Linux is the free Unix written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers from across the Internet. Linux aims towards POSIX compliance, and has all of the features you would expect of a modern, fully-fledged Unix: true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared, copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and TCP/IP networking.
Linux runs mainly on 386/486/586-based PCs, using the hardware facilities of the 386 processor family (TSS segments, et al.) to implement these features. Ports to other architectures are underway. (See `` What ports to other processors are there?'')
See the Linux INFO-SHEET for more details. (See ``
Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation?'')
The Linux kernel is distributed under the GNU General Public License. (See, `` Is Linux public domain? Copyrighted?'')
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Linux has GCC, Emacs, X-Windows, all the standard Unix utilities, TCP/IP (including SLIP and PPP) and all the hundreds of programs that people have compiled or ported for it.
There is a DOS emulator (available at
tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/dosemu) which can run DOS
itself and some (but not all) DOS applications. Be sure to look at
the README file to determine which version of dosemu you
should get. Also, see the DOSEMU-HOWTO (slightly dated at
this point -- it doesn't cover the most recent version of the
program), which is located at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
Work has been progressing on an emulator for Microsoft Windows binaries. (See `` Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under Linux?'')
iBCS2 (Intel Binary Compatibility Standard) emulator code for SVR4 ELF and SVR3.2 COFF binaries can be included in the kernel as a compile-time option. See the file tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/BETA/ibcs2/README.
For more information see the INFO-SHEET, which is one of the
the HOWTOs (See ``
Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation?'' See also ``
How do I port XXX to Linux?.''
Some companies have commercial software available, including Motif. They announce their availability in comp.os.linux.announce -- try searching the archives. (See `` Are the newsgroups archived anywhere?'')
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You need a 386, 486 or 586, with at least 2Mb of RAM and a single floppy, to try Linux. To do anything useful, more RAM (4Mb to install most distributions, and 8Mb is highly recommended for running X) and