To: dutch@newshost.li.net (South Country Library) Subject: Re: Latest Linux ??? Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux,alt.uu.comp.os.linux.answers In article <4ul4j1$6kt@linet06.li.net> 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. rick@hugin.imat.com The usual disclaimers apply As news spools by.