Subject: Re: Latest Linux ???
To: [email-masked] (South Country Library)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux,alt.uu.comp.os.linux.answers

In article <[email-masked]> you wrote:
: What is the latest version of Linux?  (2.something?)

: Which would translate into what release of ...

: Slackware... RedHat...Yggrisil...
              ^ Red Hat  ^ Yggdrasil
: And what do the nubmers represent?  (1.13.4) Something about whether it's 
: stable or not???

I'm replying to you off-group because, although _you_ need the answers
to these questions, they'd be a little tedious to most reades of
the above-named newsgroups.  Absolutely no offence intended:  It's
probably my fault that I can't write interestingly enough to justify
a public post.

Anyhow, you have to ask some other questions, first:

1. What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system _kernel_ for a UNIX-like OS.  It's 
published as freeware by Linus Torvalds of Finland.  A "kernel" is
the central process of an OS that's continuously in memory and loads/
runs other user programs & utilities.  In MS-DOS, the "kernel" is
called COMMAND.COM.  Torvalds assigns release numbers to each kernel
version he puts out:  An odd number following the period indicates
a development (beta) version, while an even number after the period
is a general-release version.  The latest general release is 2.0.12,
released last Friday.

2. What is a "Linux distribution"?

A Linux distribution is a complete package of the kernel, operating
system utilities, and applications.  Various individuals and 
organisations put them together, and assign a given version of the
distribution its own release number, _separate_ from the kernel
version.

Linux itself is freeware.  So are the distributions:  You can
download all of Slackware, Red Hat, Yggdrasil, Debian, or any of
the others directly from the Internet, all several hundred megs of
them in each case.  Of course, you'd have to pay your ISP for all
the download time, and then you'd have to _store_ it all someplace.

Therefore, it's smarter, most of the time, to buy distributions on
CD-ROM sets.  It's perfectly legal to lend these to friends, since
Linux & related distributions are freeware.

Some CD publishers may include more than one distribution on a
CD set.  For example, Walnut Creek CD-ROM publishes at least one
set that includes both Red Hat and Slackware.  Conceivably, these
compilation CD boxes might have their _own_ release numbers, but
I've never paid attention.

Linux distributions on CD tend to be extremely INexpensive:  Maybe
US $7 for a single CD without printed documentation, or up to US $40
for a deluxe multi-CD set with printed manuals.

The one exception to what I say about distributions is Caldera 
Network Desktop, which is a commercial product _built_ on Linux.
You cannot legally lend a Caldera CD to friends.  It's a superset
of Red Hat, is extremely full-featured and easy to install, and
costs about US $90.  Current release is 1.0, built as a superset
of Red Hat 2.1 (which in turn installs with the 1.2.13 kernel).

Some examples will help illustrate:

The first Linux version I built was from an Infomagic CD (Infomagic
being a CD mail-order firm) set of four disks that included the 
Slackware 3.0 distribution of Linux.  I installed it onto a 486/66
intended as a dial-in SLIP machine.  It came with Torvalds's 1.2.13
kernel -- known to be very stable.  The "2" indicates a general-release
version.

Later, I put in the 1.3.37 kernel -- a development (beta) release
to take advantage of some improvements not yet included in the release
versions.  Running development kernels means you're moving onto the
bleeding edge:  Some other packages may break, when you do that.

This machine is thus running a Slackware 3.0 setup, with a beta
kernel (and some add-on packages not included in Slackware, but
gleaned from the Net, such as the SLIP emulator, "SLiRP").

For my own machine, I chose one of the other distributions, Red Hat 
3.0.3, built from a complete set of 3.0.3 retrieved over the Net to 
another machine.  This installs with the 1.2.13 kernel, but also includes
source code for one of the 1.3 series, which I installed.  Later,
I upgraded numerous constituent package, mostly in order to be able
to run the 2.0.0 kernel.  _Most_ people would upgrade to the 2.0.0
kernel for its extra capabilities or because it supports a broader
range of ethernet cards, SCSI adapters, etc.  Me, I did it mostly
on a whim.

So, my machine, I am now running Red Hat 3.0.3, as modified to run
the 2.0.0 kernel.  (Red Hat has a beta out of its 3.0.4 release, 
which looks roughly identical to what I've built from 3.0.3.)

A third machine, which I built for a consulting client, was supposed
to be a Red Hat install, built from a CD I bought directly from 
Red Hat Software.  Unfortunately, the client ignored the information
I'd given him on Linux hardware support, and posed me a challenge:

I was given a Gateway 2000 Pentium 133 with a 3Com 3C595 100/10 megabit/
second ethernet card and a STB Lightspeed 128 video card.  Neither
card is easy to support under Linux, because they're too new.  Volunteer
programmers have not yet figured them out and written drivers for them,
at least not in time for them to be included in standard distributions.

I built a system on this hardware _without_ the X Window System graphics
modules (because of the video card problem).  Thus, it was initially a
text-only system (no bitmapped display, just a command-line interface).
I got around the ethernet problem by first substituting an older 
3Com 3C509 card, getting Red Hat going on that, and then retrieving the
2.0.0 kernel source code onto it, from the Internet.  2.0.0 supports the
3Com 3C595, so I compiled that with 3C595 support enabled, shut the
machine down, switched ethernet cards, and powered it back up.

Now, I turned to deal with the thornier video problem.  The client also
had a Compaq QVision 2000 card that I could choose to use, if I pleased.
Unfortunately, both were unsupported for the X Window System ("X") under 
Red Hat.

I brought the machine home.  My friend Duncan came over to help, bringing
his own CD sets.  After much experimenting, we decided that the Compaq
card was our best bet, and that we needed Caldera Network Desktop to do
it, because of its expanded video support.

So, we blew away all my work, and installed Caldera.  This got us running
with, as previously mentioned, Caldera 1.0, built on Red Hat 2.1, on
kernel 1.2.13.  (This temporarily broke the ethernet support, since the
3Com 3C595 wasn't provided for in 1.2.13.  So, obviously, I couldn't 
stop there.) 

One of the attractions of a Red Hat release is that it includes a 
fairly reliable script to upgrade an existing machine running a prior
Red Hat release.  We happened to have a Red Hat 3.0.3 CD with us,
so we applied its upgrade script to the Caldera 1.0/Red Hat 2.1 
setup.  Success.  What resulted was Red Hat 3.0.3 with Caldera
extensions.  Last, we applied the eleven upgrade packages required
to run kernel 2.0.0 -- and I was able to deliver a spectacular, 
fast, up-to-the-minute system to the client, in the morning.

One of the reasons why one might want the full, deluxe set of CDs
from Red Hat Software is that it includes a commercial "X" package
called Metro X, supporting more (and more recent) video cards than
the standard XFree86 package (which is also included).  The same
reasoning applies doubly to Caldera Network Desktop, which includes
all of the deluxe Red Hat set plus a second X package, Accelerated X
from X Inside.  The latter is what we used to support the Compaq
Qvision.  Generally, for less exotic video cards, XFree86 more than
suffices, however.

Need information?  There are EXCELLENT on-line documents about
all aspects of Linux.  If you have a Web browser, try sunsite.unc.edu,
www.redhat.com, www.yggdrasil.com, and www.linux.org, for starters.

I hope my little missive has been of some help, too.

-- 
Cheers,                                     A post is just a post
Rick Moen                                   My admin will deny.
[email-masked]                         The usual disclaimers apply
                                            As news spools by.