Is the Linux as same as Unix?
[
]
Officially
an operating system is not allowed to be called a Unix until it passes
the Open Group's certification tests, and supports the necessary API's.
Nobody has yet stepped forward to pay the large fees that
certification involves, so we're not allowed to call it Unix.
Certification really doesn't mean very much anyway. Very few of the
commercial operating systems have passed the Open Group tests.
Unofficially,
Linux is very similar to the operating systems which are known as Unix,
and for many purposes they are equivalent. Linux the kernel is an
operating system kernel that behaves and performs similarly to the
famous Unix operating system from AT&T Bell Labs. Linux is often
called a "Unix-like" operating system. For more information, see
http://www.unix-systems.org/what_is_unix.html.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
What exactly is this Linux?
[
]
The name "Linux" is used to refer to three similar yet slightly
different things, which can be confusing to all but the hardcore geek.
The three usages vary by how much of a complete software system the
speaker is talking about.
At the lowest level, every Linux system is based on the Linux kernel —
the very low-level software that manages your computer hardware,
multi-tasks the many programs that are running at any given time, and
other such essential things. These low-level functions are used by
other programs, so their authors can focus on the specific
functionality they want to provide. Without the kernel, your computer
is a very expensive doorstop. It has all of the features of a modern
operating system: true multitasking, threads, virtual memory, shared
libraries, demand loading, shared, copy-on-write executables, proper
memory management, loadable device driver modules, video frame
buffering, and TCP/IP networking.
Most often, the name "Linux" is used to refer to the Linux Operating
System. An OS includes the kernel, but also adds various utilities —
the kinds of programs you need to get anything done. For example, it
includes a shell (the program that provides a command prompt and lets
you run programs), a program to copy files, a program to delete files,
and many other odds and ends. Some people honor the request of Richard
Stallman and the GNU Project, and call the Linux OS GNU/Linux, because
a good number of these utility programs were written by the GNU folks.
Finally, software companies (and sometimes volunteer groups) add on
lots of extra software, like the XFree86 X Window System, Gnome, KDE,
games and many other applications. These software compilations which
are based on the Linux OS are called Linux distributions.
So,
there are three Linuxes: the Linux kernel, the Linux OS, and the
various Linux distributions. Most people, however, refer to the
operating system kernel, system software, and application software,
collectively, as "Linux", and that convention is used in this FAQ as
well.
See also the Wikipedia articles on the Linux kernel
and the Linux operating system
.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
Who is Linus Torvalds?
[
]
Linus Torvalds and a loosely knit team of volunteer hackers from across
the Internet wrote (and still are writing) Linux from scratch.
Linus was born in Helsinki, Finland, the son of journalists Anna and
Nils Torvalds, and the grandson of poet Ole Torvalds. His family
belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority (roughly 5%) of Finland's
population. Torvalds was named after Linus Pauling, the American Nobel
Prize-winning chemist, although he prefers to claim he was named after
Linus in the Peanuts comic strip. Both of his parents were campus
radicals at the University of Helsinki in the 1960s.
Torvalds
attended the University of Helsinki from 1988 to 1996, graduating with
a master's degree in computer science. His M.Sc. thesis was titled
Linux: A Portable Operating System. From 1997 to 1999 he was involved
in 86open helping choose the standard binary format for linux and unix.His interest in computers began with a Commodore VIC-20. After the
VIC-20 he purchased a Sinclair QL which he modified extensively,
especially its operating system. He programmed an assembler and a text
editor for the QL, as well as a few games. He is known to have written
a Pac-Man clone named Cool Man. In 1990 he purchased an Intel
80386-based IBM PC and spent a few weeks playing the game Prince of
Persia before receiving his Minix copy which in turn enabled him to
begin his work on Linux.
His interest in computers began with a Commodore VIC-20. After the
VIC-20 he purchased a Sinclair QL which he modified extensively,
especially its operating system. He programmed an assembler and a text
editor for the QL, as well as a few games. He is known to have written
a Pac-Man clone named Cool Man. In 1990 he purchased an Intel
80386-based IBM PC and spent a few weeks playing the game Prince of
Persia before receiving his Minix copy which in turn enabled him to
begin his work on Linux.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
How the Linux is licensed?
[
]
Linus has placed the Linux kernel under the GNU General Public License,
which basically means that you may freely copy, change, and distribute
it, but you may not impose any restrictions on further distribution.
And you must make the source code available.
This
is not the same as Public Domain. See the Copyright FAQ,
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/law/copyright, for details.
Full details are in the file COPYING in the Linux kernel sources
(probably in /usr/src/linux on your system). There is a FAQ for the GPL
at: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl-faq.html.
The licenses of
the utilities and programs which come with the installations vary. Much
of the code is from the GNU Project at the Free Software Foundation,
and is also under the GPL. Some other major programs often included in
Linux distributions are under a BSD license and other similar licenses.
Note that discussion about the merits or otherwise of the GPL should be
posted to the news group gnu.misc.discuss, and not to the
news:comp.os.linux hierarchy.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
How Does One Pronounce Linux?
[
]
This question produces an outrageous amount of heated debate that how
to pronounce Linux which is acceptable to whole world as a valid name
of a genuine and most powerful operating system.
If you want to hear Linus himself say how he pronounces it, download
english.au or swedish.au from
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/SillySounds/. If you have a
sound card or the PC-speaker audio driver you can hear them by typing
$ cat english.au >/dev/audio
The difference isn't in the pronunciation of Linux but in the language Linus uses to say, "hello".
For the benefit of those who don't have the equipment or inclination:
Linus pronounces Linux approximately as Leenus, where the ee is
pronounced as in "feet," but rather shorter, and the u is like a much
shorter version of the French eu sound in peur (pronouncing it as the u
in "put" is probably passable).
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
How Many People Use Linux?
[
]
Linux is freely available, and no one is required to register with any
central authority, so it is difficult to know. Several businesses
survive solely on selling and supporting Linux.
Linux newsgroups are some of the most heavily read on Usenet. Accurate
numbers are hard to come by, but the number is almost certainly in the
millions.
However, people can register as Linux users at the Linux Counter
project, which has been in existence since 1993. In May of 2003 the
project counted more than 134,000 users, but that is certainly only a
small fraction of all users. The operator of the Linux Counter
estimated 18 million users, as of May 2003.
Visit the Web site at http://counter.li.org/ and fill in the registration form.
The current count is posted monthly to news:comp.os.linux.misc, and is always available from the Web site.
[Harald Tveit Alvestrand]
A: In 1999, International Data Corporation released its first
commercial forecast of Linux sales. The report quantifies Linux vendor
sales in 1996, 1997, and 1998, and forecasts through the year 2003.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
Who owns data dictionary?
[
]
The SYS user owns the data dictionary. The SYS and SYSTEM users are created when the database is created.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
What are the signals we have in Linux?
[
]
There are more that 15 different signal. Listing some of
the frequently used signals below:
STOP - This signal will stop the currently running process.
The process will still stay in the task list
CONT - Will continue the stopped process
TERM - This singal will terminate the process
HUP - Will restart currently running process
NOHUP - Will reload the process (in the sense, only reads
the config file and bring the new changes to effect without
restarting...)
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
What is the use of proc structure?
[
]
All the running process created by the uere will have entry as a file in a virtual file system "/proc".
The
Linux kernel has two primary functions: to control access to physical
devices on the computer and to schedule when and how processes interact
with these devices. The /proc/ directory ? also called the proc file
system? contains a hierarchy of special files which represent the
current state of the kernel ? allowing applications and users to peer
into the kernel's view of the system.
Within the /proc/
directory, one can find a wealth of information detailing the system
hardware and any processes currently running. In addition, some of the
files within the /proc/ directory tree can be manipulated by users and
applications to communicate configuration changes to the kernel.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
What is segmentation fault?
[
]
Access to the memory which is not valid, will cause segmentation fault.
Let us take example, in dynamic memory allocation like malloc, we allocate memory and then we free it using:
free(fp);
if we write free() one more time say ,
free(fp);
free(fp);
It
will cause segmentation fault. because the pointer was already freed
and now its not valid, but we are trying to free an invalid location.
Choose your rating:
Post Ans. View More Ans.
