whats going on? My question is what exactly is Linux? and what does it do? i have googled and did some research but I'm not really understanding what its saying so can someone please explain it in a much easier term. Also would you Recommend it? Help would be Much appreciated thanks! sorry for the noob question!
linux is an open source opersating system. that means that it it completely free and if you know how to program you can edit the code. i would recomend definately. do a google serch for debian.
DEFINITION - Linux (often pronounced LIH-nuhks with a short "i") is a Unix-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive Unix systems. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and fast-performing system. Linux's kernel (the central part of the operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland. To complete the operating system, Torvalds and other team members made use of system components developed by members of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project.
Linux is a remarkably complete operating system, including a graphical user interface, an X Window System, TCP/IP, the Emacs editor, and other components usually found in a comprehensive Unix system. Although copyrights are held by various creators of Linux's components, Linux is distributed using the Free Software Foundation's copyleft stipulations that mean any modified version that is redistributed must in turn be freely available.
Unlike Windows and other proprietary systems, Linux is publicly open and extendible by contributors. Because it conforms to the Portable Operating System Interface standard user and programming interfaces, developers can write programs that can be ported to other operating systems. Linux comes in versions for all the major microprocessor platforms including the Intel, PowerPC, Sparc, and Alpha platforms. It's also available on IBM's S/390. Linux is distributed commercially by a number of companies. A magazine, Linux Journal, is published as well as a number of books and pocket references.
Linux is sometimes suggested as a possible publicly-developed alternative to the desktop predominance of Microsoft Windows. Although Linux is popular among users already familiar with Unix, it remains far behind Windows in numbers of users. However, its use in the business enterprise and on the home desktop is growing. You may own a phone or router or cable/satellite box which runs an embedded form of linux.
Linux is a contraction for Linus' Unix; the short i sound preferred by most (including Torvalds) derives from the Swedish pronunciation of Linus.
Contrary to most of the posts and popular belief, Linux is not an operating system. It is a kernel. (Like the Windows NT kernel or the longhorn kernel).
By itself a kernel provides no actual environment for input etc.
People build Operating Systems that use the kernel (ie Red-hat, Ubuntu, Suse). There is little difference between these "flavours of linux". Some of them are harder to use (stares at debian) and some are very easy.
That point is so pedantic as to not be worthy of consideration.. as you say, what use is a kernel without a desktop or command structure to run things.
That is what people usually want to know when they ask "what is linux" or "what is unix".. Not the buried instructions, invisible machine code that runs the cpu and busses and handles data IO which I could go on for pages and pages about without shedding any light on anything that anybody but a kernel.org member would understand, but the stuff they see. The command structure, filesystem and desktop.
With linux and unix it is more transparent because it is modular.. different engines for different things with different skins.. get it off the peg (a distro) or mix and match to your own requirements.(lfs/gentoo/homebrew)
↓↓ notice the blue/white theme? ↓↓ debian through and through ;)
Ubuntu 8.04 BETA is the latest test release (final release due this month) with a number of changes,one of which is you can instal & run it while in windows to test run,it no way affects windows,your basicly running two OS's at the same time,have'nt tried it me self as i dual boot,download the iso from here,the image you want is near the top "PC (Intel x86) desktop CD",it's around 650mb so on a 1.5mb bb connection is around 1 hour,i would advise you use a download manager like DAP 8.0 that can restart if you get a broken connection
EDIT:
This will be more useful for a general birds eye view of 8.04 beta, http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1557&tag=nl.e550 ,for ease of installation i would recommend a 2nd hdd to install too,if your BIOS supports it you can put ubuntu on an external hdd,however if those options are not open to you & it's necessary to dual boot off the one hdd,you either need a windows xp disk (you can use either home or professional as both disks can work on each other) or have a recovery partition available,do not install linux unless you have either of those two,the reason being is ubuntu will overwrite the boot record & if you delete the ubuntu OS or the partition you will not be able to boot windows,if you do have a recovery partition or the windows disk,boot into repair,then using scroll till you see this
C:
Then type
FIXMBR (hit enter button on keyboard)
Then type
FIXBOOT (hit enter on keyboard)
reboot & you should be back to normal.
