Getting Started With Linux (LiveCD or full installation)
Linux is currently one of the fastest growing operating systems.
According to an IDC survey in early 2004, Linux had grabbed 25% of the
market for new operating systems in servers since its introduction in
the early 1990s (compared with 50% for Microsoft).
When also including desktop machines, 5% of PCs shipped with Linux,
according to Gartner.
The bad news is that Linux is harder to install than Windows, and it
tends to require more configuration after installation. Furthermore,
the large majority of PC peripherals have Linux drivers available, but
not all. (See Hardware Compatibility.)
Nevertheless, recent years have seen Linux become substantially easier
to install and configure.
The good news, however, is that there is no need to install Linux
just to try it out. With the recent explosion of
LiveCDs,
you can try out your favorite flavor of Linux just by inserting a
LiveCD into your drive and re-booting. The LiveCD does not modify your
disk drive, and it comes up automagically --- with no installation.
- It's free. Installation CDs can be downloaded and burned for free, or
bought by mail order for about $3.00 to $5.00 per individual
CD.
- It has a rich set of free applications
substituting for commercial software.
- LiveCDs allow you to "preview" an operating
system by running it directly from disk, and then install it to
a partition of the hard disk if you like it.
- Upgrades are free and frequent --- usually available by download
- It tends to be more bug-free: no pressures of time-to-market,
almost no issues about viruses. (Virus writers tend to target the
larger systems such as Windows. Also, some of the Windows ease-of-use
features (Word macros, open network ports, etc.) can also open
vulnerabilities to outside attack.)
- Excellent software development tools --- built by hackers for hackers.
- Anything and everything can be configured or modified --- in the
worst case, by modifying the source code.
- New versions tend to have interesting new features, often well before
they appear in mainstream commercial software. Here are some examples:
- The Firefox
browser
provides tab-based browsing, ad blockers, and other features
- Thunderbird
is a clean and robust mail client.
- Mplayer has the ability
not only to play DVDs, but
to copy DVDs, while converting them to a more compact format for
archival storage on disk.
- realrekord
and gnome-sound-recorder (standard with Gnome)
have the ability to record RealAudio coming from your speaker
(equivalent to having a tape recorder hooked up).
See
table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in
Linux for free, open source equivalents. Note that most of these
open source applications are available both for Linux and
for Windows. Of special note are:
- Open Office Home Page
(workalikes for Microsoft Office Suite: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.;
Abiword is a smaller
Word-compatible word processor)
- Gimp and
ImageMagick (Gimp is a
replacement for Adobe Photoshop, and ImageMagick is a suite of
command-line tools to
modify images (scaling, filters, etc.))
- Octave Home Page
(Matlab-like language; Also, try
Gnuplot, a package for plotting graphs)
- MPlayer Movie Player
(also able to copy DVD and to convert between movie formats)
-
GNOME Office - Dia or
Graphviz)
(Windows Visio-like diagram drawing
applications; Graphviz has a text-based approach that
takes the tedium out of manual placement of many objects)
- MySQL Database server,
similar to Oracle or Microsoft SQL.
- Apache Web server
- playing music, CDs, DVDs, etc. --- lots of applications; I like
mplayer best for DVDs, and
don't have a favorite for the others.
- Juice
(download podcasts)
- The
General hardware compatibility (Linux HOWTO)
is a good site to describe Linux hardware compatibility. Here is a
rough overview.
- Monitors, hard disks, mouse, floppy drive, CD drive, CD-RW, Ethernet,
and PCMCIA cards (for notebooks)
usually have excellent compatibility
- Graphics cards --- Most graphics cards work.
- Modems --- If it is a soft modem (most are, today), it needs a
driver. For SmartLink modems (one of the three big manufacturers
of modem chipsets), SmartLink provides its own, mostly open source
Linux drivers on the web, for all of its modems. The driver is
usually not included in the box containing the modem, and you must
download it.
(In my experience, the driver works best with the newer
Linux 2.6 kernel.) Other modem vendors often do not provide
Linux drivers.
- Wireless cards --- Open source drivers are provided for some vendors.
For many of the rest,
ndiswrapper works.
This package that puts a wrapper around the corresponding
Windows driver.
- DVD players --- The DVD consortium has a secret key for playing
DVDs (movies, etc.). Linux open source players can play most other
formats. In a recent case, a 19-year old Norwegian (Jon
Johansen) wrote code for
playing DVD players with a Linux computer. He was prosecuted
in Norway, but his action was ruled legal. In the United
States in 1999, a web site providing that code was sued by DVD CCA
(DVD Copy Control Association) for disclosing a trade secret.
Eventually, hundreds of people were sued by the DVD CCA, but
those suits were dropped in January, 2004, because the trade
secret no longer had any chance of being kept secret.
DVD CCA opposes such open source
software for DVDs because it can also be used to copy (rip) DVDs, and
re-burn them either under the same format or under a more compact
format. However, other groups abroad have
developed open source players (e.g. mplayer, developed in Hungary)
that can play DVD movies.
- USB keyboards, USB mice, USB memory sticks/flash drives --- mostly work.
- Printers --- many work using open source drivers, but there are also
some that do not work; check the web in advance:
LinuxPrinting.org
provides the latest information on printer compatibility, including
the
LinuxPrinting.org Printer Database.
- MIDI sequencers --- mostly work.
- PalmPilot PDAs --- works (I don't know about Microsoft PDAs.)
- digital cameras, video cameras, etc. --- fast evolving, but mostly
they work; check the web.
LiveCDs are CDs that you can put into a PC and then re-boot. The PC
runs the Linux O/S on the CD and never touches the disk. Many have
options to save on memory keys, and most should be able to save to
floppy. Most also allow you to mount the hard disk and read/write
files on the hard disk. But the default is to not touch the hard
disk.
Unless indicated otherwise, the CDs below are based on Debian.
-
Knoppix Linux (the original LiveCD)
(w/
ISO images and
Knoppix Tutorial) Knoppix also is much better than
Debian about setting up and configuring all of the features
(including sound, etc.). It is a mixture of "testing" and
"unstable". Hence, it is not the best choice for a permanent
hard disk install, since it will no be easy to update the
packages (do you use testing or unstable update, and what
about inter-package dependencies?). Also, Knoppix 3.6
has an outdated version of ntfsresize
for re-partitioning.
Knoppix 3.7 and later is more up to date.
Note also the free book
Knowing Knoppix (3.2 MB, pdf), which assumes little prior
knowledge of Linux.
Finally, to install Knoppix to your hard disk, first run it from
the CD. Then execute: su root to gain superuser
privileges. Then execute qtparted (or invoke System>QtParted
from the menu. (IMPORTANT: Use qtparted only with Knoppix 3.7
or later.) Create an extra "ext3" partition of about 4 GB
and an extra "swap" partition of about 1 GB.
Finally, execute the command
knoppix-installer and follow the instructions.
-
Games optimized version of Knoppix
- EliveCD (based on Enlightenment
deskto; "eye candy", lots of special effects)
-
MediaInlinux
(multimedia LiveCd, a toolbox for digital artists):
Here is
a link to a listing of its packages.
In addition, some of the more interesting multimedia apps
(in addition to GIMP
(like Adobe Photoshop), which most liveCDs have) are:
Inkscape (similar to Adobe Illustrator);
Scribus (desktop publishing);
Blender (tools for 3D creation);
Audacity
(audio editor and recorder);
Ardour
(multichannel digital audio workstation);
Jamin
(JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK)
Audio Mastering interface); and
Kino
(non-linear DV editor for capture, VTR control,
and recording back to the camera).
-
Knoppix64 (64-bit O/S, for AMD64 (e.g. AMD Athlon 64)
or Intel EMT64, a 64-bit extension of the Pentium instruction set)
-
Kanotix (Variation of Knoppix; with frequent updates
and easy install to hard disk; includes
"Klik" for easily
installing additional packages; and driver for SmartLink modems)
- Quantian
Derivative of Knoppix with many numerical/scientific packages:
R (for statistics),
Octave and Scilab (similar to Matlab), LaTeX, Maxima (like
Mathematica/Maple), GSL (GNU Scientific Library), some
bioinformatics tools, etc.
Current version is 2 GB, and would be loaded on demand if
broadband is available, but older versions fit on CD.
-
Customized versions of Knoppix such as BioLinux, DNALinux
(for bioinformatics, etc.)
- Morphix (with list of
Derivatives)
(designed with modular base packages (including a choice of
a games base); The base leaves additional space on the CD for
easy customization by adding new software for a new LiveCDs.
Based on Debian and Knoppix.)
- SystemRescueCD,
a LiveCD based on GenToo Linux, with software for fixing problems
with computers that don't boot properly.
- LiveCDs also exist for other Linux distros, such as Mandrake Move
for Mandriva/Mandrake.
- OpenSolaris CDs (OpenSolaris kernel instead of Linux kernel, but
combines Solaris features (e.g. dtrace), SMF, Zones with Linux/GNU
utilities)
- BeleniX
(OpenSolaris with some added GNU utilies)
- Nexenta
(OpenSolaris kernel and runtime libraries
with Debian GNU package system on top of it)
All "distros" have CDs available for free download with all or most of
the O/S. See also the
distrowatch review of major Linux distributions
and LinuxQuestions.org ISOs
for downloading the distribution CDs.
- Ubuntu Linux
Based on Debian, but much easier to install, setup, configure, etc.
Hence, currently a very popular choice.
It's a company, but with emphasis on new, free versions every 6 months,
and a good
Wiki for
documentation.
- Debian
(Debian CD images)
The Debian installation installs the "stable" version of Debian.
The stable release is often not upgraded for two years, aside
from security patches.
After installation, if you have broadband, you can upgrade to
the current "testing" release or the current "unstable" release.
Over time, the bugs are worked out of the testing release, after
which it turns into the next stable release. At that time, a version
of the unstable release is cloned and it becomes the current testing
release. The unstable release usually has the most recent version
of a software, while the testing release accepts a software version
only after doing their own testing, internal to Debian.
PROS:
Debian is the most robust O/S. The "stable" version is a very
popular choice for servers, since it almost never crashes.
Debian packages are among the most robust. It is also one
of the largest selections.
You can add and delete packages, and it automatically keeps
track of inter-package dependencies. It installs any additional
required packages and offers you a list of suggested packages
that are useful with the target package.
CONS:A Debian installation used to leave some
non-essential features (like sound) for the end user to configure.
It also might ask a few more questions, although recent Debians
(4.0 and above) are easier to install. See
Debian Linux on an Averatec 3200 Series laptop.
- Fedora Home Page
(altPROS:Easy to use. Many popular features
installed by default.
CONS:Not as robust as Debian.
-
Mandriva Linux
Mandrake has an enhanced version of the Redhat package system. It also
has a nice interface to the package system. Mandrake is a company.
PROS:Easy to use. More multimedia features
installed by default.
CONS:Not as robust as Debian.
- Suse Linux --- popular among many
systems maintainers; acquired by Novell Corporation.
- Gentoo Linux --- Installs everything based on compiling original
source code. Long process, but it teaches you a lot of the
internals of Linux.
You may be offered a choice of filesystem types at the time that you install.
ext3 is a good, safe choice. Most other important choices can easily
be made after installation.
A partition of a disk is like a virtual disk. Typically,
a new PC has Windows occupying the whole disk. One splits it
into multiple partitions (virtual disks). To do this, one must
first resize the Windows partition (initially the whole disk)
into something smaller. Windows uses the NTFS filesystem.
Since the NTFS filesystem is complex, for extra insurance,
it is recommended to first defragment Windows.
Recent versions of parted/ntfresize are now much quite robust.
The FAQ for the free software, In case you use older software,
beware.
ntfsresize, states that it reliably resizes NTFS partitions if
if it is version 1.9.0 or higher. (However, version 1.9.0 does nothing
if the NTFS volume has no label. Version 1.9.1 fixes this.)
See
the list of Linux distributions and which version of parted they
use. QtParted version 0.4.3
supports version 1.9.0. parted is text-oriented, and qtparted
(available in many
of the distributions) is a graphics-oriented version.
I find using parted directly is not too hard. Parted
1.6.12 has sufficiently recent versions of ntfsresize.
A good strategy is to burn the Knoppix LiveCD, and select the
QtParted menu item there to resize your hard disk. This works
because Knoppix itself doesn't use your hard disk, by default.
If in doubt, SystemRescueCD,
a LiveCD based on GenToo. This has recent versions of
everything.
Finally, assuming that you are able to resize the Windows NTFS
partition, what should you create in the blank space? My own
rule of thumb is 4 or 5 GB for a Linux root partition
("/"), 1 GB for a Linux swap partition, and the rest for
a Linux home partition ("/home"). Having a separate home
partition allows you to later overwrite the root partition
with a completely different Linux, while saving the files
in your home directory. When asked what type, a
safe choice is an ext3 filesystem for root and home, and of
course swap type for swap. Resizing Linux partitions is easy.
So, don't worry about changing your mind later.
A traditional installation is usually in two steps. Assuming that
one wishes a dual boot PC (Windows and Linux), one must partition
the disk to create a second partition for Linux. After that,
one puts the Linux installation disk in the PC, re-boots,
and follows the instructions --- similarly to a Windows install.
Most LiveCDs have a capability for install to hard disk.
See the discussion of LiveCDs.
Some Linux distributions have an option to create a very large,
contiguous file in Windows, and then run Linux inside Windows.
Presumably, this is less efficient than giving Linux its
own partition, but it allows one to avoid the
partitioning step
above.
Cygwin provides many of the common UNIX programs, operating
inside Windows. It translates requests to the Linux O/S
into requests to the Windows O/S. However, it is not
a full Linux.
Free programs developed under Linux, compiled to run as Windows
applications.
Note
free download available. Since the programs must fit
on a single CD, some of the larger ones (e.g. OpenOffice and Cygwin
have only a loader application, requiring a broadband connection.
However some included packages are: the GNU compilers (C/C++/Java)
as MinGW; Octave and Scilab: two Matlab-like languages;
Maxima: a forerunner of Mathematica and Maple, does computer
algebra including calculus as formulas.