Multimedia SeminarGABRIELA BALLESTEROSGABRIELA TOROSINA ALBERTO DOMINGUEZ

History of GNU-Linux

In the early 90's GNU/Linux systems consisted of little more than a beta-quality Linux kernel and a small collection of software ported from the GNU project. It was a true hacker's operating system. There were no CD-ROM's or GUI installation tools; everything had to be compiled and configured by the end user. Being a Linux Expert meant knowing your system inside and out.

Toward the middle of the decade several GNU/Linux distributions began appearing. One of the first was Slackware in 1993 and since then there have been many others. Even though there are many "flavors" of Linux today, the main purpose of the distribution remains the same. The distribution automates many of the tasks involved in GNU/Linux installation and configuration taking the burden off of the system administrator. Being a Linux Expert now means knowing which button to click in the GUI administration tool.

History of GNU-Linux

Recently there has been a yearn for a return to the "good old days" of Linux when men were men, sysadmins were hardcore geeks and everything was compiled from source code. A notable indication of this movement was the publication of the Linux-From-Scratch-HOWTO version 1.0 by Gerard Beekmans in 1999. Being a Linux Expert once again means knowing how to do it yourself.

Differences between Linux and Ubuntu

The difference between Linux and Ubuntu is like the difference between an engine and a vehicle.

Linux is the name of the core component of the operating system. It is called a kernel,which is akin to an engine. The kernel manages input, output, memory, and processing.

An engine is pretty useless by itself, so it's bundled with a collection of useful parts that help you use the engine to achieve a goal. This collection of parts makes up a vehicle. The same engine can be used in many different models of vehicles with different parts and features.

Differences between Linux and Ubuntu

Likewise, a kernel is pretty useless by itself. So it's typically bundled with a bunch of useful utilities and interfaces. This collection of utilities and interfaces is called a distribution. The same kernel (Linux) can be used in many different distributions (Ubuntu, Slackware, Debian, Mint, CentOS, etc.), each bundled with different utilities and interfaces (or unique builds of the same utilities and interfaces).

Ubuntu is one distribution that uses the Linux kernel, just as a Ford F350 pickup is one model of vehicle that uses a particular engine.

Incidentally, Windows 8.1 (64-bit) and Windows Server 2012 R2 are two different operating system distributions that use the same Windows NT kernel.

Main Operative System

Unix and Unix-like operating systems BSD and its descendants OS X Linux Google Chrome OS Microsoft Windows

Main Operative System

There have been many operating systems that were significant in their day but are no longer so, such as AmigaOS; OS/2 from IBM and Microsoft; classic Mac OS, the non-Unix precursor to Apple's Mac OS X; BeOS; XTS-300; RISC OS; MorphOS; Haiku; BareMetal and FreeMint. 

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