GNU, Linux and Open Source

GNU
Kernel
GNU/ Linux
OpenSource
 GNU - GNUs Not Unix
 GNU (pronounced g'noo) is a free operating
system

 GNU was invented by Richard Stallman in

1983 at MIT

 Stallman quit his job at MIT so that they

could not claim ownership and interfere with
distributing GNU as free software
 GNU – GNU/ Linux
 The members of the GNU project tried to build their own
kernel (HURD)
HURD to get a fully functional free operating system

 In 1992, GNU was combined with a free Unix-compatible

kernel called LINUX

 It is distributed as GNU/Linux
 Suse, Debian/Linux, Red Hat

 In 2005, the distributer Debian released the first GNU with its
own kernel HURD
 Debian HURD
GNU/ Linux - develpoers

Richard Stallman

Linus Torvalds
 KERNEL – the core
 a kernel is the core of an operating
system

 its responsible for providing secure

access to the machine's hardware and
to various computer processes
KERNEL – the core
 KERNEL – types
 monolith kernel
 (UNIX, Linux, MS/DR- DOS)
 more powerful
 Drivers and modules are embedded in to the kernel which improves the
speed of a OS

 microkernel
 (WinNT 4, Mac OS X )
 less powerful
 provides a small set of simple hardware drivers and uses
external applications to provide more functionality

 hybrid kernels
 (Windows 2000, Windows XP, etc)

 others
 LINUX-KERNEL
 In 1991, Linus Torvalds (Finland)
wrote a Unix-compatible kernel (v0.01)

 LINUX (LINUs
LINU uniX)

 It was available for free, but

copyrighted on the Internet
 LINUX-KERNEL
 1993 it became a part of GPL
(General Public License)

 Single person and group developers

started distributing GNU/Linux
systems as standalone OS
 LINUX-KERNEL
 1993 it became a part of GPL
(General Public License)

 Single person and group developers

started distributing GNU/Linux
systems as standalone OS
 GPL – General Public License
 GPL was released in January 1989

 The latest version of the license, v2,

was released in 1991
 GPL – grants
 the freedom to run the program for any purpose

 the freedom to study how the program works and

modify it
(Access to the source code is a precondition for this)

 the freedom to redistribute copies

 the freedom to improve the program, and release

the improvements to the public (Access to the
source code is a precondition for this)
 Win vs. Linux startup
You see what you get !

startup Windows XP startup Linux

 Win vs. Linux prompt

MS-DOS prompt GNU/ Linux prompt

Win vs. KDE environment

Windows XP GNU/Linux KDE 3.3

OpenSource – free as in free speech
 Its source code is published and made
available to the public, enabling anyone to
copy, modify and redistribute the source
code without paying royalties or fees

 Since the early 1960s most software was

developed in an open source manner
 OpenSource – examples
General:
 Linux (kernel)
 KDE/ GNOME (desktop environment)
 Apache (webserver)
 MySQL (database)
 OpenOffice.org (office)
 Mozilla (browser)

GIS Software:
 UMN – MapServer (mapserver)
 Grass (GIS)
 OpenSource – costs

MICROSOFT/ ESRI: OpenSource:

WindowsXP ~$250 GNU/Linux $0
Office2k3 ~$500 OpenOffice.org $0
ArcView $1,500 GRASS $0
ArcGIS $480 UMN Mapserver $0
Documentation Documentation $0
Set
 LINKS
 http://www.wikipedia.com
 http://www.gnu.org
 http://www.kernel.org
 http://www.linux.org
 http://www.suse.com
 http://www.debian.org
 http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd