Linux for Librarians

Library 2.06 February 2009

Linux for Librarians

Nishtha AnilkumarLibrarian

[email protected]

Physical Research LaboratoryAhmedabad

mailto:[email protected]


Why Linux ?

Most of the library system softwares like LibSys now run on Linux platform

Digital Library Softwares like Greenstone and DSpace are available on Linux platform

Open Source Integrated Library systems like Koha also run on Linux


Understanding Linux

A story that goes

back over 40 years to Bell Laboratories, where UNIX was born


Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie

• Thompson developed the first UNIX kernel

• Ritchie developed the a computer language ‘C’

Portability, Modularity, Flexibility made UNIX popular


Richard M Stallman (RMS)

Without Stallman’s contribution, Linux would have had a different quality

• Member of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory• Culture of the Lab. was one of extreme openness


Birth of GNU

Mission of RMS : Creation of free UNIX like OS

GNU stands for ‘GNU is Not Unix’

RMS’s formula for free software :

Freedom to run the program Freedom to modify the program Freedom to distribute copies Freedom to redistribute the modified versions


Free Software

• By 1991 ‘Minix ‘ was in circulation which was a variant of UNIX

• Linus Torvalds, a Finnish software engineer, reacting to the limitations of Minix, took a

small bit of working code and Minix as a guideline to create a basic kernel


Linus Torvalds

Linus released it under the GPL (GNU Public Licence) originated by RMS and the Free Software foundation

With very basic operating system built from Linus’s kernel and handful of GNU tools –

Linux was born!


Another facet of Linux culture

One of the difficulties of getting a working Linux machine was downloading all the needed bits and compiling them

Overcome by – Distribution or Distro

However, the term free software was being taken as something of inferior quality


Eric S Raymond (ESR)

Instrumental in removing this notion of “low quality or incomplete”

Led the way to market the name ‘Open Source software’ (OSS) as a new way of thinking

The Cathedral and the Bazaar - CatB


Current applications

Networking and services in the beginning

Today Linux has joined the desktop

On the server side

Stable and reliable platform providing database and trading service for companies

First choice for firewall, proxy- and web servers


Other applications

In large search engines, clusters are used to perform Internet searches

Linux also runs on gadgets like

– PDAs– Mobiles– Experimental

watches


Challenges faced by organizations

Reducing the costs Managing heterogeneous technology

landscapeEnsuring sufficient support

Basic needs to be met - Performance, Security & Standardization


Linux pros and cons Free Portable Made to keep running Secure and versatile Scalable Short debug times

There are far too many distributions Linux is confusing for beginners Is an Open Source product trustworthy ?


Direct benefits of adopting Linux

Flexibility to choose vendors

Alternative to costly proprietary OSs

Ease of migration

Security


What is KDE, GNOME ?

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) and GNOME Desktop

Environment are two popular desktops available


Distributions

On top of an OS, there are many applications which provide complete environment e.g. Windows have tools like Word pad

Most Linux distributions also comes bundled with many applications

Examples – Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva


Choosing the right distribution

1) Purpose

2) Software update life

3) Feature Stability

4) Package Selection


1. Purpose

Desktop usage : ease of adjusting settings, age of software, range of GUI applications

Server usage : software life, security


2. Software Update life

How often you want to upgrade to a new

distribution version ?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Centos, Debian or Ubuntu LTS are good choices

for longer life distribution


3. Feature Stability

Many distros have a policy of not upgrading software in mid-release

Instead distro maintainers will backport a security fix to a older release and rename it

Reason – if they upgraded to a new version, the features or configuration might have changed


4. Package Selection

Different distros have differing amount of softwares in their repositories

Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux has a much smaller package offering than Debian


For servers, RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

For Desktop – Fedora or Ubuntu

Choice of distribution




Linux Users’ Group (LUG)

LUG - a non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for Linux users particularly for novices

Online LUGs use mailing lists and bulletin boards for communication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Installfest.jpg


Some interesting links

http://www.reallylinux.com

http://www.wikipedia.org

http://www.redhat.com

http://hardware4linux.info/

http://www.reallylinux.com/

http://www.redhat.com/


Thank you !

[email protected]

Documents

Linux for Librarians