Use the following links to reach web pages consisting of very useful information related to Linux based application development. You can find some additional information in our FAQs page.
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Please note that the company will not take any responsibility to any kind of consequences related to personal or company matters which are implied or based on these links. Several links here are collected from educational websites.
This is a good starting point for online versions of various users guides, FAQs and HOWTOs. They can often be more up-to-date than the documentation included with commercial distributions. The guides include The Installation and Getting Started Guide, The Linux Kernel, The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide, The Linux Kernel Hacker's Guide, The Network Administrator's Guide, The System Administrator's Guide, and the Linux User's Guide.
This is the home of the French distributors of Red Hat. It also hosts the "Guide du Rootard", an excellent general introduction to Linux, which includes installation, use, system administration and a bit of network administration.
A great source of information on how to install and configure hardware of all types. This site saved our bacon when we were configuring some new Pentiums in our department. Trying to configure their EtherExpress cards under Mandrake would freeze the machines until we learned here to add "options eepro100 multicast_filter_limit=3" to our /etc/conf.modules files. Who knew?
LInks to some basic Linux realted information from .edu web sites
This includes links to detailed reviews of new releases of some of the more important distributions
These distributions are "full size" in that they contain a fairly complete set of utilities and a large number of applications packages, as well as the Linux kernel. Distributions are listed by type of packaging format. The major formats are .rpm (Red Hat package manager), .deb (Debian), .tgz (Slackware) and .stp (Stampede).
Red Hat has had the largest overall market share in North America, although Mandrake may be ahead as a desktop (as opposed to server) distribution. It's definitely easy to install, configure and administer.
Caldera was the first major distribution with a sophisticated graphical interface for installation. Other distros (Red Hat, Mandrake, Corel, etc.) have been catching up.
A new distribution which is about to come out of beta. It's designed to be particularly user-friendly and allow the desktop user to administer the system without ever using the command line
Based on Red Hat. Put together by an advocacy group to promote Linux on the desktop. Integrates KDE and makes a few other changes, like rewriting cron on the assumption that the machine on which Linux is installed will not be running 24 hours a day.
For a review of this distribution, see the link to James MacKinnon's home page below. Debian has its own package management system and a large number of available packages. Like Slackware, it can be installed on low-memory systems with small hard drives. In fact, the minimal installation probably takes up less disk space than that of any other full-size distribution. Another advantage of Debian and its offshoots is the ease with which one can update a distribution automatically over the Internet.
Corel Linux is based on Debian and is aimed squarely at the desktop market. It has easy graphic installation and file management and administration tools that have been added by Corel.
Similar to WinLinux2000 (below), this can also be installed directly into a Windows FAT partition, allowing Linux to be installed without repartitioning the hard drive. It is a full-size distribution that takes up only 150Mb when installed, and can be downloaded as a single 48Mb zipped file!
A new distribution optimized for Pentium computers and with its own package management system. It's almost but not quite out of beta (has been for some time now).
The name says it all. For those who want to learn what makes Linux distributions tick. You can download all the sources and instructions from this site to roll your own distribution. You do need a spare partition and a working Linux distribution with a C compiler.
Distribution based on the "encap" packaging system. This could be classified as a "hobby" distro, but it seems quite comprehensive in terms of available packages.
No, Microsoft does not (yet!) have its own distribution. This distro can be installed into the FAT partition on a Window$ machine, allowing new users to try out Linux without repartitioning their drives.
Yet another distro that can be installed on top of Windoze. With distributions such as these, there's no longer any excuse to not at least try out Linux.
A new distribution optimized for Pentium computers and with its own package management system. It's almost but not quite out of beta (has been for some time now).
Mini Distributions
These distributions can be useful if you have an older machine with limited memory, if you wish to run Linux on machines where it is not already installed (most of the following boot from a floppy disk), or if you need a "rescue disk" to use on your installation. Some of these install themselves onto DOS partitions, which means you can try out Linux without repartitioning your hard drive.
This is quite an amazing distribution. The main diskette comes with an astounding amount of software, including all sorts of networking tools. There are also several addon diskettes. One allows you to run X and has a choice of two different window managers (Afterstep and fvwm2), xfm, and quite a few other programs. Another comes with a C compiler and related tools. Another comes with a full LaTeX distribution. If you want to convince people that Linux is "scalable" (in a downward direction), this would be a good way to do it.
This is the site formerly known as UNC Metalab formerly known as Sunsite. It's perhaps the most comprehensive source for downloading software from many different distributions and source code for different programs.
This is the premier printed journal dedicated to Linux. The online version has the tables of contents of the printed issues plus a selection of articles that are only available online. The same organization publishes the Linux Gazette
Publisher of a great collection of books on OSS, Linux, Unix, etc.
The following links describe how to use a MicroSolutions pd/cd drive as a combined cd-rom drive and an extra hard disk. Here are some related references. Incidentally, Slackware includes a bootdisk that is specially configured for installation from a parallel-port cd-rom drive.