| From: | Don Cox |
| Date: | 4 Aug 2000 at 09:37:24 |
| Subject: | Re: Linux? Tell me more. |
On 03-Aug-00, John Marchant wrote:
> Well....I know it's an operating system, and it's been through
> various versions and can be run on an Amiga, and I gather it's
> important in some way to future Amiga-type development. But how do
> I find out - without initially installing it - what it looks like,
> what it can do on an Amiga, etc etc. Has there been a magazine
> article in the past 2 or 3 years with this kind of information in it?
>
> I have lots more questions but I want to keep your attention, so
> here are just 3. Can it multi-task? Does it use windows? Does
> using Linux mean bye-bye to existing software on my Amiga?
Linux is a low cost version of the Unix operating system. Unix has been
around for decades and is widely used for high power servers, graphics
workstations, etc.
Linux is multi-tasking and multi-user, which means you have to log on
with a password as in other Unix OSes.
The core software (kernel etc) is very stable and crash-proof, but the
various GUIs available for it are rather flaky compared to the Amiga's
GUI. Task switching for multitasking is slow, and Linux is not well
suited to multimedia.
There are few packaged programs but lots of system and network
utilities, language compilers, etc. The sort of things University
research people find useful - these are the folk who write Linux,
mainly. It is mostly Open Source.
If you want to run it, it would be best to get hold of a cheap PC.
Regards
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