Linux for Dummies

added specification for the AMD 64-bit (AMD64 or X86_64) processors. The
current LSB specification -- LSB 3.0 --supports seven processor architec-
tures: IA32, IA64, PPC32, PPC64 (64-bit PowerPC), S390, S390X, X86_64.
An LSB certification program exists. By now, several Linux distributions --
such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 for x86, SUSE Linux 9.1, and Sun Java
Desktop System (JDS) 2 -- are certified to be LSB 1.3 compliant, IA32 run-
time environments. Several others -- such as Linpus 9.3, Mandrakelinux
Corporate Server 3.0, Novell Linux Desktop 9 for x86 with Service Pack 1,
SUSE Linux 9.2, and RAYS LX 1.0 (from Sun Wah Linux Limited) -- are certi-
fied as LSB 2.0 compliant, IA32 runtime environment. SUSE Linux 10.0 is one
of the first LSB 3.0 compliant IA32 runtime environments. You can expect
more distributions to be LSB 3.0 certified in the near future.
To discover more about LSB, visit www.linuxbase.org. The latest list of
LSB-certified systems is available at
www.opengroup.org/lsb/cert/cert_prodlist.tpl
What a Linux Distribution Includes
A Linux distribution comes with the Linux kernel and a whole lot more soft-
ware. These software packages include everything from the graphical desk-
tops to Internet servers to programming tools to create new software. In
this section, I briefly describe some major software packages that come
bundled with typical Linux distributions. Without this bundled software,
Linux wouldn't be as popular as it is today.
What is the GNU Project?
GNU is a recursive acronym that stands for
GNU's Not UNIX. The GNU Project was
launched in 1984 by Richard Stallman to develop
a complete UNIX-like operating system. The
GNU Project developed nearly everything
needed for a complete operating system except
for the operating system kernel. All GNU soft-
ware was distributed under the GNU General
Public License (GPL). GPL essentially requires
that the software is distributed in source-code
form and stipulates that any user may copy,
modify, and distribute the software to anyone
else in source-code form. Users may, however,
have to pay for their individual copies of GNU
software.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a tax-
exempt charity that raises funds for work on the
GNU Project. To find out more about the GNU
Project, visit its home page at www.gnu.org.
You can find information about how to contact
the Free Software Foundation and how to help
the GNU Project.