Chapter 1: An Overview of Red Hat Linux

Chapter 1: An Overview of Red Hat Linux

Overview

Linux was a phenomenon waiting to happen. The computer industry suffered from a rift. In the 1980s and 1990s, people had to choose between inexpensive, market-driven PC operating systems from Microsoft and expensive, technology-driven operating systems such as UNIX. Free software was being created all over the world, but lacked a common platform to rally around. Linux has become that common platform.

For several years, Red Hat Linux has been the most popular commercial distribution of Linux. With the latest versions of Red Hat Linux (reflected in the Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions), Red Hat, Inc. has taken steps to offer both free-flowing community versions and well-supported commercial versions of Red Hat Linux.

Note?

Because of significant overlap between Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I use the term Red Hat Linux to refer to technology in both distributions. If software I describe is missing (primarily from Enterprise, which doesn't include many games and personal software), you can add the software later. Check your CDs, then check yum repositories described in Chapter 5 to find software RPMs.




Part IV: Red Hat Linux Network and Server Setup