Welcome To Linux tutorial links

This site has been created to help you find out more about Linux. I hope over the next few months to include n00b friendly tutorials and links to various other sites, which should help people who are new to Linux. Please note that most of the tutorials featured throughout the following pages are specifically for the Debian ubuntu linux distributions.

A Brief History of Linux

The operating system took 30 years to evolve into what it is today. Here are some key events that led to its development.

1971 The first edition of the Unix server operating system emerges from Bell Labs. Although Linux does not include any Unix code, it is a Unix clone, which means it shares a number of technical features with Unix, which might be considered the forerunner of the open-source operating system. During the 1970s, Unix code was distributed to people at various universities and companies, and they created their own Unix varieties, which ultimately evolved into Sun Microsystems' Solaris, Berkeley 's FreeBSD and Silicon Graphics ' IRIX.

1985 Richard Stallman publishes his famous "GNU Manifesto" (www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html), one of the first documents of the open-source revolution. Stallman began working on the GNU operating system in 1983, largely because he wanted to create an open-source version of Unix. (GNU stands for "GNU is Not Unix.") Stallman's Free Software Foundation later created the GNU General Public License (www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html), the widely adopted, fully legal "anticopyright" treatise that today allows Linux and other software to remain completely free.

1987 Professor Andrew S. Tanenbaum invents Minix, an open-source operating system that's a clone of Unix. Young Linus Torvalds, at the time a computer science student in Finland, is introduced to Minix, and bases his plans for Linux on the Minix example.

1991 In August, Torvalds announces his plans to create a free operating system on the Minix users newsgroup. He modestly notes in his posting that his OS is "just a hobby. [It] won't be big and professional like GNU." In October, Linux 0.01 is released on the Internet under a GNU public license. In the Minix newsgroup, Torvalds asks his fellow programmers to lend a hand in making the system more workable. He gets enough help to release version 0.1 by December. Over the next several years, Linux developers swell into the hundreds of thousands and work to make Linux compatible with GNU programs. Vendors like Red Hat, Caldera and Debian create popular distributions of Linux that bundle the operating system with useful programs and a graphical interface.

1997 Torvalds moves to Silicon Valley and goes to work at Transmeta.

1999 In August, Red Hat completes its initial public offering, making it the first Linux-oriented company to successfully go public. In December, Andover.net, a consortium of Web site resources largely devoted to Linux, and VA Linux, a manufacturer of Linux hardware, have wildly successful IPOs. Linuxcare, a leading Linux service provider, announces alliances with such industry giants as IBM , Dell , Motorola and Informix .

Article by Annalee Newitz copyright 2000

Linux is now many years old. Throughout its history there have been many government entities that have decided that Linux was the ideal os  to handle their mission-critical computing needs. This list gets bigger every day. Here are a list of some of the more notable migrations to the Linux platform in the public sector.

Berlin, Germany The city government of Berlin announced in early December, 2005 that they would be migrating most of their 58.000 Windows desktops to Linux.

The Government of Japan The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced in early October 2005 its plans to key government systems to Linux in order to decrease its dependency on Microsoft products.

Largo, Florida, USA The city of Largo, Florida was one of the first high-profile migrations to Linux in the public sector. The switch began in 2000 when David Richards, the systems administator for the city began switching webservers to Red Hat Linux. He followed in 2001 by beginning the change to thin clients running Linux.

Article Linux online. 

Debian is the world's leading non-commercial totally free Linux distribution. Remaining loyal to the concept upon which Linux was created, it is produced by hundreds of volunteer developers around the world. Contrary to a common misconception, Debian is not for Linux gurus only.  Its advanced package management system makes it one of the easier distributions for new Linux users to work with. Here are just a few of its advantages:
 

• Non-Proprietary:  Debian is a true GNU/Linux distribution using the standard UNIX style commands. This ensures that what you learn today won't be obsolete in two years and makes it easier to also learn how to work with UNIX systems.

• Easy Maintenance:  A seamless, totally-integrated package management system makes it easy to keep your system up to date and free of orphan files and incompatible products. Most dependent packages are handled automatically so you don't get the "Failed dependencies" error commonly encountered when trying to add software on RPM-based systems like Red Hat and Suse.

• Automated Patching:  The Debian package system also allows you to use a single command to update your entire system (operating system and installed packages) over the Internet. This allows you to use a scheduler to routinely run a shell script to automatically update your system with the latest program, OS, and security patches.

• Extensive:  Only free software packages (applications, utilities, etc.) are allowed to be included in the official Debian distributions, and the current binary distribution comes on 14 CDs because there are over 10,000 of them. With Debian, you don't have different "server" and "workstation" or "personal" editions. It's everything all in one.

• Support Options:  Peer support is available through a community of listservs (mailing lists) and chat rooms. Replies to messages may even be from those who helped develop the product. And since you're likely not the first person to encounter a given issue, there are also searchable archives of listserv messages. If your company requires commercial support contracts fear not. Numerous for-profit support operations offer a variety of technical support options. With Debian, you don't have to worry about forced upgrades due to vendors dropping support for older versions.

• Minimal Investment:  Debian's peformance is excellent even with the modest hardware requirements Linux is famous for. While most OSs require newer, faster, bigger hardware, Debian allows you to utilize those old Pentium systems instead of throwing them into a landfill. This, along with the fact that you can load a single copy of Debian on as many systems as you want, means you can set up a full-blown enterprise at very little cost.

• Reliable:  Debian's focus on stability and reliability results in servers that you may have to reboot once a year, rather than once a month.

• User-centric:  New versions of Debian are developed when major changes warrant one, not to generate revenues from upgrades. (You need only look at the version numbers of the various distributions to verify this.)

• Article from aboutdebian

REALBASIC PROGRAMMING

This site is also dedicated to the realbasic programming language. On the following pages you'll find plenty of tutorials where you can learn the basics of the language and also more advanced aspects of realbasic programming.