FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
W ELCOME W INDOWS U SERS TO GNU L INUX R S Ananda Murthy Head of the Department of E&EE Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering Mysore 570 006
30-October-2012
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
A BOUT T HIS D OCUMENT
This document has been prepared using Beamer Document Class of LATEX on Zenwalk 7.2 platform. You are free to redistribute this document under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License (Ver. 1.2). No proprietary software has been used while preparing this document.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
GNU P ROJECT
GNU is a recursive acronym which means simply “GNU’s Not Unix”. GNU Project was started by well known computer hacker Richard Stallman of M.I.T. under Free Software Foundation (www.fsf.org). Scope of GNU Project was/is to develop a free clone of the Unix operating system.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
W HY ‘F REE ’ S OFTWARE
Computer users should be free to modify programs to fit their needs, and free to share software, because helping other people is the basis of society. Free software is a matter of freedom, not price.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
F OUR K INDS OF F REEDOM
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
G ENERAL P UBLIC L ICENSE
GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally conceived by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The latest version of GPL, version 3, was released on 29 June 2007. GPL Protects four kinds of freedom of the end user of the software.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
C OPYLEFT
Copyleft — is a play on the word ‘copyright’ and is the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on the distribution of copies and modified versions of a work for others and require that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions. The concept of copyleft was invented by Richard Stallman. In contrast, BSD-style licenses allow for derivative works to be redistributed as proprietary software.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
BSD L ICENSE
Another popular license is the BSD license. In contrast to the GPL, the BSD license gives no requirement for the release of the program’s source code. BSD license allows redistribution in source or binary form provided only a few conditions are met.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
O PEN S OURCE I NITIATIVE
OSI is an organization (www.opensource.org) that does not offer any specific license. but instead, they support various types of open source licenses available. OSI allows commercial companies to provide their own license and have it certified by it. The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that is impossible to achieve in closed environment.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
E ND U SER L ICENSE AGREEMENT
End User License Agreement (EULA) comes with majority of the proprietary software. Generally EULA only grants the end-user the right to copy the software onto a limited number of computers. In some cases EULA also restricts the using the software to specific applications.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
W HAT IS L INUX ?
Linus Torvalds of Finland started developing Linux, an operating system kernel similar to that of Unix, as a personal project in 1991. Linux was released free of charge under GPL Ver. 2 on the internet by Linus. Today, Linux has grown into a major player in the OS market. For latest information on the Linux kernel visit http://www.kernel.org/.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
W HY GNU L INUX ?
Linux refers only to the kernel of the OS. Other major components of the OS — compiler, debugger, editor etc. are contributions by GNU Project. Hence we should call it as GNU Linux and not simply Linux.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
S OME M AJOR L INUX D ISTRIBUTIONS
Ubuntu Fedora Debian Slackware Arch openSUSE Visit http://distrowatch.com/ for information on GNU Linux distributions.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
W HAT IS S LACKWARE ?
Slackware was started by Patrick Volkerding in late 1992. It was initially released to the world on July 17, 1993. This is the first Linux distribution to achieve widespread use. URL: www.slackware.com.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
M AIN F EATURES OF S LACKWARE GNU L INUX D ISTRIBUTION
Oldest living distribution. It does not try to emulate Windows, but tries to be as Unix-like as possible. It does not cover up processes with fancy point-and-click GUI’s. Instead, it puts the user in control by letting them see exactly what is going on. Slackware development is not rushed to meet deadlilnes. Each version comes out only after thorough testing.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
M AIN F EATURES OF S LACKWARE GNU L INUX D ISTRIBUTION
Slackware is for people who enjoy learning and tweaking their system to do exactly what they want. Slackware’s stability and simplicity are why people will continue to use it for years to come. Slackware is good both as a solid server and an excellent desktop.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
Z ENWALK
Zenwalk GNU Linux (www.zenwalk.org) was earlier called Mini-Slack. It is a derivative of Slackware. It is a complete, preconfigured operating system. It has a good repository of software which can be accessed using a package manager called Netpkg.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
S TART USING GNU L INUX
Using a modern Linux distribution you can do every thing that you are currently doing in MS-Windows environment. So switch over to Linux. Demand support for Linux from hardware vendors and companies who offer services.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
O FFICE A PPLICATIONS
LibreOffice Writer = MS Word. LibreOffice Impress = MS PowerPoint. LibreOffice Calc = MS Excel. Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for Linux also. Firefox and Chromium web browsers are available for Linux. Scribus = Adobe Pagemaker. Klavaro – typing tutor. Vym – mind mapping software. Xsane – scanning software.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
T YPESETTING
LATEX – a set of macros based on TEX for professional quality typesetting of documents. LyX – A nice GUI for LATEX Texmaker – yet another editor for creating LATEXdocuments.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
P ROGRAMMING
C, C++, Java, FORTRAN, Prolog, SmallTalk, PERL, Python, Ruby, Flex, Bison. GNU Octave, Scilab, SciPy+Pylab+Numpy Anjuta DevStudio – IDE for developing C and C++ programs similar to MS Visual C++ IDE.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
S OFTWARE FOR S CIENTIFIC C OMPUTATION
GNU Octave = MATLAB. Scilab = MATLAB. R – Statistics software similar to S. SciPy — another alternative to MATLAB. gEDA Suite — for circuit simulation, PCB making.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
G RAPHICS P ROGRAMS
Dia Diagram Editor = MS Visio. XFig is a popular vector drawing program. Inkscape = CorelDRAW! LibreCAD = AutoCAD for 2D Graphics. FreeCAD = AutoCAD for 2D/3D Graphics. GIMP = Adobe Photoshop. DjView is available for Linux.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
M ULTIMEDIA P ROGRAMS
Totem = Windows Media Player. VLC – another popular media player. Grip – for ripping audio CD’s to MP3 or other formats. Brasero = Nero for burning CD/DVD.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
FLOSS and Linux Slackware and Zenwalk
C ONCLUDING
Start using GNU Linux. Protect your freedom by using only Free Software.
R S Ananda Murthy
Welcome Windows Users to GNU Linux
