Talk:Linux Guide

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• todo-list of Linux Guide

This book is of interest to Wikiproject Unix

Contents 1 Freezes 2 Criticism - Kernel Guide or System Guide 3 Orphaned Wikibook module 4 Guide to Unix 5 Is it any good?

[edit] Freezes

I edited the freezes pages a lot to make it better

[edit] Criticism - Kernel Guide or System Guide

It is of course rather strange to want to make a book about a kernel that contains "installation" and "for users". It probably comes from what makes people somehow unable to grasp that the huge vague collection of entities that they are trying to call by name does not have one.

The Book of Linux would be about a kernel, Book of GNU would be about a project, vision and a sort of a toolkit, Book of Debian would be about an organization, a view, a software distribution and the policy that looms over them, Book of Redhat would be about a company and its product family etc. Trying to cram fragments of each and more under a single umberella will most likely not result in anything very good. Better than nothing, perhaps, but possibly something damaging. --Blades 23:06, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

Hardly. Linux is commonly used to refer to Linux systems, i.e. computing environments based on the Linux kernel. Not that difficult to understand, or that new a concept. And certainly a book about Linux would be useful, as essentially everything one would write in it would apply to all distros, as well as other UNIXes. Have you been to a bookstore recently? You'll find plenty of titles on "Linux," and very very few of them are about a kernel. Maybe you should take up your point with all the world's publishers, or every Linux user — I don't think you'll change many minds.

Of course, I think this Wikibook needs reorganizing, but your essential point is nonsense.

--Daniel 09:58, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Of course there are. And people doing things in a stupid or false way does not make those ways any bit less stupid or wrong. My last sentence, quite especially is the essential point. I repeat: Trying to cram fragments of each and more under a single umberella will most likely not result in anything very good. Better than nothing, perhaps, but possibly something damaging.

Book of Unix and GNU environments would make sense, though, and there should be a good one. Something like an old Altos SysV manual I have that explains what a user will experience, needs to understand, and will be able to do with a ready Unix system. It describes logins, files, file system, services available and the main tools, editors and finally sh, awk, and sed. These would have much in common in Unix and GNU systems. It would be both correct and very useful.

Of course there is also the slightly better aimed term of "Linux distribution" which is also covers a staggering variety of wildly different concepts and units. Still, the essential point above remains.

This is of course merely an informed opinion and not a mandate or complaint or anything such. Here appears to be a chance to do either something correct or something incorrect. By all means do create more incorrect books and justify it with following market lemmings. Many people will quite possibly be happy about it. Other could not care less. Some people will meet both the possible good and the possible bad results of people using this text.

I just believe this point did need to be brought up, so I did. --Blades 12:06, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

The core Linux developers, active for well over a decade, have always used "Linux" as it is commonly used by book publishers today. They do not subscribe to the political nonsense being forced down our throats by Richard Stallman via his bloated uname and autoconf tools. It is tradtional for the kernel name and operating system name to be one and the same. This situation is not unusual in the English language. AlbertCahalan 03:39, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

While I must concur with Blades, I think that most "Linux" users know the signficance and distinction between the output of `uname -o` and `uname -s`. Frankly, I think this book (at least in its current form) serves to benefit beginning users or those considering GNU/Linux, who likely are only aware of "Linux". I'd make a comment about this in the article, but I'd retain the title given the name recognition.

Lastly, given a target audience of beginning users or those still in consideration, the multifaceted nature of the current page is acceptable; however it should be noted that this is a mere generalized introduction targeted to those users. The article in its current form is hardly a "compendium", but that may be rectified with time.

--Eibwen 18:20, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Note that "uname -o" was created to push Richard Stallman's political ideas. It serves no other purpose. It is not part of any standard. The latest UNIX and POSIX standard (IEEE, Open Group, and ISO) has "uname -s" though, which is required to report "the name of the implementation of the operating system". So, let there be no doubt, "Linux" is "the name of the implementation of the operating system". AlbertCahalan 03:39, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

More than a year later, Wikibooks has books about Linux system installation (Installing Linux) and new users (Linux For Newbies), but not much for the kernel (Updating the Linux kernel, Guide to UNIX/Linux). Some other stuff about the Linux and GNU environments is in Guide to UNIX. --Kernigh 01:34, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Of course not. The kernel is a fast-moving target that is documented already in the source itself, in the Documentation directory included with the source, in BitKeeper and git change log entries, and in release announcement emails. Mailing lists, searchable via Google, fill in the rest. No wikibooks project could ever hope to keep up with the kernel as it changes. AlbertCahalan 03:39, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

GNU is an operating system and not a project, vision or a sort of a toolkit as Blades assumes. --Mms 11:58, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Orphaned Wikibook module

The following is an orphaned Wikibook module that appears to belong with this Wikibook. Please place it where it would be appropriate, and rename:

• File Compression

Because Linux Guide was not using it, I decided that File Compression is an appropriate submodule for the Guide to UNIX, specifically the Guide to UNIX commands. Kernigh 21:10, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Guide to Unix

What's the point of having this when there's the Guide to Unix?

[edit] Is it any good?

Hi there i am just wondering what is linux like i have never actually used linux before i am just wondering is it good or not because like i say i have never actually used the system before????? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.169.201.17 (talk • contribs) 2008-01-30T17:08:49.

Perhaps you should have a read of this book: A Neutral Look at Operating Systems. Or simply download a couple of the more popular Live CDs and try Linux for yourself - a Live CD doesn't need to be installed, so it won't affect your existing computer system. Webaware ^talk 07:17, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Virtualization is another option. It is basically running an operating system inside another. Vmware's products, Virtualbox, Xen, Qemu are all examples of software that does this. Slightly more technical, though. Searching Wikibooks, Wikipedia, and Google will provide useful info.--Jats (talk) 03:12, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

'Is it any good?' well, for what? It probably isn't going to help you get a tire changed on the side of a mountain. Cordon Bleu isn't very good as rocket fuel either. I know people who won't run Linux anywhere that they are aware of, and others who won't run anything but Linux anywhere they can. If you're looking for a computer operating system that supports a wide variety of hardware, though possibly not everything in your current computer, then Linux is pretty good. If you're looking for something else, then you probably want to look somewhere else as well. I'm personally quite happy to use Linux for most of my computing needs. But that's me. Where your needs differ, Linux may not be a good match. Try, take a look at the things that are available, that perhaps you never even considered using your computer for, look through the equivalences pages and who knows you might find yourself happy with it. If you don't, most of us are OK with that too.--Rusty