Madhu's Corner :: Write :: Linux Speak FAQ

A look at the culture that surrounds Linux.
Some humour, to be taken with generous dollops of tolerance.

Linux is not only about the kernel, code, optimization, performance, Open Source, Copyleft, and the like. There's more - we are actually beginning to see a culture emerging. What gets talked around when a bunch of Linux users or programmers or both get together. As a Linux newbie, you have to survive all this and much more. And as a newbie, you must remember that you're always playing catching up, given the current Linux arena. To help a newbie get a perspective of what the world out there is, here's a set of answers to specific FAQs.

This FAQ is devoted to ensuring that you can survive hanging out in the company of cool Linux geeks. In addition, it'll teach you all the terminology and buzzwords, that if used well, will safely take you from plain old window washing to sitting in that plush office, watching others wash windows.

This FAQ is structured for maximum user comfort and has two levels beginner and advanced. If you're smart, aware, and put-your-neck-on-the-line types, choose the intelligent answers when asked such questions. If you just want to play safe and live, choose the safe answers. If you ever thought that the Linux world was one safe, happy, and peaceful place, here’s your guide to the most tricky holes that can be encountered.

• What’ is this Linux?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Did I hear that right?
  Safe Answer: An operating system, whose heart is copyright err copyleft, as well as Linus Torvalds.
  
  The official definition off the FAQs goes something like this.
  
  Linux is the kernel of operating systems that looks like and performs as well or better than the famous operating system from AT&T Bell Labs.
  
  Linus Torvalds and a loosely knit team of volunteer hackers from across the Internet wrote (and are still writing) Linux from scratch. It has all the features of a modern, full-fledged operating system true multitasking, virtual memory, libraries, demand loading, shared, copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and TCP/IP networking.
  Unless you know all those terms like the back of your hand and have a CS degree or two, it may not be wise to use that definition. The heart of Linux the kernel is all that was (not so much anymore) the work of Linus Torvalds. Most of the remaining parts have been put together mostly from work of the GNU Foundation (below). Linus is no longer a poor old student who couldn't access Unix, but a rich researcher working in a hush-hush company called Transmeta. He still, however, retains his refreshing sense of humor.
  
  
• Why the penguin?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Never bird watched, you monster?
  Safe Answer: Linus.
  
  Tux is the name of the official penguin, mascot of Linux. He is quite happy, contented, and chubby. Just like what you and me should be. The only difference is that he gets to be, while you and me want to be. The original drawing by Larry Ewing has now seen countless versions with Tux holding this, that and the other.
  While the legend goes that a penguin assaulted Linus in Antarctica, the actual happy accident took place in Australia. The famous quote from Linus that details the choice is, "If you think penguins are fat and waddle, you have never been attacked by one running at you in excess of 100 MPH." To this day, the wisdom of Linus is still evident. Pretty adolescent girls, young children, and very interesting women swoon at the sight of the oh-so-cute penguin. No harm done for the OS if the mascot is as adorable as hell "sitting there with a beatific smile" and planning world domination on the side.
  
  
• Is this a cult? Where's the money, folks?
  
  Intelligent Answer: All hail Linus Torvalds, prophet of the next realm.
  Safe Answer: Haven't you heard of an IPO?
  
  In the days of yore, and I quote Linus Torvalds "Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying to cut your teeth on an OS you can try to modify for your needs?" Linux was a fun thing to do. It was a happy hobby, a great pastime. That was all before things got out of hand. In those days, money was not an issue, because there was no money in Linux.
  In today's world, Linux-based companies barely form and get together, let alone release a product, when they issue an IPO (Initial Public Offering). This stock market-based racket usually also involves sending Linus and the other people in the Open Source movement some shares and then running to the public. The public, Linux crazy as it usually is, sends the stock to some stratospheric heights. The only good thing in the whole mess is that once in a while, some poor old code maintainer gets to make a lot of money.
  
  
• RMS / ESR your choice?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Pass.
  Safe Answer: None.
  
  Richard M Stallman and Eric S Raymond are huge giants in the world of Linux. But that doesn't stop them from acting foolish. Does anything stop anyone from acting foolish?
  RMS was from MIT, where he began, in no small measure, the free software movement. To this day, he remains a free software evangelist, the head honcho of the GNU (GNUs Not Unix) movement, the source of great software like gcc, emacs, and this, that and everyone elses brother. RMS was also majorly involved in an OS called HURD which hasnt really made people flock around, though RMS is indeed a good shepherd.
  ESR is the most popular "open source" evangelist there is. Apart from convincing companies that such a model of commerce can work, ESR gives any number of talks on Zen, Martial arts, and Haiku, all of which end up in Linux. Dont ask me how. ESR is famous for getting the wave of the Fortune 500 companies into Linux and thereby destroying the hacking and the volunteer spirit of Linux. Read this with reference to the previous question. The suits, as they say, moved in, and the rest is history.
  Additional heros that figure in the Linux community include Bruce Perens (another evangelist, but with a different pitch), Alan Cox (the kernel superhero), and the father of Perl Larry Wall.
  
  
• Red Hat or Suze?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Debian.
  Safe Answer: Kernel 2.2.14-6.0.1 on a i686
  
  More flames have blown from this single topic than any other. To put it simply, a distribution of Linux differs from any other only in some tiny ways. The simplest analogy that can be offered to explain distributions is that of different dictionaries in the English language. All of them give you roughly the same meaning for a word, but the fonts, styles, and presentations vary largely. Similarly all distributions give you the same Linux box that you want, but may include stray packaging (in six CDs, no less) for extra effect.
  Debian remains the only volunteer based distribution of Linux. Its also typically known as GNU/Linux for reasons stated in the question posed before this one. Not that it makes any difference, though. Choosing Debian as an answer is fraught with its own complexities, as installing and getting this beast going is no small task.
  Answering this question with the kernel version that youre using is safe, as it places you outside distribution-related trivia and shows that you bothered to look under the hood of your car to see what engine was running it. Be sure to know the "exact" version number, as heads have rolled for far less.
  
  
• Gnome or KDE?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Wmaker.
  Safe Answer: Text mode rocks.
  
  The window manager is amongst the most controversial portions of software, and something that you typically spend time on configuring. Its often considered bad manners to reflect poorly on someone elses choice of a window manager. Even in the fat, obese, and suffering Gnome, specific window managers like Enlightenment cause some serious discord. Beware of saying something that could hurt someone.
  Often, serious Linux gurus are found murmuring "GUI-based weenies, havent learnt the importance of command line programs". Since the classical Linux hacker was fed and raised on only a diet of terse, complicated and jaw-dropping command line functions, it may be worth the time to study them.
  
  
• vi or Emacs?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Why use an editor when redirection of stdout to a file works?
  Safe Answer: Both.
  
  The simple tasks of life are often performed by editing a plain text file. For this, the good Lord invented 101 editors and some more. Each user typically favors a particular brand of editor with its own perverse commands and invocations. vi is the most commonly available editors on all versions of *nix. Originally created by Bill Joy for BSD, its now present on every Linux machine. Its complicated, tough to learn, difficult to understand, and a joy to use. This kind of language is also sometimes used for Linux, so never mind that.
  Emacs was originally hacked together (in LISP) by the venerable RMS. Emacs is far more than just an editor and is often described as a lifestyle. There are emacs extensions that let you edit just about anything from source code to HTML. Emacs is a religion by itself, so beware before you utter false pretenses against it.
  
  
• Beer?
  
  Intelligent Answer: What a question to ask!
  Safe Answer: Nope. Only water.
  
  Beer drinking and Linux are as related to each other as 0 and 1 are in binary. Next to each other, I mean. The ideal Linux user is a part-time programmer, a tweaker of sorts, and an inquisitive joker normally. To get everything in perspective, a large pint of cool beer is just the liquid that does a "Make configure" on your insides. Now if you didnt understand that, never mind, the next section may help you. Linux users, as is their wont, are highly tolerant. Although they cant believe that you wouldnt want to drink beer and that you must be therefore crazy, they wont force you to drink it. You could drink vodka, Jolt Cola or plain ole water. Linux is all about choice and every man can choose his poison.
  
  
• Slashdot times a day?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Of course, eight times a day!
  Safe Answer: Too busy with work just once.
  
  http://Slashdot.org is a site that parades itself with the motto "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". This site once was hallowed ground for a sacred few (Linux brethren), but is now contaminated with Free/Open/Whatever BSD, John Katz, and other such irritants. Yet, this site is often the starting point in every Linux users day. The stories usually are of general interest and are worth the while.
  In order to truly use this site, create a login and customize your profile. In addition to choosing no graphics for quick loading, the customization also allows you to select the threshold level for comments from the general public. These comments are the heart of /. Rating of comments is done by a democratic moderation that works very efficiently. However, the default threshold level of -1 yields far too many Anonymous Cowards (a generic name for all people who post without a profile) whore interesting in being the first to post (FIRST POST, FIRST POST) or various other things like Natalie Portman and what have you. A threshold level of two or three ensures that you get some of the most well thought out and intelligent responses from the community at large.
  Other sites of interest to the Linux community include the extremely hilarious cartoon strip located at www.userfriendly.org/static. This cartoon revolves around an ISP that uses Linux and tackles technical support questions from the general public. Heres where the Linux community pokes fun at itself and the environment that it exists in.
  
  
• Win 9x/k?
  
  Intelligent Answer: Who cares, Samba works perfectly with all of them.
  Safe Answer: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
  
  Samba is one of those inventions that God explicitly designed for making Linux popular. Samba, in simple terms, allows good old Windows users to access and use resources on a Linux box. This resource utilization is often network transparent, so a wise system administrator allows infidels to load whatever they wish on their own systems, and usually has the machine with the network printer running Linux and Samba. But beware, to speak of Samba is to imply that you can set it up with ease which is not something that you would want chasing you even in a nightmare.
  The absolute disdain that the safe answer involves requires that the Linux user also proudly state his "uptime". Uptime is a concept primarily known in the *nix world, where systems are switched on and left on to do their work. It stands for the number of days that a machine has been continuously working without a shutdown. Reboots and such other ghastly events never occur and systems work on and on and on. Unlike of course, other systems, where if you sneeze, a reboot is immediately advised.