How to Visualize Data with R [Video]. MacFormat UK February Custom PC April In the early days of the computing industry, many advancements came from freely sharing ideas and programming code.
Manufacturer-sponsored user groups brought the best minds together to solve complicated problems. This ethic, Stallman felt, was lost when companies began to hoard software as their own intellectual property with the single purpose of profit. Writing computer programs in binary is an extremely arduous task. Most proprietary software comes only as a precompiled product; the software developer keeps the source code for those programs under lock and key.
After determining that his operating system would be built around the conceptual framework of UNIX, Stallman wanted the project name to distinguish his system from UNIX. Although this organization and its goal of creating a complete operating system was necessary and important, a much more important piece of the puzzle had to be put into place.
The new software needed a license to protect it from big-business pirates — a concern still all too relevant today as a former Linux company tries to hijack ownership of decades of volunteer work from thousands of people around the world.
The GNU General Public License GPL is a unique and creative software license that uses copyright law to protect the freedom of the software user, which is usually the opposite of how a copyright works. Generally, a copyright is an enforceable designation of ownership and restriction from duplication by anyone but the copyright holder. When software is licensed under the GPL, recipients are bound by copyright law to respect the freedom of anyone else to use the software in any way they choose.
Software licensed with the GPL is also known as copyleft software the reverse of right, get it? As an open-source project evolves, various people emerge as leaders. The benevolent dictator has probably spent more time than anyone else on a particular problem and often has some unique insight.
Normally, the words democratic and dictator are never paired in the same sentence, but the open-source model is a very democratic process that endorses the reign of a benevolent dictator. The community trusts his vision and discretion. In the event that he loses interest in the project, or the community decides that he has gone senile, a new leader will emerge from amongst the very competent people working with him.
In fact, any human-resources expert will tell you that people who choose to do a job of their own free will produce the highest-quality products. The volunteers who contribute to open-source projects are often leaders in their fields who depend on community collaboration to get useful work done. The open-source concept is no stranger to the scientific community. The impartial peer-review process that open-source projects foster is critical in validating some new feature or capability as being technically correct.
Those who paint the open-source community as copyright violators and thieves often misunderstand — or outright ignore — these vital issues. Open-source programmers are very proud of their work and are also very concerned about their own copyrights, not wanting their work to be stolen by others — hence licenses such as the GPL.
This concern creates an atmosphere with the greatest respect for copyright. As you might imagine, tracking down such copyright violations is much more difficult in a closed-source scheme. There are lots of different Linux distributions available to meet just about any computing requirement you could have.
Most distributions are customized for specific user groups — such as business users, multimedia enthusiasts, software developers, or normal home users. Each customized distribution includes the software packages required to support specialized functions, such as audio- and video-editing software for multimedia enthusiasts, or compilers and Integrated Development Environments IDEs for software developers.
A single Linux distribution often appears in several different versions to cover more ground. For example, Fedora releases both a full core distribution, as well as a LiveCD version that contains a subset of the full system. Many of the specialized Linux distributions such as Ubuntu are based on the Debian core Linux distribution. Ubuntu uses the same installation files as Debian, but packages only a small fraction of a full-blown Debian system. Core Linux distributions A core Linux distribution contains the Linux and GNU operating systems, one or more graphical desktop environments, and just about every Linux application that is available, ready to install and run.
The core Linux distribution provides one-stop shopping for a complete Linux installation, no matter what your requirements are. Table shows some of the more popular core Linux distributions out there.
Red Hat www. Fedora www. Gentoo www. Mandriva www. Debian www. We use the Fedora Linux distribution in this book to illustrate how to work with a core Linux distribution. In the early days of Linux, a distribution was released as a set of floppy disks. You had to download groups of files and then manually copy them onto disks. It would usually take 20 or more disks to make an entire distribution! Needless to say, this was a painful experience.
This makes installing Linux much easier. The Linux LiveCD While having lots of options available in a distribution is great for Linux geeks, it can become a nightmare for beginning Linux users.
Most distributions ask a series of questions during the installation process to determine which applications to load by default, what hardware is connected to the computer, and how to configure the hardware.
Beginners can often find these questions confusing. Most modern computers can start up by reading the operating system from the CD instead of the hard drive. This arrangement lets you see what a Linux system is like without actually installing it. To take advantage of this feature, some Linux distributions create a bootable CD that contains a sample Linux system. The result is pretty cool: You can boot your computer from the CD and run a Linux distribution without having to install anything on your hard drive!
This is an excellent way to test various Linux distributions without having to mess with your PC. Just pop in a CD and boot! All the Linux software will run directly off the CD. Table shows some popular Linux LiveCDs that are available. PCLinuxOS www. Ubuntu www.
Slax www. Puppy Linux www. This enables you to boot with the CD, test drive the Linux distribution, and then if you like it, install it onto your hard drive. This feature is extremely handy and user friendly. As with all good things, Linux LiveCDs have a few drawbacks. Not only does this make your applications run much faster because applications run faster in computer memory , it frees up your CD tray so you can use it for ripping audio CDs or playing video DVDs from the software included.
Specialized Linux distributions Over the past few years, a new subgroup of Linux distributions has started to appear. These are typically based on one of the core distributions, but contain only a subset of applications that would make sense for a specific area of use. Besides providing specialized software for example, bundles of office products for business users , customized Linux distributions also attempt to help beginning Linux users by auto-detecting and auto-configuring common hardware devices.
This makes installing Linux a much more enjoyable process. Xandros www. There are hundreds of specialized Linux distributions, with more popping up all the time on the Internet.
We use the gOS distribution in this book to see how some of the features in a specialized Linux distribution work. You can install Linux in many different ways; which one you pick depends entirely on your situation.
If the thought of changing anything on your computer gives you hives, use a LiveCD distribution see Chapter 1 to boot your computer into Linux without installing anything. Running Linux from a CD drive is slower perhaps even painfully slow on an older computer , but nonetheless it works, and it gives you an idea of just what Linux is all about.
Replacing an existing operating system with Linux is the easiest way to install Linux on a computer. Most Linux installations even include an automatic process that guides you through converting a computer entirely to Linux.
If you want to keep any files, you have to back them up to media that you can read from Linux. For really large amounts of data, look into getting an external USB hard drive.
Using a second hard drive or partitioning a hard drive Installing Linux on a second hard drive — or, for that matter, partitioning your existing hard drive to run Linux — requires a dual-boot scenario: Both Linux and Microsoft Windows reside on hard drives or partitions in the same computer. When you boot the computer, a menu appears, asking you which operating system you want to use.
You get to keep your original Windows applications and files, and use Linux — all on the same computer! Chapter 2: Prepping Your Computer for Linux The scenario that many people prefer is to add a second, fresh hard drive on which to install Linux.
This is by far the easiest solution for a dual-boot system, and one we recommend you use if at all possible. Partitioning means having two or more logically separate areas on the same physical hard drive. The computer sees each partition as a separate disk. We tackle this process a little later in this chapter.
Just make a note of which drive is which as far as the computer sees them: You want to make sure that you leave your Microsoft Windows installation untouched. All you need to know is which drive Windows or Linux is first and which is second as far as the computer is concerned. Accidents can and often do happen! You need to work through this entire chapter. You keep your Windows disk as-is without any modifications.
If you take this approach, back up your original Windows files before installing Linux, and then restore them in the new Windows virtual machine. Yet another option is a new feature included in the Ubuntu LiveCD. The Windows Ubuntu Installer Wubi is an application you can use to create the Ubuntu Linux partition as a normal file inside an existing Windows partition, after which it installs Linux as a Windows application.
Because we hate to hear screams of anguish from new Linux users, take a moment to assess what you have and what you need. The following sections walk through the processes required to get your computer ready for a dual-boot environment. Otherwise, during installation, Windows overwrites the part of your hard drive that Linux uses to store its boot menu. This factor can create a mess later when you want to boot back into Linux! Then after you have Windows installed, return here.
Installing a second hard drive Next to replacing the existing operating system, the second easiest way to get Linux onto a computer is to install a second hard drive. Many computers support multiple hard drives, whether chained together on the same disk cable or connected via multiple cables. Usually you can determine how your disk controller is configured by looking at the BIOS setup screen for your computer.
The BIOS setup screen controls the basic hardware configuration on the computer. Figure shows an example of the disk-controller area on a BIOS screen. How you get to the BIOS screen depends on your computer.
All it takes is pressing a secret key usually F12 or ESC when your computer first starts. Sometimes the computer tells you on-screen what key to press to enter the BIOS. The standard disk-controller cards in most computers allow up to two devices per controller; often computers have more than one controller installed on the motherboard.
If you see only one cable with an empty connector on it, you should be okay also. The example in Figure shows two hard drive controllers, called a primary and a secondary. Each hard drive controller can support two devices called a master and a slave. This setup allows you to connect a total of four separate devices to the computer. Be careful to take these drives into account when you evaluate your disk-controller situation.
When you have your partitions ready, you have a place to put Linux. Three types of partitions are available: primary, extended, and logical. A hard drive can have three primary partitions and one extended partition. Inside the extended partition, you can have up to 12 logical partitions — think of an extended partition as just a cardboard box that contains the logical partitions.
Logical partitions hold data; extended partitions hold logical partitions. Make a note of the partition you dedicate to Windows and the one you dedicate to Linux. Jot down which hard drive each partition is on the first, second, third, and so on and the number of each partition on the disk first, second, and so on. You are not limited to a dual boot. You can have three or more operating systems on the computer if you have room.
Before you change anything, be sure you collect some important information about your current setup — in particular, these two major things: a whether you have any unpartitioned space left on your hard drive s and b if you do, how much. Practically speaking, 20GB might be a better amount to shoot for — at minimum. Peeking at your partitions in Windows Vista The Windows Vista operating system is more security minded than previous versions of Windows.
No surprise that you have to use an account with administrative privileges to follow the steps. The Vista Control Panel opens.
Select Classic View if necessary. Double-click Administrative Tools. The window displays the various administrative tools available in Vista.
Double-click Computer Management. The window displays the various tools available in Vista to manage your computer. You may have to click Continue to get to this dialog box. In the left pane, select Disk Management. The Disk Management tool opens see Figure You may also see some boxes that say Unallocated. If you find an unallocated partition of 10GB or larger, make a note of which disk this partition is on and the numbered partition it occupies on that disk.
You need that information to install Linux in Chapter 3. Do not try to resize Windows Vista partitions unless a tool specifically states that it can safely do so. After you log on, follow these steps: 1. Open the Administrative Tools folder and double-click the Computer Management icon. In the left pane of the Computer Management application, click the Disk Management folder icon. The important thing to look for here is the word Unallocated in the Disk listing.
Unallocated partitions are not assigned to any operating system and are available for use in your Linux installation. Make a note of which disk this partition is on and what its partition number is on that disk. You use that information when you install your Linux distribution in Chapter 3. You can wipe out your data if you make any changes with it.
If you see the large disk prompt, choose Y at this prompt and then press Enter. Display the current drive-partition information. If you have more than one hard drive in your computer, FDISK displays a fifth menu choice so you can change between disks. Type 5 and press Enter. Type the number of the disk you want and then press Enter. To display partition information for the disk number displayed, type 4 and press Enter. Figure indicates that no free, unallocated disk space is available on the drive.
In all these situations, you need to move data around to make room — not only to install Linux but also to store any files you want to keep in your Linux filesystem. The key is to determine if you have extra space available on your existing C: drive that you can convert into a separate partition. All the Windows operating systems allow you to easily see how much space is available on the C: drive.
Double-click My Computer to open the Computer Management tool. Highlight your first drive. You see something like what is shown in Figure If you find that your Windows drives are all too full and you have no room to spare or you download and save too many audio, video, or graphics files , it may be time to save some of your files to CDs or DVDs so you can delete them from your hard drive.
Chapter 2: Prepping Your Computer for Linux Defragmenting files During the normal course of using your workstation, the Windows system writes pieces of files at random places on the hard drive. This can spread data out over the entire disk. This is commonly done using a defragmenting tool.
Defragmenting is a common process in the Windows world. As Windows creates and removes files, file data gets split into various blocks scattered around the hard drive.
Defragmenting reassembles the blocks so they form contiguous files, and puts those files in an equally contiguous area near the beginning of the hard drive area.
All versions of Windows include a utility for defragmenting the hard drive. You can get to the defragmentation utility from the Computer Management window. Just select the Disk Defragmenter option. Windows XP provides a handy defragmenter window that shows progress as files are moved about, as shown in Figure Often it takes more than one pass to get all the files into a common area.
Figure The Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter utility. Parts of this section can help you out; they address fixing general hardware problems.
Other chapters address more specific hardware issues such as sound cards Chapter 13 , wireless cards Chapter 9 , and so on. The biggest problem areas are wireless cards and the very latest whiz-bang multimedia hardware — such as fancy new versions of video cards, sound cards, and image scanners.
Supported and Compatible are fine most of the time for a home user. Ultimately, the best way to tell whether a piece of hardware is supported is to do a Web search. Go to www. No endorsement of any hardware mentioned as examples is implied here, of course. Such a search is likely to show you what problems and successes people have run into with that particular piece of hardware. A great place to start is www. The point is to look and see whether they exist.
The driver the software that tells the operating system how to use the hardware for download might actually be included in your Linux installation. Only download the driver from the vendor if this is the only way you can get it.
If worst comes to worst, you might not find any information on the hardware in question involving Linux. Try it anyway if you already have the item.
You may find that it works fine. Or you might not be able to use the very latest features, whereas the rest works just fine for example, with a latest-generation video card, the newest fancy features might not work, but you can still use it as a generic SVGA at the very least. See www. However, laptops often contain WinModems. This is a standard for laptops, and provides a way to plug in additional feature cards. If your computer is already running Windows, you can collect a lot of information from the Windows environment.
Then choose the Device Manager menu to access the list of hardware installed on your machine as shown in Figure You can double-click each item within the Device Manager to display the corresponding details. A warning dialog box will appear; when it does, click Continue.
Hardware, from the Internet. The Dr. This tool is shareware, and the usage and fee information is available from the Gebhard Software Web site at www. On some systems, the video information is displayed from the BIOS as the computer boots. You may have to reboot several times to read the information if it goes by too fast.
Also, some systems display the PCI components and their settings as the system is starting up. You may have to reboot several times to gather all the information.
You can then unfreeze it by pressing any key when you have finished reading. Stored in a small area of memory and retained by a battery, this is sometimes referred to as CMOS Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor , which indicates the type of computer chip that can store and retain information.
The amount of information stored in the BIOS can range from very little to quite a lot. If you choose to access the BIOS, make sure you do so before any operating systems load.
Most manufacturers indicate the keyboard key or key sequence that gets you into the BIOS or Setup on-screen when the system is starting up — for example, Press Del to enter Setup. Some BIOS environments also use the function keys; look for a list of function-key options at the top or bottom of the screen. Be especially leery of labels on hardware boxes and Web sites that include the term Win as in Windows. These components, such as WinModems, rely on Microsoft Windows to be able to function — even worse, the packaging may show nothing that suggests this limitation.
Only a very slight chance exists that you can find a Linux driver for Win hardware. If you do find one, copy it to a storage device such as a CD or flash drive before you install Linux. For more information about WinModems in particular, see Chapter 8. You need to copy these disc images to your hard drive before you burn them onto separate bootable CD or DVDs. Wikis are becoming popular for generating community-based support sites because anyone with the desire to contribute can pitch in with a minimum of hassle.
This chapter provides the details. The installer is actually pretty smart. The installer is just adjusting what it offers based on the hardware in your system and what you choose to install. In this chapter, we show you how to install a Linux desktop on your personal computer. If you want to install a Linux server on your network, plenty of other books focus on servers. It is just not possible to cover both desktop and server functions to a satisfying depth in a book of this size.
Many systems today are configured to do this already, so you may not need to make any changes. For some systems, you need to press a key during the boot process to bring up a menu, which allows you to select which device to boot from. Once you get the hang of installing Linux using these methods, you can tackle just about any Linux installation out there.
For example, one distribution may present account creation before disk partitions; another may reverse the order of those two topics. Most distributions go through the same basic choices, so reading this chapter could still be helpful for something other than Ubuntu or Fedora. On the other hand, if you burned your own CDs or DVD, you may be experiencing one of two different problems. First, the burn may have become corrupted; to solve this problem, try burning the disc again at a slower speed.
If the newly burned disc also fails the media check, the file s may have become corrupted during download. To solve this problem, download the disc image again. Ubuntu guides you through all the steps required to set up the system, and then installs the entire Ubuntu system without prompting you for too much information. This is a common format used for distributing Linux distributions.
Just follow these steps: 1. When you start the Ubuntu installation, the first window you get is the Language window. Select the language to use for the installation, then click Forward. This selects the language Ubuntu uses to display text messages used during the installation process, plus sets the default language used when the operating system runs.
Each individual application may or may not detect the default language configured in Ubuntu. The second window in the installation process allows you to select the time zone for your area.
Select a time zone and then click Forward. This window allows you to select your location via either the map or the drop-down menu. Although selecting the time zone from the graphical map sounds like a good idea, it can often be a challenge, depending on how many cities Ubuntu recognizes around your particular city. While this may sound like a simple option, it can get complicated if you have a keyboard that includes special keys.
Ubuntu recognizes hundreds of different keyboard types, and it lists them all in the keyboard selection window. Select a keyboard, then click Forward. The Keyboard configuration window lists the different types of keyboards commonly used based on your country.
Ubuntu provides a suggested option for you based on what it detects as your keyboard. This may or may not be right. If you want to fine-tune things, the lower portion of the window allows you to experiment. However, if you find it otherwise, please let me know so that I can take appropriate action.
So perhaps you have just heard of Linux from your friends or from a discussion online. You are intrigued about the hype around Linux and you are overwhelmed by the vast information available on the internet but just cannot figure out exactly where to look for to know more about Linux.
If you have no idea about what is Linux and you want to get started with it, I suggest you to go ahead with the free video course provided by the Linux Foundation on edX. And yes, it is endorsed by Linus Torvalds , the father of Linux himself. Not official and perhaps not very popular. But this little website is the perfect place for a no non-sense Linux learning for beginners.
The website is designed beautifully and is well organized based on the topics. It also has interactive quizzes that you can take after reading a section or chapter. My advice, bookmark this website:. Written for absolute beginners in mind, this free Linux eBook gives you a quick overview of Linux, common Linux commands and other things that you need to learn to get started with Linux. This is a free to download eBook for Linux beginners. The eBook starts with explaining what is Linux and then go on to provide more practical usage of Linux as a desktop.
What I mean is that these are like academic textbooks that focus on each and every aspects of Linux, well most of it. You can read those as an absolute beginner or you can read those for deeper understanding as an intermediate Linux user.
You can also use them for reference even if you are at expert level. Introduction to Linux is a free eBook from The Linux Documentation Project and it is one of the most popular free Linux books out there. Though I think some parts of this book needs to be updated, it is still a very good book to teach you about Linux, its file system, command line, networking and other related stuff.
This free eBook by Paul Cobbaut teaches you about Linux history, installation and focuses on the basic Linux commands you should know. As the name suggests, this is for advanced users who are or want to develop software for Linux. It deals with sophisticated features such as multiprocessing, multi-threading, interprocess communication, and interaction with hardware devices.
If you think you know enough about Linux and you are a pro, then why not create your own Linux distribution? Linux From Scratch LFS is a project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code. There are various sub-parts of this project, you can check it out on its website and download the books from there.
The real power of Linux lies in the command line and if you want to conquer Linux, you must learn Linux command line and Shell scripting. It covers things from beginners to advanced level. Download it and keep it with you always. This eBook from The Linux Documentation Project is a good place to begin with Linux command line and get acquainted with Shell scripting. Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
This is a very old article and many of the books listed here are outdated now. Like what you read? Please share it with others. Which book is good learning for linux ubuntu.
Hi Abhishek i want to learn ubuntu linux could u suggest me any freebook online. Policies Affiliate Policy Privacy Policy. Close dialog. Session expired Please log in again. Copy link.
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