Chapter1.Installing SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server

Chapter 1. Installing SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server

In the beginning, the Linux operating system was mostly used as a teaching tool at colleges and universities and by home hobbyists. Over the years, however, Linux has evolved from a "Unix kernel clone/hobby project" into a robust, full-featured commercial product that is sold to millions of users around the world every year. Yet, to this day Linux remains an open system: Its source code is freely available, and Linux development is open to anyone who has the expertise and the energy to become involved.

Starting around 2002, Linux began receiving a great deal of attention as an alternative to the security-plagued Microsoft Windows operating system, both at the desktop and at the server level. Although Linux is solely an operating system, it is typically bundled with various applications and utilities. These bundles are commonly known as Linux distributions. These distributions vary quite a bit in the way they are packaged, the way the installation programs work, the third-party software they include, their documentation, the hardware they support, and the technical support offered by the vendor.

SUSE LINUX was created in 1992 by SUSE GmbH, of Nuremberg, Germany. SUSE is an acronym for "Software-und System Entwicklung," which is German for "Software and System Development." "SUSE" is officially pronounced as "Soo-Sah"although many people also pronounce it "Soozie." The SUSE distribution is the oldest of all Linux distributions in the world and is noted for its reliability, ease of installation, and useability. Novell acquired SUSE in January 2004, so in addition to the NetWare server operating system, Novell now also has as part of its server operating system family the Novell SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server (SLES) product.

Like NetWare, SLES offers a wide range of network services, ranging from web server (Apache) to file and print (via Samba, for instance) to directory services (such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol [LDAP] or Network Information Services [NIS]). SLES allows you to leverage Linux and open source products by delivering a scalable, high-performance foundation for secure computing, no matter the size of your network. SLES 9 was released in August 2004 (and Service Pack 1 was released in January 2005) and is the shipping version at the time of this writing.

There is nothing better than hands-on learning. The same is true when it comes to software, including operating systems. Therefore, rather than taking up precious page space with marketing and product feature information, we guide you right to installing SLES so you have a working system to experiment with as you follow the topics in the rest of this book. You can find the most up-to-date product data sheet and related information about SLES on Novell's website at www.novell.com/products/linuxenterpriseserver/.