42 UNIT 6 Operating Systems

SPECIALIST READING

Find the answers to these questions in

the followingtext.
1 What did Linus Torvalds use to write the
Linux kernel?
2 How was the Linux kernel first
made available to the general
public?
3 What is a programmer likely to do with
source code?
4 Why will most software companies not sell
you their source code? Linux has its roots in a student project. In 1992,
5 What type of utilities and applications an undergraduate called Linus Torvalds was
are provided in a Linux distribution? studying computer science in Helsinki, Finland.
6 What is X ? Like most computer science courses, a big
7 What graphical user interfaces are component of it was taught on (and about) Unix.
mentioned in the text? Unix was the wonder operating system of the
1970s and 1980s: both a textbook example of the
principles of operating system design, and
sufficiently robust to be the standard OS in
engineering and scientific computing. But Unix
was a commercial product (licensed by ATEtT to
a number of resellers), and cost more than a
student could pay.
Annoyed by the shortcomings of Minix (a compact
Unix clone written as a teaching aid by Professor
Andy Tannenbaum) Linus set out to write his
own 'kernel' — the core of an
operating system that handles memory
allocation, talks to hardware devices, and makes
sure everything keeps running. He used the GNU
programming tools developed by Richard
Stallman's Free Software Foundation, an
organisation of volunteers dedicated to fulfilling
Stallman's ideal of making good software that
anyone could use without paying. When he'd
written a basic kernel, he released the source code
to the Linux kernel on the Internet.
Source code is important. It's the original from
which compiled programs are generated. If you
don't have the source code to a program, you can't
modify it to fix bugs or add new features. Most
software companies won't sell you their source
code, or will only do so for an eye- watering price,
because they believe that if they
 UNIT 6 Operating Systems 43

make it available it will destroy their revenue

stream. Re-read the text to find the answers
What happened next was astounding, from the to these questions.
conventional, commercial software industry point 1 Match the terms in Table A
of view — and utterly predictable to anyone who with the statements in Table B.
knew about the Free Software Foundation.
Programmers (mostly academics and students) Table A
began using Linux. They found that it didn't do
a. Kernel
things they wanted it to do - so they fixed it. And
where they improved it, they sent the b. Free Software Foundation
improvements to Linus, who rolled them into the c. Source code
kernel. And Linux began to grow. d. Open Source
e.
There's a term for this model of software
development; it's called Open Source (see A distribution f
www. opensource. org/ for more information). X
Anyone can have the source code - it's free (in the Table B
sense of free speech, not free beer). Anyone can
contribute to it. If you use it heavily you
i A type of software development where
any programmer can develop or fix bugs
may want to extend or develop or fix bugs in it
in the software
— and it is so easy to give your fixes back to
the community that most people do so. i The original systems program from which
i compiled programs are generated
An operating system kernel on its own isn't a lot
ii A complete operating system kit with the
of use; but Linux was purposefully designed as a
i utilities and applications you need to
near-clone of Unix, and there is a lot of software make it do useful things
out there that is free and was designed to
iv. A standard distributed windowing system
compile on Linux. By about 1992, the first
on which people implement graphical
'distributions' appeared. interfaces
A distribution is the Linux-user term for a v. An organisation of volunteers dedicated
complete operating system kit, complete with to making good software that anyone
the utilities and applications you need to make it could use without paying
do useful things — command interpreters, vi. The core of an operating system that
programming tools, text editors, typesetting handles memory allocation, talks to
tools, and graphical user interfaces based on the hardware devices, and makes sure
X windowing system. X is a standard in everything keeps running
academic and scientific computing, but not
hitherto common on PCs; it's a complex
distributed windowing system on which people 2 Mark the following statements as True or
implement graphical interfaces like KDE and False:
Gnome. a. Linux was created in the 1980s.
b. Minix was created by a university student.
As more and more people got to know about c. Linux is based on Unix.
Linux, some of them began to port the Linux d. Minix is based on Unix.
kernel to run on non-standard computers. e. Linux runs on more types of computer than
Because it's free, Linux is now the most widely- any other operating system.
ported operating system there is.

[Adapted from 'Smooth Operator' by Charles

Stross, Computer Shopper magazine, November
1998]
 Answers
B1:
B1:
a-
a- vi
vi b- v
b-
c- ii
v d- i
c- e-ii iii d-
f- iv
i
  e- iii f- iv
 B2:
a- False ( in the 1990's → in 1992).
B2:
b- False ( by a university teacher).
c- True
a- False ( in the 1990's →
d- True
in
1992).
e- It depends. (It can be true or false).
b- False ( by a university
teacher).
c- True
d- True
e- It depends. (It can be true or
false).