Linux

Installation & tools · User guides · Manuals · External resources

Linux is a free clone of Unix developed originally by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki. It was developed further with the aid of many Unix programmers across the Internet, and is available in source code form under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Linux is now a complete Unix system supporting X Windows, TCP/IP, Emacs, the GCC compiler, Netscape, the Apache web server, and so on. Almost anything you can think of on any Unix system is available, usually for free, although some commercial software has also been released. There are even emulators for MS-DOS and MS-Windows. This CD includes a complete Linux distribution (a binary-only copy of the Red Hat 6.2 distribution) that you can install on your machine.

A full set of manuals and other documentation is being developed by the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) and are distributed under similar terms to the GNU General Public License (see the LDP copyright notice for full details).


Linux installation and tools:

Software package Mandrake 8.0
An easy-to-install Linux distribution. You need a formatted floppy disk (it needn't be blank, but anything on it will be erased). Just click on this link to create the boot disk, and then reboot your system with the boot disk in drive A and install Linux from disk 4 of this CD set. You will be asked if you have an (optional) second CD during the installation, but this distribution doesn't include it.
   ¤  Apr 2001. Free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Home site: http://www.mandrake.com/
Software package Mandrake 8.0 PCMCIA installer
A disk which you'll only need if you require PCMCIA support during the Linux installation process (e.g. if you're installing Linux on a laptop where the CD is attached via a PCMCIA card).
   ¤  Apr 2001. Free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Home site: http://www.mandrake.com/
Software package Monkey Linux
A small (10M) Linux installation which runs from within a DOS partition. This is a nice way to try out Linux without installing the whole thing.
   ¤  Jun 1998. Freeware.
Home site: ftp://ftp.spsselib.hiedu.cz/pub/linux/monkey/
Software package Tom's root/boot
A small Linux system that fits on a floppy (which it formats to 1.722M instead of the normal 1.44M!). Ideal as a recovery disk.
   ¤  Jun 2001. Freeware.
Home site: http://www.toms.net/rb/
Software package RPM Browser
A utility to examine and extract Linux RPM files under Windows.
   ¤  Oct 1998. Freeware.
Home site: http://www.laysi.com/
Software package LTOOLS
A set of tools to access Linux ext2fs disk partitions from Windows. If you set up your system to boot both Windows and Linux, install this in your Windows partition so that both systems can access each other's files! Source code is included.
   ¤  Jul 2001. Free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Home site: http://www.it.fht-esslingen.de/~zimmerma/


User guides:

Document The Linux Installation HOWTO
A quick guide to installing Linux. Read this before you try it!
   ¤  14 Jun 2001. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO.html
Document RUTE
A Linux tutorial for beginners.
   ¤  18 Apr 2000. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.obsidian.co.za/rute/
Document From DOS/Windows to Linux
A guide to Linux for DOS and Windows users.
   ¤  31 Aug 2000. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/DOS-Win-to-Linux-HOWTO.html
Document The Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO
A list of the hardware that Linux can handle (and there are very few things that it can't!).
   ¤  25 Jun 2001. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO.html
Document Linux Installation and Getting Started
A slightly dated but still useful online manual for beginners.
   ¤  4 Mar 1998. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/gs.html
Document The Linux Information Sheet
A basic introduction to Linux.
   ¤  1 Sep 1998. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/INFO-SHEET.html
Document The Linux FAQ
   ¤  28 Jul 2001. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.mainmatter.com/linux-faq.html


Reference manuals:

Document Linux Installation and Getting Started
A slightly dated but still useful online manual for beginners.
   ¤  4 Mar 1998. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/gs.html
Document Linux HOWTO Index
A set of short documents about a range of Linux topics from the LDP.
   ¤  Jul 2001. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX.html
Document The Linux User Guide
   ¤  4 Mar 1998. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://linuxwww.db.erau.edu/LUG/ (now gone)
Document The Linux Programmer's Guide
   ¤  Mar 1996. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/lpg/index.html
Document Linux Administration Made Easy
A guide to installing, configuring and administering a Linux system.
   ¤  Nov 1999. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/sag/index.html
Document Linux Administrator's Security Guide
A guide to increaing your system's security.
   ¤  Jun 2000. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.securityportal.com/lasg/
Document The Linux System Administrator's Guide
   ¤  19 Oct 1999. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/sag/index.html
Document The Linux Network Administrator's Guide
   ¤  7 Mar 1996. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/nag/nag.html
Document The Linux Kernel Module Programmer's Guide
   ¤  19 May 1999. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/nag/nag.html
Document The Linux Kernel
   ¤  25 Jan 1999. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/tlk/tlk.html
Document Linux Kernel Internals
   ¤  17 Dec 2000. Freely redistributable.
Home site: http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/lki/lki.html


External resources:

External website Mandrake
The home site for the Linux distribution on this CD.
External website Red Hat
The home site for the Red Hat Linux distribution, which the Mandrake distribution is based on.
External website Linux Care
A technical support site for Linux.
External website Linux Now
A good source of Linux resources.
External website Linux Hardware
A site providing information about hardware performance and compatibility issues.
External website Linux Links
Links to Linux resources worldwide.
External website Linux Powered
More Linux information and links.
External website Linux Resource Exchange
Yet more Linux information and resources.
External website Tune Linux
A site providing advice on performance tuning Linux systems.
External website comp.os.linux.setup
A newsgroup which discusses Linux setup problems.
External website comp.os.linux.hardware
A newsgroup which discusses Linux hardware issues.
External website comp.os.linux.announce
A moderated newsgroup for official Linux announcements (updates, new releases, etc.).
External website comp.os.linux.misc
A newsgroup about miscellaneous Linux issues.


BURKS version 6 · Copyright © John English 1996-2001. All rights reserved.