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 Previous: Central California Hams Respond to Earthquake |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
December 26, 2003
This week, we revisit our two-week old Linux column and add some information that we missed during our previous visit.
I received a lot of e-mail regarding the "A Free Lunch: Linux for Hams" column two weeks ago. I will share some of the e-mail with you here.
One writer suggested that the column was "deceptive" because it stated that the Mandrake 9 distribution of Linux was free. Well, the Mandrake 9 distribution is in fact free if you download it. Go to the Mandrake Linux Downloads page and see for yourself. By the way, I checked some of the other distributions of Linux and they are free, too, if you download them. For example, the Debian distribution can be had at the Getting Debian Web page, the Red Hat distribution is downloadable from the Download Red Hat Linux Web page, and the SUSE distribution is available at the SUSE Linux Download Web page.
So what gives with all these different distributions of Linux?
Texx Woodworth, KG6ATH, explains, "Several of us sat down recently to count the number of Linux distributions. We lost count after we passed 300 distributions. Most Linux distributions include at least some of the ham radio applications. The Linux kernel is the heart of the operating system and it's pretty similar in all the distributions. Your local machine may need a kernel tweak here and there for your local hardware, but the base code is the same."
 The Apple Mac OS X Unix Features Web page provides plenty of pertinent information regarding the Unix operating system included in Mac OS X. |
Woodworth continues: "Where the distributions differ is what user applications they include, such as whether or not they include hamfax (an application for sending and receiving facsimiles in Amateur Radio and for receiving public facsimile broadcasts like weather maps) and the system libraries and applications they include, such as ntp (for Network Time Protocol, which is used to synchronize the time of a computer client or server to another server or reference time source). There are also differences in the GNOME or KDE implementation they use for their desktop presentation. What is truly Linux is the kernel."
Finally, Rem Calvin, K6BBQ, wrote, "I am interested in knowing how you can install Linux on a Mac. How did you do that and could you point me to a Web site where I might get the Linux OS?"
I wrote back that Unix, which is the commercial operating system that Linux emulates for free, is installed automatically when you install Mac OS X. Visit the Apple Mac OS X Unix Features Web page for more information.
Until next time, keep on surfin'
Editor's note: Stan
Horzepa, WA1LOU, passes along his season's greetings to all Surfin' readers.
You can tell Stan that he is a late by sending him e-mail addressed to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: Central California Hams Respond to Earthquake | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
