DOS and Windows users guide to Linux (ALPHA VERSION)

 

This guide will help you to use Linux along with your DOS/Windows operating system or to move to the Linux platform.

 

///// Development Version

 

                   This document is in the development stage and is not meant for public distribution. If you notice any discrepancies in the technical information that needs to be brought into my attention, kindly e-mail me to <rahulsundaram@yahoo.co.in>

 

////////

 

 

Table of contents

 

·         1. Introduction

 

1.1.           Purpose of this guide

1.2.           New versions of  the guide

      1.3. Feedback and corrections

 

·         2. Comparison between DOS, Windows and Linux

·          

·         FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

·         Acknowledgements

·          

 

1.Introduction

 

1.1 Purpose of this guide

 

                   This guide has been written with the goal of making Linux comfortable to users who are already accustomed to the DOS or Windows operating system. I have tried to explain the Linux system relative to what you know in DOS and Windows so that you may learn a few things faster, however as you may be aware there are certain things that don't necessarily have a Windows equivalent. If Linux was the same as any other operating system then, there wouldn't be any point in using it. Don't you think so?  J

 

1.2 New versions of this guide

 

                   Newer versions of this guide if any would be available from the Linux Document Project's (LDP) Website <www.tldp.org>. Please check the website and make sure that you are using the latest version of this guide.

 

1.3 Feedback and corrections

                   This is the first version of this document and I have may have made some mistakes or left some thing. I have intentions of updating this document periodically based on user feedback and suggestions. If you have any ideas that you feel would improve this document in any way then please mail me to Rahul <rahulsundaram@yahoo.co.in>

 

1.4 What is Linux?

 

                   Linux is an operating system which is basically a variant of the UNIX operating system and it has probably all that UNIX offers and more. An informal definition of Linux can be that it is a multi-user, multitasking, network operating system which has also many user friendly GUI s(Graphical User Interfaces).For those who have not used it, Linux may be similar to windows in many features but it has many unique aspects too, which I will cover shortly.

 

     Related Documents

 

                   Linux FAQ<link>

,

Provides answers to some frequently asked questions. I have also provided a complimentary FAQ along with this guide

 

                   Unix and Internet fundamentals<link>

The Unix system provides some basic concepts that are applicable to Linux too. It wouldn't hurt to learn some Internet side by side.

 

 

 

1.5 How is Linux developed?

                   Unlike many proprietary operating systems like Windows, which are developed by a single company, Linux is developed by programmers all over the world through the internet. Technically Linux means the core of the operating system that is called as the kernel. This is available for free along with the source code written in C under the GPL (General Public License).

                   Imagine the kernel to be similar to the engine of your car. The kernel provides the raw power necessary to manage your computer. The kernel is capable of managing all the internal tasks of an operating system like allocating memory and taking care of devices attached to your computer. You wouldn't just connect the engine to a set of wheels and call that your car, similarly you would some tools to use the kernel effectively in a user friendly way. It would not be possible to use the kernel independently without the co-ordination of various other tools like the shell, which provide the interface and other utilities that you may use frequently. These software tools are also usually provided for free like the kernel.

 

 

1.6 Why would you want to use Linux?

 

                   Well, I never said that, did I?  It depends on who you are and what u would like to do. I have to admit that Linux is not an all-purpose operating system and it would probably be more suited for some people and not so pleasing for others. If you are a person using his/her computer for some entertainment at home and are satisfied with your Windows system there are no compelling reasons for switching over to Linux but you do have a choice with Linux now. There are several reasons to consider Linux. If you are student like me then you can use Linux at home and even in college to understand the commands and even the internal working of the UNIX system. It has several things bundled as part of the distribution. In case you want to see how Linux matches with your present DOS/Windows system I have provided a comparison below.

 

 

2. Comparison between DOS, Windows and Linux

 

2.1 Linux Vs MS-DOS

                   I was introduced to the DOS along with computers. I remember a test by my tutor in which one has to create a hierarchical set of directories. This would probably sound trivial to anyone familiar with graphical user interfaces, but then the scenario was very different. It even looks ancient by today's standards. Windows 95 hadn't been released yet at that time and Linux was unheard of in India. I liked DOS much better than Windows 3.1, which looked quite flimsy and unstable not to mention that it was a big memory hog. DOS is quite different from Linux in many ways.

 

                   DOS does not provide any graphical user interface and you have to learn at least a dozen commands with its numerous options to do some basic tasks like copying a file or moving back and forth between the directories. Even a minor spelling mistake can result in a "bad command of file name" error.

 

                   DOS does not support the concept of multi-users and each and every user has to customise the system according to his need every time he wants to work on it. It was not a multitasking system. This meant that you could not check out the value of a calculation when typing a letter without closing the word processor first.

                   DOS does not also have any inbuilt security features. This was acceptable as long as you did not want a networking system. There were other variants of MS-DOS like PC-DOS from IBM and some others, which tried to add one thing or the other. Some of the deficiencies can been resolved using third party utilities but basic limitations like the arcane 640kb-memory limit and single tasking was not acceptable to many.

 

                   In case you are wondering why anyone would care to use DOS, I would list out some advantages. Basically it's had very different goals from that of Linux. It was a very cheap (as far as cost is concerned) and it was quite usable with its minimalist set of features. It was a simple system to work with. There weren't too many complications to think about as long as you didn't want to develop anything on it. It was arguably the world's most popular operating system and it had a comfortable number of applications for all the common tasks. It has now completely been replaced by Windows.

 

2.1.1 Files and directories

                   The files in Linux can be very long up-to 255 characters like Windows and they do not usually have extensions. The executable files are identified through an attribute rather than the extension. Extensions are less important to Linux than it is for DOS and windows.

                   Directories are similar to that of DOS and they follow a hierarchical structure. The path names are separated by front slashes (/) in Linux whereas DOS uses back slashes (\).

 

Example:

                   Cd /mnt/cdrom

                   /  denotes the  root and .. stands for  the parent directory similar to DOS. In bash shells the ~ symbol maybe used to jump to the user's home directory

 

Example

                   Cd ~

 

 

2.1.2 The shell

 

                   Several of the dos commands have Linux equivalents. The Linux shell is similar to the dos command line but it is far more powerful and I found that it was also more workable with features like colour highlighting and friendlier navigation capabilities that depends on the particular shell you are using.

                   Linux distributions usually come with the bash (Bourne again shell) as the default shell. There are several others like the Korn shell and the C shell. They are usually similar. Learn to work with one shell completely before trying out the others. Things usually get complicated if you want to run shell scripts, which are similar to batch files(they have the .bat extension) under DOS.

 

2.1.3 DOS under Linux

                   There is a program called dosemu <link> for Linux which is capable of running DOS programs under the Linux operating system. It is software which is still under major development. You may wish to try it out though. It is known to be fairly workable for some programs.

 

 

2.2 Linux Vs Windows

                   As I have said before Windows is more or less similar to Linux. When people are introduced to Linux they are at first intimidated by the system. It has a different kind of graphical interface and things don't always work the way they expect to. When they look at me in a puzzled manner I demonstrate in some easy ways how common tasks like changing the desktop wallpaper or playing a song is very similar to Windows. The irony with this kind of teaching is that they complain very soon that Linux doesn't offer them much more than Windows does.

 

                   I agree with them to a certain extend on this. There are some limitations to what you can expect from an operating system. You just can't expect Linux to work like a 3D-shooter game or something. Of course, there are many differences in the shell, the choice of user interfaces and the philosophy and goals of the operating system. Linux is developed as an open development system in which the source code of the core Linux system (kernel) is available for anyone for free but how this could affect the end user is difficult to explain initially. Let's take a look at the Linux features one by one later so that you wouldn't be left bewildered.   

 

2.2.1 The Windows family of operating systems

 

                   Since you may already have been using the Windows operating system already, it's better to understand what Windows is in a detailed manner before plunging into the Linux system. Windows has two major series of operating systems, a desktop oriented series (windows 9x) and a network oriented series (Windows NT). There is also a variant called Windows CE for palmtop computers.

 

Windows 9x series

 

                   Before Windows 95 was released all versions of Windows till 3.1 was a graphical platform on top of DOS. This offered limited capability for multitasking and the program manager interface was cluttered with no distinct hierarchy. Windows 95 was a 32-bit operating system and a major improvement in user interface with its "Desktop concept" adapted from the Macintosh user interface. It also offered limited compatibility with previous versions of Windows and DOS. Stability was also improved with the next versiona called Windows 98 and its successor, Windows ME offered some more features though nothing major was added. The more recent version called Windows XP is comparatively friendlier and easier due to some cosmetic changes. It has also successfully integrated some features of the Windows NT series

 

Windows NT series

 

                   Windows NT is considerably stable but demands more resources. It does not support many older applications and DOS in a major way. It supported the alpha processors in addition to the Intel architecture but that has been dropped now. It did manage to replace UNIX in some small-scale networks due to the similarity with the popular Windows 95 interface. The latest incarnation called Windows 2000 provides a few more administrative utilities and services.

 

 

2.2.2 User Interface

 

                   The user interface would probably be the first thing you notice when u begin to use the Linux system. Windows offers a single monolithic user interface, which is more or less the same across all the versions. In contrast Linux has two major desktop environments called KDE<www.kde.org > and GNOME<www.gnome.org>. KDE has an inbuilt window manager while GNOME is supported by many like sawfish<link> and Enlightenment<link>.

 

                   The decision of choosing one among the desktop environments and windows managers is left to you. Some of them can run efficiently in a system with low amount of memory and some of them are designed to look like a game console. KDE would be more similar to Windows and GNOME with the Enlightenment window manager was fancy enough for me. Try out some of the popular ones before deciding.

 

 

2.2.3 Distributions

                   . When we usually name Linux we are referring to a particular distribution of Linux. There are several software's provided for Linux over the internet but selecting and downloading them is a complicated task not manageable for new users who want to try out

Linux. This is exactly where a distribution kicks in.

                             A distribution is a set of software packages that are tested and provided by a company for a small fee usually in a CD just like Windows. The advantage of using distributions is that Linux can be specialised for use in a particular area. Those things that are anyone feels are unnecessary are left out. For example if you would like using Linux for embedded systems a distribution may offer just the right amount of required software's leaving out optional things like the graphical user interface.

So again we are left with a huge choice of distributions (there were some 150 distributions when I checked the last time) but many of them are for specialised purposes. The mainstream distributions, which seem to be popular, are RedHat, SuSE, Caldera and Debian. This may be dependent on your locality. Check out your favourite computer stores nearby for more information.

                   Among these RedHat seems to be most widespread commercial distribution. Caldera is probably more suited for those who are already using Windows. SuSE is a German based distribution known for its large number of bundled packages and support. Debian is unique because its not owned by any company and it's a non-profit distribution developed solely by volunteers.

There are many others like the Mandrake distribution that thrives to provide more user friendliness. It was originally based on RedHat. Mklinux provides a very small distribution, which can be used to try out Linux initially.

 

 

Related Document

                   CD Distributions-EN-How-to <link>

This document details several distributions including old and outdated ones. Go through it if you want more explanations. There are also several websites like <www.linuxlinks.com>, which provide more current information.

 

2.2.4 Linux licensing

                   Linux is licensed under the GPL (General Public license) from GNU  <www.gnu.org > under which the kernel is provided with the source code and is available for free. This is called as open source software. As a result of this Linux is usually more secure and stable than closed source or proprietary systems like Windows

 

Common Windows applications and Linux alternatives

 

* Internet Applications

 

 

Browser - Internet Explorer (IE)

 

In Windows,Internet Explorer is usually an integrated thing. In Linux, you have many choices. You can use Konqueror, Mozilla, Netscape or Opera. I use Konqueror, since it is nicely integrated with KDE (which of course is my favourite GUI).

        I recommend: Konqueror for KDE, Netscape for GNOME; Opera works well under both.

 

 

E-Mail Client - Outlook Express

 

                   For those familiar with Outlook Express, a email client which has a very similar interface and a good set of features called Evolution<developer.eazel.com(Nautilius)> is available

http://www.ximian.com/products/ximian_evolution/

                   Linux supports many traditional unix email clients like pine,mult and elm.In addition it has a number of email clients designed for the graphical environments(KDE and GNOME).KDE has an integrated email client called Kmail.GNOME users can be comfortable with Balsa.

 

 

Instant Messengers-AOL,Yahoo! and MSN

 

                   Yahoo! and America online(AOL)  have their own linux versions.An instant messenger called Gaim is available  for AOL users but MSN as well as Yahoo!  support can be added as a module. I have been using the Yahoo messenger in college for about an year and i found the chat feature and some other gimmicks to be missing but overall it seems to be good enough.

 

 

Newsgroup Reader

 

                   Not many people use these under Windows.Linux development and usage is very much dependant on the coordination of users over the Internet.Newsgroups form the basis for some of the important tasks.There are many such newsgroup readers for Linux. Pan is a classic one,very popular amoung Unix and Linux users.check it out.

 

IRC Client

 

                   Internet Relay Chat is supported both from the command-line and through graphical front-ends. I don't have any interest in chat, so I haven't used them. You are free to try any of them and have fun.

Command-line: irc

 

 

FTP Client

                   Linux supports FTP (as well as Telnet) from the command-line, just with the commands ftp (and telnet). If you want a point-and-click interface, though, you won't be disappointed. I have used gftp and liked it, but I still do all my work with ftp at the command-line.

 

 

Download Manager

                   The reget command automatically resumes broken downloads from where they were stopped. Caitoo is a download manager similar to GetRight and Gozilla.

 

Dial-up Manager - Inbulit Application

                   Both GNOME and KDE have their own integrated dial-up managers. They offer all the functionality of their Windows equivalents. There are usually several other powerful options.

 

Firewall

 

                   Linux comes with an inbuilt packet-filtering firewall such as iptables and ipchains. The RedHat 7.1 distrubition has options for configuring the firewall even during the setup. If you need more softwares for this you can freely download them from the Internet.

 

Antivirus - Norton and Mcafee

                   Viruses are are much lesser threat to Linux. They are very few in number and they cannot affect the system files unless in a well configured system where you are not the root user. Linux is not immune to viruses but you shouldnt be worried about them unless you are dealing with some system of exceptional importance.

 

* Multimedia

 

 

Music Player - Winamp

                   XMMS is a Winamp clone for Linux and not many users are able to find any differences. The look and feel are just the same. Both KDE and GNOME has a lot of other players available but i have being only using XMMS. There are no shortage of command line players either.

Movie Player - Windows Media Player

                   GNOME has a inbuilt player called gtv and several others are available depending on the particular format of the movie that you want to play.

 

 

CD Ripper and CD Burner - Nero

                   cdparanoia is a good CD ripper for Linux. It seems to be in the development stage yet though many people using it production systems. It is known be to stable and robust. cdrecord is a command line CD burning software for Linux. Problems with CD burning such as buffer underruns have been dealt with and its now a fast and effective task.

 

 

Image Browser

gqview is an excellent image browser for Linux, built for the GNOME desktop, but nevertheless usable under KDE. There are other image viewers also, namely KView, Electric Eyes, etc.

        I recommend gqview, both for GNOME and KDE.

 

 

Image Editor

gimp is the standard. gimp is an extremely powerful image-editing software, which comes for free, along with the source. You can do everything you have done with Paint Shop Pro, for instance. I love gimp.

 

 

Games

Games comprise one area where Linux really lags behind Windows. The scenario is changing gradually, and now there are quite a few 3D action games for Linux. Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament are the most popular. Of course, many other small games exist for the casual user, such as chess, solitaire, etc.

 

 

Office Suites

StarOffice 5.2 is currently the best office suite available for Linux. It integrates a word-processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, browser, as well as an e-mail client into a single application. Though a bit slow to load, it is a very productive tool thereafter. StarOffice 6.0 is now under Beta, and will be released in 2003. StarOffice has been developed by Sun Microsystems, and is free. There are other shareware alternatives, most notably ApplixWare.

        I recommend StarOffice 5.2.

 

 

File Browser

Just like Windows Explorer is another face of Internet Explorer, Konqueror acts both as a Web browser and as a file browser. But it is better than Windows Explorer: most files don't need external applications to open. For example, text files, HTML files, and images open with Konqueror. A double-click launches the associated application.

        I saw Nautilus  in Mandrake Linux 8.1, and used it for some time. It is very slow at loading, but does have a lot of features to make browsing a joyful experience.

        There is also a command-line file browser/shell: mc

 

 

 

Control Panel

Windows comes with a Control Panel from which you can 'control' everything your computer can do under Windows. Linux too has a similar application, in the form of linuxconf. There is a front-end to linuxconf for GNOME, useful for people accustomed to graphical interfaces. linuxconf  is very versatile and takes the headache out of system-administration for non-professional users.

 

 

Appearance

Linux beats Windows as far as graphical interfaces and their customisability is concerned. You have many GUIs from which to choose, and each of them can be customized to satisfy your likes (and dislikes). Whereas in Windows you have only one desktop, in Linux you can have multiple desktops to switch over, if you think you have opened too many windows in one.

KDE 2.x has been rated as the most user-friendly desktop, beating even Windows XP and MacOS X. There are themes, colour-settings, font-settings, and even window-settings. Take a look at the "Settings > Look and Feel" sub-menu in the KDE Start menu.

I recommend: KDE.

 

 

Utilities

Now let us take a look at miscellaneous utilities you might need under Linux.

Calculator: KCalc comes with KDE. There is also bc for the console.

Compression Software: Archiver (comes with KDE) is a compression-decompression software, similar to WinZip, but much more powerful.

Editor: KEdit and KWrite form feature-packed text editors under KDE. GNOME similarly has GEdit. KWrite even has syntax-highlighting option for different file formats (C, HTML etc.) UNIX users will be happy to note that they have all the UNIX command-line editors in Linux too: vi, joe, and sed among others. emacs is a powerful editor built by the GNU Foundation.

Personal Organizer: Both KDE and GNOME have personal organizers, which you can use to organize your life better.

 

 

Developer

Software developers will like Linux better than Windows, because UNIX and all its clones have been built for programmers, by programmers. There is no match to the number of command-line utilities UNIX offers to programmers.

        Linux too comes with compilers for C, C++, Java, Objective C, FORTRAN, Ada, and whatnot. KDE has an IDE called KDevelop, which offers an alternative to Windows IDEs. Similarly, Glade is a development environment for GNOME applications, which use the GTK toolkit. gdb is a command-line debugger. kdbg and ddd give a graphical front-end to gdb, simplifying debugging by a great extent. Web-developers can use Quanta+, which is as feature-packed as any shareware HTML editor for Windows. Java SDK is available for Linux platform too. Oracle has also released a Linux version of its popular RDBMS software.

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

                             I dedicate this guide to my late parents Mr.V.Sundaram and Mrs.Soundara Sundaram for their support and guidance. I thank the people at LDP for their patient and immediate responses to all my silly questions and their help. I would like to thank all my friends and foes for whatever that they did to me. Thanks guys.

 

 Disclaimer

 

I do not in anyway guarantee anything regarding this guide. Whatever you do as a result of reading this guide is at your own risk and most of the opinions that have creeped in are my own and may not meet your requirements. You are free to choose whatever you like. I do not want to endorse any particular software over another.

 

 

Copyright

 

  Copyright (c) by Rahul <rahulsundaram@yahoo.co.in

>. This document may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the LDP License at <http://www.tldp.org/copyright.html>.  Please email me before you start distributing this guide or if you want to translate it. If you have questions regarding the license please refer to the Linux Documentation Project home page, <http://www.tldp.org> or if you have any doubts specifically pertaining to this guide you may contact me, Rahul <rahulsundaram@yahoo.co.in>.