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it and make improvements under the General Public License. (See <a
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href="introduction-opensource.html">Section 1.3</a> and <a href="gpl.html">Appendix A</a>
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for an explanation of the license.) Today, Linux has grown into a major player in the
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operating system market. It has been ported to run on a variety of system architectures,
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including HP/Compaq's Alpha, Sun's SPARC and UltraSPARC, and Motorola's PowerPC chips
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(through Apple Macintosh and IBM RS/6000 computers.) Hundreds, if not thousands, of
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programmers all over the world now develop Linux. It runs programs like Sendmail, Apache,
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and BIND, which are very popular software used to run Internet servers. It's important to
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remember that the term “Linux” really refers to the kernel - the core of the
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operating system. This core is responsible for controlling your computer's processor,
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memory, hard drives, and peripherals. That's all Linux really does: It controls the
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operations of your computer and makes sure that all of its programs behave. Various
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companies and individuals bundle the kernel and various programs together to make an
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operating system. We call each bundle a Linux distribution.</p>
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<div class="SECT2">
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<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="INTRODUCTION-LINUX-GNU" name="INTRODUCTION-LINUX-GNU">1.1.1 A
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Word on GNU</a></h2>
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<p>The Linux kernel project began as a solo endeavor by Linus Torvalds in 1991, but as
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Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders
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of giants.” When Linus Torvalds began the kernel the Free Software Foundation had
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already established the idea of collaborative software. They entitled their effort GNU, a
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recursive acronym that means simply “GNU's Not Unix”. GNU software ran atop
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the Linux kernel from day 1. Their compiler <tt class="COMMAND">gcc</tt> was used to
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compile the kernel. Today many GNU tools from <tt class="COMMAND">gcc</tt> to <tt
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class="COMMAND">gnutar</tt> are still at the basis of every major Linux distribution. For
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this reason many of the Free Software Foundation's proponents fervently state that their
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work should be given the same credit as the Linux kernel. They strongly suggest that all
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Linux distributions should refer to themselves as GNU/Linux distributions.</p>
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<p>This is the topic of many flamewars, surpassed only by the ancient vi versus emacs
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holy war. The purpose of this book is not to fan the fires of this heated discussion, but
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rather to clarify the terminology for neophytes. When one sees GNU/Linux it means a Linux
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distribution. When one sees Linux they can either be referring to the kernel, or to a
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distribution. It can be rather confusing. Typically the term GNU/Linux isn't used because
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it's a mouth full.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="NAVFOOTER">
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<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" />
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<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"
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cellspacing="0">
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<tr>
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<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="book-preface.html"
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accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="index.html"
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accesskey="H">Home</a></td>
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<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><a href="introduction-slackware.html"
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accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">Preface</td>
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<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"> </td>
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<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">What is Slackware?</td>
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