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Joe St Sauver, Ph.D.
Director, User Services and Network Applications
joe@uoregon.edu
It would be a mistake, however, to assume that RedHat and Fedora Core are the only Linux-related software products worth watching. In this article, we'll highlight a few additional Linux-related distributions or software products that you may also want to keep your eye on.
As described at http://www.knoppix.org/ , Knoppix is "a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices, and other peripherals. [...] It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk."
Among other things, this means that Knoppix is an excellent way for you to try Linux on a PC that normally runs Windows. Instead of booting normally into Windows, you simply boot a Knoppix CD instead. When you're done with Knoppix, remove the CD--and voilà! you're back to Windows.
Knoppix is also a popular security tool for use with Windows.
You'll find a variety of other live/bootable CD-based and DVD-based Linux distributions at http://distrowatch.com/
If you like Debian Linux, you may want to check out Ubuntu Linux, a new (October 2004) Debian-derived distribution that quickly garnered an Ars Technica "Distribution of the Year"award for "stability, openness, security and user friendliness."
Ubuntu also won the Ars Technica "Best community award"and the "Best newcomer to the community"award. In addition, it is currently the number-one most popular Linux distribution as tracked by Distrowatch.
If you'd like to learn more about Ubuntu, see http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
Although the vast majority of users will be well served by choosing one of the standard Linux distributions, some who are inclined to tinker (or who have a need to create a particularly compact or carefully tailored distribution) may be interested in Linux From Scratch (LFS): http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/The Oregon State Open Source Lab provides a mirror for the LFS project.
When Linux is running enterprise applications (such as email, browsing and serving web pages, document and spreadsheet applications, and databases), there's substantial flexibility in how tasks are scheduled and executed. When Linux is used in embedded systems (for example, to control a metal-cutting machine tool or as part of a consumer electronic device), timing requirements can be much tighter, with hard real time requirements that are measured in microseconds. At those speeds, process scheduling and pre-emption become key. Just as in everything related to Linux, multiple real time Linux implementations are available, but one interesting implementation is RTLinux Free (http://www.rtlinuxfree.com/).
Since the UO doesn't offer electrical engineering or similar programs, we likely have fewer users with a potential need for a real-time Linux product than some other schools, but it is worth mentioning that Linux can be, and is, used in a variety of non-enterprise applications. Those systems are yet another example of how a distribution other than RedHat will often be used.
Rocks, a Linux-based cluster management product for high performance computing clusters, received the award for "most innovative and most important software"from HPCWire, as announced last November at Supercomputing04 in Pittsburgh. A new beta version of Rocks, Rocks 4.0, was announced March 31, 2005, and is available from http://www.rocksclusters.org/Rocks/
For a nice introduction to Rocks, see "SysAdmin to SysAdmin: Rocks tames Beowulf clusters," at http://servers.linux.com/servers/04/08/27/1943227.shtml?tid=29&tid=94