What Is Linux?

Linux is the core, or kernel, of a free operating system first developed and released to the world by Linus Benedict Torvalds in 1991. Torvalds, then a graduate student at the University of Helsinki, Finland, is now a Fellow at the Open Source Development Lab (http://www.osdl.org). He is an engineer and had previously worked for the CPU design and fabrication company Transmeta, Inc. Fortunately for all Linux users, Torvalds chose to distribute Linux under a free software license named the GNU General Public License (GPL).

NOTE

The free online resource Wikipedia has a great biography of Linus Torvalds that examines his life and notable achievements. It even includes a transcript of his first announcement of Linux. It can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Torvalds.

The GNU GPL is the brainchild of Richard M. Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation. Stallman, the famous author of the Emacs editing environment and GCC compiler system, crafted the GPL to ensure that covered software would always be free and available in source code form. The GPL is the guiding document for Linux and its ownership, distribution, and copyright. Torvalds holds the rights to the Linux trademark, but thanks to a combination of his generosity, the Internet, thousands of programmers around the world, GNU software, and the GNU GPL, Linux will remain forever free and unencumbered by licensing or royalty issues. See the later section "Licensing" to learn more about the GNU GPL and other software licenses.

Linux, pronounced "lih-nucks," is free software. Combining the Linux kernel with GNU software tools drivers, utilities, user interfaces, and other software such as The X.Org Foundation's X Window System creates a Linux distribution. There are many different Linux distributions from different vendors, but many are derived from or closely mimic Red Hat's distribution of Linux Red Hat Linux.

NOTE

To see just how many distributions are based on Red Hat Linux, go to http://www.linux.org, click Distributions, and search for "Red Hat-based." At the time of writing, there were 35 distributions that owe their existence to Red Hat Linux.

What Is Fedora Core?

Fedora Core (or more simply, Fedora) is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, created, improved, and distributed by the Fedora Project at http://fedora.redhat.com. The Fedora Project, sponsored by Red Hat, is an open-source project supported by a worldwide community of software developers. Although Fedora is not supported by Red Hat, it incorporates improvements made to the Linux kernel and helps contribute to Red Hat's commercial Linux distributions and software. At the same time, Fedora also benefits from improvements made by Red Hat software engineers to Red Hat's products. Despite this symbiotic relationship, Fedora Core is a free operating system, built entirely from free software, and is guided by a process open to all free software developers.

Roots of Red Hat and Fedora

In 1994, Marc Ewing and Bob Young combined forces to create Red Hat (named after a Cornell University lacrosse team hat) to develop, release, and market an easily installed, easily managed, and easy-to-use Linux distribution. Five years later, Durham, North Carolina based Red Hat would have one of the most successful initial public offerings (IPOs) on the stock market. In 2001, Red Hat introduced a line of products aimed at the corporate and enterprise markets and created versions of its Red Hat Linux distributions and associated software in a product line known as Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Additional software, services, and distributions were added to the product over the next several years, such as the Advanced Server (with support for seven CPU architectures), ES (for small- to mid-range enterprise use), and WorkStation (WS) releases.

Following the release of Red Hat Linux 9 in mid-2003, Red Hat announced that it was discontinuing the sale of consumer-based Linux distributions. Previously, the distributions had been available in boxed sets with manuals on store shelves or in CD-ROM image format for free download over the Internet. Red Hat then created the Fedora Project and formally opened its new home on October 22, 2003.

Today, the company has grown from a handful of employees to more than 600 in 22 locations around the world.

Red Hat was one of the first companies to adopt, promote, and use open source as a business model for supporting development, technical service, support, and sales of free software to the computer industry. Its business practices have spawned a shift in paradigm of proprietary attitudes prevalent in the monopolistic software industry, and the company is a role model and business leader in the open source movement. You learn more about Red Hat and Fedora Core in Chapter 1, "Introducing Fedora."

CAUTION

The Fedora Core CD-ROMs and DVD distribution included with this book are not supported by Red Hat. If you want technical support when using a Red Hat release, purchase a copy of Red Hat Enterprise Linux from Red Hat at http://www.redhat.com.

You can also call to order. In the United States, call 1-866-273-3428, extension 4555.

Elsewhere in the world, check http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/wwoffices/ for a list of local offices.

Red Hat is a trademark of Red Hat. Linux is a trademark owned by Linus Torvalds.

Do NOT contact Red Hat for any type of support when using or attempting to install the software included with this book. Although every effort has been made to ensure that information in this book matches the included software, you should instead contact Sams Publishing for any problems related to the CD-ROMs contained in this book:

[e-mail]

Only users who purchase the "official" Red Hat Enterprise Linux products from Red Hat are entitled to support from Red Hat.

If you purchase an official Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution from Red Hat, you might find commercial software included on the distribution's CD-ROMs or DVD. These software packages are often included as an enticement to purchase more feature-laden or corporate versions, but you should carefully read any accompanying licensing agreements and be careful to not make unauthorized copies.

Licensing

Software licensing is an important issue for all computer users and can entail moral, legal, and financial considerations. Many consumers think that purchasing a copy of a commercial or proprietary operating system, productivity application, utility, or game conveys ownership, but this is not true. In the majority of cases, the End User License Agreement (EULA) included with a commercial software package states that you have only paid for the right to use the software according to specific terms. This generally means you may not examine, make copies, share, resell, or transfer ownership of the software package. More onerous software licenses enforce terms that preclude you from distributing or publishing comparative performance reviews of the software. Even more insidious licensing schemes (and supporting legislation, especially in the United States), contain provisions allowing onsite auditing of the software's use!

This is not the case with the software included with this book. Although you cannot resell copies of this book's CD-ROMs labeled as "Fedora Core Linux," you are entirely free to make copies, share them with friends, and install the software on as many computers as you want we encourage you to purchase additional copies of this book to give them as gifts, however. Be sure to read the README file on the first CD-ROM included with this book for important information regarding the included software and disk contents. Look under the /usr/share/apps/LICENSES directory after you install Fedora to find a copy of the GNU GPL (along with copies of other software licenses). You will see that the GPL provides unrestricted freedom to use, duplicate, share, study, modify, improve, and even sell the software.

You can put your copy of Fedora to work right away in your home or at your place of business without having to worry about software licensing, per-seat workstation or client licenses, software auditing, royalty payments, or any other types of payments to third parties. However, you should be aware that although much of the software included with Fedora is licensed under the GPL, some packages on this book's CD-ROMs are licensed under other terms. There is a variety of related software licenses, and many software packages fall under a broad definition known as open source. Some of these include the Artistic License, the BSD License, the Mozilla Public License, and the Q Public License.

For additional information about the various GNU software licenses, browse to http://www.gnu.org. For a definition of open-source and licensing guidelines, along with links to the terms of nearly three dozen open-source licenses, browse to http://www.opensource.org/.