Module 1:
Technical Summary of Linux
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Including:
 Linux Distributions
 Free Software and GNU License
 Technical differences between
Windows and Linux
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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Linux Distributions
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Distributions – an entire package of Linux,
including tools, editors, GUIs, and so forth.
Some Distributions – Red Hat, SuSE,
Mandrake, and Caldera.
Most of tools are not written by the
companies who sell the Linux packages.
Linux itself is the core of the OS - kernel
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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Free software and GNU license
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Free software
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Free of charge
Free of source code
GNU license
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GNU – GNU’s Not Unix
GNU General Public License (GPL)
The full source code must be released
 The programmers are not liable for the software
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Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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Technical Differences between
Linux and Windows
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Users
GUI and the kernel
Network Disks
Configuration files
Domains
Disk file systems
Server roles
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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The Users
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Single Users – One computer, one desk,
one user
Multi Users – Many people can work
parallel
Network Users – Users can use the services
over network
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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The GUI and the kernel
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Linux – the user interface and the
operating system -> separate
Windows – the GUI and the core OS
are integrated
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Linux
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The Network Disks
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Linux – using the Network File
System (NFS) that supports mounting
on other systems
Windows –
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using Share (by mounting a share, also
called map)
Using Distributed File System (Dfs)
for the server
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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The configuration files
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Linux – using text file
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Easy to use
But has no standard
Windows – using registry database
(before using .ini files)
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Linux
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Domains
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Linux – using Network Information
Service (NIS), a simple text file.
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It doesn’t perform authentication the way
a DC does.
Windows – using Active Directory (AD)
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AD was designed to be much more than
what NIS was designed for.
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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Linux Disk file system
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File types
ext3, swap, also FAT, FAT32, NTFS
Minimum partitions:
two – One for holding all of the files
One for swap space
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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Directory Structure
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Begin with root directory “/”
/usr - for all program files (Windows - ?)
/home - user home directory (Windows-?)
/var - the final destination for log files
/tmp - for placing temporary files
swap - for storing virtual memory file
(Windows - ?)
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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Linux’s Partitions
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Each partition will show with a device,
such /dev/hdXY, dev/sdXY
hd – hard disk
sd – SCSI disk
X – disk number for the system
Y – partition number for the disk
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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The Server Roles
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Mail server,
Web server,
FTP server,
File server,
Print server,
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DHCP server,
DNS server,
Database server,
News server, …
Module 1: Technical Summary of
Linux
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