LINUX INFORMATION SHEET 


1. WHAT IS LINUX 0.11 
     LINUX 0.11 is a freely distributable UNIX clone. It is almost 
fully System V compatible. LINUX has been written from scratch, and 
therefore does not contain any AT&T or MINIX code--not in the kernel, 
the compiler, the utilities, or the libraries. For this reason it can 
be made available with the complete source code via anonymous FTP. 
Sorrily, it runs only on 386/486 AT-bus-machines. EISA will probably do 
too, but you need an AT-Bus controller for your harddisk. 


     Version 0.11 is still a beta release, but it provides almost full 
functionality. Various users have been able to compile bigger projects 
like bison/flex by only changing the makefile to their needs, and these 
tools are fully functional. 


2. LINUX features 
  - System call compatible with V7 of the UNIX operating system 
  - Full multiprogramming (multiple programs can run at once) 
  - Memory paging with copy-on-write 
  - Demand loading of executables 
  - Page sharing of executables 
  - ANSI compliant C compiler (gcc) 
  - A complete set of compiler writing tools 
    (bison as yacc-replacement, flex as lex replacement) 
  - The gnu-born again shell (bash) 
  - Micro emacs 
  - most utilities you need for development 
    (cat, cp, kermit, ls, make, etc.) 
  - Over 200 library procedures (atoi, fork, malloc, read, stdio, etc.) 
  - Currently 3 national keyboards: finnish/us/german 
  - Full source code (in C) for the OS is freely distributable 
  - Full source code of the tools can be gotten from many anonymous ftp sites 
    (It's almost completel the GNU project) 
  - Runs in protected mode on 386 and above 
  - Support for extended memory up to 16M on 386 and above 
  - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc. 
  - Supports the real time clock 



3. HARDWARE REQUIRED 
   - A 386 or 486 machine that is an AT-bus-machine. EISA will probably do 
     too. 
   - An IDE hard disk is required to use this system. 
   - Both 5.25" and 3.5" diskettes are supported 
   - At least 2 megabytes of RAM is required for LINUX to be operational, 
     but gcc will only work from 4 MB on. 
   - Any video card will do 
   - Up to two serial lines are supported 
   - The real time clock is supported 


4. PARTIAL LIST OF UTILITIES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE FOR LINUX 0.10 
   - The MTOOLS package (reading/writing to DOS) 
   - The complete GNU filetools (ls,cat,cp,mv,...) 
   - The GNU C compiler with GNU assembler,linker,ar,... 
   - bison 
   - flex 
   - rcs 
   - pmake (BSD 4.2 make) 
   - kermit 
   - Micro emacs 
   - less 
   - mkfs 
   - fsck 
   - mount/umount 



5. LINUX BINARIES 
    The LINUX binaries (including all the tools) are available at three 
    anonymous FTP sites. These are: 
    nic.funet.fi:/pub/OS/Linux 
    tsx-11.mit.edu 
    tupac-amaru.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/msdos/replace 



6. LEGAL STATUS OF LINUX 
     Although LINUX is supplied with the complete source code, it is 
copyrighted software. But it is, opposite to MINIX available for free, 
provided you obey to the rules specified in the LINUX copyright. 



7. NEWS ABOUT LINUX 
     Since LINUX's introduction to the public there has been a rapidly 
growing mailing list, "linux-activists@joker.cs.hut.fi". To subscribe 
to this list, mail to "linux-activists-requests@joker.cs.hut.fi". If 
the traffic in this lists increases further, there are plans to swap 
(at least partially) over to comp.os.misc, so watch out for any LINUX 
articles in this group. If you simply want to know whats the current 
state of the art, do a "finger torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi", and you'll 
get some information. 



8. FUTURE PLANS 
     The major current project is bringing LINUX to a version number 
greater than 1.0. It has also to undergo some (minor) revisions to be 
compatible to the IEEE POSIX P1003.1 and P1003.2 standards. Various 
people are currently working on 
     - math support/fp emulation in the kernel 
     - Page swapping (since paging is alreay implemented) 
     - A virtual filesystem layer 
     - STREAMS 
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