What's a Linux Release?

A Linux release is a set of files for a complete Linux system. Various changes made by the Linux community are incorporated into each release.

Linux releases are identified by numbers. These numbers are of the form X.YY.ZZ, where X is between 0 and 9, and YY and ZZ are numbers between 0 and 99. Generally, the higher the number, the newer the release. Some release numbers also include pNN, where NN is a number between 1 and 20. These refer to patches to a specific Linux version (a patch is a fix or an update to the software). For example, 0.99p15 would mean the fifteenth patch to the Linux release 0.99.

A release consists of several components called series of disks, or a collection of disks. For example, the X series of disks comes on 10 disks. Each series is referred to by its name. A

name generally tells you who put the software together and what its date is.

Some of the releases of Linux are as follows:

* The Red Hat Software Inc. Release This is a release of Linux from Red Hat Software Inc. The latest version is 3.0.3, which is included on the CD-ROM at the back of this book.

The highlight of the installation package is the Red Hat Packet Manager (RPM). Using the RPM enables you to safely install and uninstall packages. By far, the uninstall capability of the package is the best feature because most upgrades to critical packages require a complete Linux installation. Red Hat Linux is also notable for the ability to install from an X session, assuming the video card and monitor are supported by Linux.

* Slackware

This is a popular release of Linux included with this book's sister books: Linux Unleashed Second Edition and Linux System Administrator's Survival Guide. You can get versions

of this release on CD-ROM from various vendors for about $25. The primary distributor for this release is PatrickVolkerding, who can be reached at volkerdi@mhdl.moorhead.msus.edu.

* The Softlanding Linux System Release (SLS) This release consists of about 23 disks for Linux and 10 for X11. The first disk (a1) must be "rawritten" (using rawrite.exe in Chapter 3, "Installing and Updating Linux") on floppies, and the rest of the images must be put onto

DOS-formatted floppies using the DOS copy command. This release contains all the software package(s) you need to get started with Linux, and for newcomers it is easy to install.

The SLS release can also be found at tsx-11.mit.edu in the directory/pub/linux/packages/SLS and on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory /pub/Linux/SLS. By snail mail, SLS is available from Softlanding Software 910 Lodge Ave. Victoria, B.C. Canada V8X-3A8 (604) 360-0188

* The TAMU (Texas A&M University) Linux Release This release is supposedly like the SLS release, but it has some different software packages and a different installation procedure than SLS. The installation procedure is the main difference from SLS. A single boot diskette,

which boots directly into an automated installation program, is used. This installation program asks a few questions about the desired configuration and sets up everything, including your file systems, booting from the hard drive with LILO (see Chapter 5, "Odds and Ends") and a simplified X configuration. This release is a full-featured package, including X Window, emacs, networking tools, boot utilities, and a list of sources for all installation programs without any use restrictions. TAMU is available from sc.tamu.edu in

pub/free_unix4.

* H.J. Lu's bootable rootdisk This is a release of the Linux kernel and basic binaries on

a single floppy. It, along with Lu's gccdisk, libdisk, and so on, is good for upgrading or installing a basic Linux system by hand. It's not recommended for newcomers, because there's no real install script; it's mostly meant as an upgrade of the basic system software.

H.J. Lu's bootable rootdisk release is found at tsx-11.mit.edu: inthedirectory/pub/linux/packages/GCC.

* The Manchester Computing Centre Interim Release This is the fabled MCC-Interim Linux release, which was originally the de facto standard Linux distribution. This release has almost all of the important Linux software, such as Slackware, but does not contain emacs or X Window.MCC-Interim can be found on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory /pub/Linux/distributions/MCC and also at ftp.mcc.ac.uk in the directory /pub/linux/mcc-interim.