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Linux for Librarians. Nishtha Anilkumar Librarian nishtha@prl.res.in Physical Research Laboratory Ahmedabad. Why Linux ?. Most of the library system softwares like LibSys now run on Linux platform Digital Library Softwares like Greenstone and DSpace are available on Linux platform
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Library 2.0 Linux for Librarians Nishtha Anilkumar Librarian nishtha@prl.res.in Physical Research Laboratory Ahmedabad
Library 2.0 Why Linux ? Most of the library system softwares like LibSys now run on Linux platform Digital Library Softwares like Greenstone and DSpace are available on Linux platform Open Source Integrated Library systems like Koha also run on Linux
Library 2.0 Understanding Linux • A story that goes back over 40 years to Bell Laboratories, where UNIX • was born
Library 2.0 Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie • Thompson developed the first • UNIX kernel • Ritchie developed the a • computer language ‘C’ • Portability, Modularity, Flexibility • made UNIX popular
Library 2.0 Richard M Stallman (RMS) • Without Stallman’s contribution, Linux would have had a different quality • Member of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory • Culture of the Lab. was one of extreme openness
Library 2.0 Birth of GNU • Mission of RMS : Creation of free • UNIX like OS • GNU stands for ‘GNU is Not Unix’ • RMS’s formula for free software : • Freedom to run the program • Freedom to modify the program • Freedom to distribute copies • Freedom to redistribute the modified versions
Free Software • By 1991 ‘Minix ‘ was in circulation which • was a variant of UNIX • Linus Torvalds, a Finnish software engineer, • reacting to the limitations of Minix, took a • small bit of working code and Minix as a • guidelineto create a basic kernel Library 2.0
Library 2.0 Linus Torvalds • Linus released it under the GPL (GNU Public Licence) originated by RMS and the Free Software foundation • With very basic operating system built from Linus’s kernel and handful of GNU tools – • Linux was born!
Library 2.0 Another facet of Linux culture • One of the difficulties of getting a working • Linux machine was downloading all the needed bits and compiling them • Overcome by – Distribution or Distro • However, the term free software was being taken as something of inferior quality
Library 2.0 Eric S Raymond (ESR) • Instrumental in removing this notion of “low quality or incomplete” • Led the way to market the name ‘Open Source software’ (OSS) as a new way of thinking The Cathedral and the Bazaar - CatB
Library 2.0 Current applications • Networking and services in the beginning • Today Linux has joined the desktop On the server side Stable and reliable platform providing database and trading service for companies First choice for firewall, proxy- and web servers
Library 2.0 Other applications • In large search engines, clusters are used to perform Internet searches • Linux also runs on • gadgets like • PDAs • Mobiles • Experimental • watches
Library 2.0 Challenges faced by organizations • Reducing the costs • Managing heterogeneous technology landscape • Ensuring sufficient support Basic needs to be met - Performance, Security & Standardization
Library 2.0 Linux pros and cons • Free • Portable • Made to keep running • Secure and versatile • Scalable • Short debug times • There are far too many distributions • Linux is confusing for beginners • Is an Open Source product trustworthy ?
Library 2.0 Direct benefits of adopting Linux • Flexibility to choose vendors • Alternative to costly proprietary OSs • Ease of migration • Security
Library 2.0 What is KDE, GNOME ? • The K Desktop • Environment (KDE) • and GNOME Desktop Environment are two • popular desktops • available
Library 2.0 Distributions • On top of an OS, there are many applications which provide complete environment e.g. Windows have tools like Word pad • Most Linux distributions also comes bundled with many applications • Examples – Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva
Library 2.0 Choosing the right distribution • 1) Purpose • 2) Software update life • 3) Feature Stability • 4) Package Selection
Library 2.0 1. Purpose Desktop usage : ease of adjusting settings, age of software, range of GUI applications Server usage : software life, security
Library 2.0 2. Software Update life • How often you want to upgrade to a new • distribution version ? • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Centos, Debian or Ubuntu LTS are good choices for longer life distribution
Library 2.0 3. Feature Stability Many distros have a policy of not upgrading software in mid-release Instead distro maintainers will backport a security fix to a older release and rename it Reason – if they upgraded to a new version, the features or configuration might have changed
Library 2.0 4. Package Selection Different distros have differing amount of softwares in their repositories Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux has a much smaller package offering than Debian
Library 2.0 Choice of distribution For servers, RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) For Desktop – Fedora or Ubuntu
Library 2.0 Linux Users’ Group (LUG) LUG - a non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for Linux users particularly for novices Online LUGs use mailing lists and bulletin boards for communication
Library 2.0 Some interesting links http://www.reallylinux.com http://www.wikipedia.org http://www.redhat.com http://hardware4linux.info/
Library 2.0 Thank you ! nishtha@prl.res.in