Linux Pre Installation
Pre Installation Considerations
Linux Installation
Installing Linux for some has been a pain in the butt and for some its like a simple walk through. Linux installation gets tricky only when you are trying to make your computer dual boot in to multiple OS.
I have had a lot of bad and good experience on my system which at the moment is running three OS out of which 2 are Linux viz. Fedora Core 1 and RHEL WS 4.0 and the third one is our very own Win XP Sp2.
Well before installing Linux there are certain questions you have to answer and if they are answered correctly you cam easily conclude to what and how you are going to install….
1) What is the purpose of this installation?
a) Personnel Workstation
Are you going to install this hardware with Linux to work as a workstation just to do day to day work and access internet, emails and chats you need to select distributions that are best in GUI.
b) Server
If you want to install this hardware as a server what kind of services will you enable on this server like will this be a mail server, DNS server, a firewall, a file server, a NIS server, a DHCP server. Yes you can do all these and many more with a single Linux installation and these servers are really damn stable they will run and run and will handle thousands of requests at a time (provided you have the appropriate hardware for that)
c) May be anything else say a old hardware to work as a router
Yes people have made there Linux to work just as a router on say a Pentium 1 or even lower. These special purpose installations are installed with minimal requirements and can work as good and even better than many middle level routers.
2) Linux Vs other OS options?
a) Linux Vs Microsoft
To me Microsoft has no comparison with Linux its like comparing vegetables with fruits.
Now there will be some trouble installing Linux at places where there is all Microsoft OS and you are running a Linux OS. The problem comes when say some one sends you an excel sheet to view and you don’t have the appropriate software on your Linux to view the same. However there have been lots of development now days where such compatibilities are there but still there are some functions that you will not be able to perform when using such compatible software’s (Openoffice is an example of such a software that is compatible with Microsoft excel)
b) Linux Vs Unix
Linux is more compared to UNIX like operating system like Solaris. The advantage Linux has as compared to UNIX versions is that it’s totally free. However there is also a version of UNIX that is Free its called the FreeBSD.
Now depending on your requirements you can start the installation but when it comes to installing a particular distribution there are lot of options to choose from. So let me explain some of the most widely used distributions available.
Most widely used distributions: -
Redhat This is the most popular version of Linux and I have also done most of my work on this OS. Being the most popular this OS is good to get support from Redhat and also from the internet as lot of people are using this distribution. This also has more GUI options available for you
Debian Most stable version of Linux. This is also a non profit organization distributing Linux.
Suse This is the most popular in in Europe. Comes with tons of Software also comes with DVD options.
Slackware Oldest of any Linux distribution. No GUI option. Also the most pure version of Linux.
You can get all the above distribution from the links I have for you below either by downloading or via online shopping: -
As we are talking about pre installation steps let me discuss a very important point of these software: -
Software Licenses
- Open source software
GPL General Public License, LGPL Library General Public License.
These software’s have there source code is open for the community to use and if you use these software’s and make some changes to the code you have to send this back to the community. Rules of these software are availability of the source code Free redistribution Modification can be released under other licenses
· Commercial Software
These software have there source code closed
Redistribution of these type of software is limited
Most important you have to pay for these software.
Rather nowadays it is hard to classify software’s under one of the above classification for example Staroffice if free to use but they don’t show you the source code.
Linux Software
Check this link for getting a whole list of available linux software.
You will find more scientific software for Linux as compared to Microsoft.
Supported Hardware
Linux community is developing at a random pace and the compatibility of various hardware is not a big issue with most of the famous Linux distribution. However I would always recommend you to check and get the compatible hardware so that you don’t have to go through all the trouble trying installing it manually.
Please check the following link to get information on the hardware compatible with Linux.
http://www.linux.org/vendor/hardware/index.html
http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl
I hope the above information will be helpful for all in taking care of most of the pre installation considerations.