Re: installation, Linux source code
jack kinnon wrote:
hi folks,
Thanks for the info on installation. Am considering using the
'minimal CD' option. It still requires 100+ MB of download. Seems
rather big. What's in there?
From
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/doc/INSTALLATION-HOWTO
I get the idea that this CD has the "base" install, which I guess is
everything in the "Base Utilities" as per
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/
You can get a smaller installer (like the Business Card CD, about 30MB I
believe), but that just means you'll have to install more from the net
during installation.
I haven't had a chance to download a Linux source. I know Linux is
basically UNIX. C would be the source programming language. Does it's
OOP derivative, C++, figure in Linux source code at all?
If by "Linux" you mean the kernel (which is proper), I'm not sure, but
I'm sure the information is "out there". If by "Linux" you mean a
GNU/Linux distribution, such as Debian, I found this blurb at
http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Linux:
One study of the Red Hat Linux 7.1 distribution found that this
particular distribution contained 30 million physical source lines of
code (SLOC). Using the COCOMO cost model, it could be estimated that
this distribution required about 8,000 person-years of development
time. Had it been developed by conventional proprietary means, it
would have cost over $1.08 billion (1,000 million) to develop in the
U.S. (in year 2000 dollars). The majority of its code (71%) was in C,
but many other languages were used including C++, shell, Lisp,
assembly, Perl, Fortran, and Python. Slightly over half of all its
code (counting by line) was licensed under the GPL. The Linux kernel
contained 2.4 million lines of code, or 8% of the total, showing that
the vast majority of a Linux operating system is /not/ contained in
the Linux kernel.
What's the latest on the SCO claim? Will Linux continue to be free and
open? What's chances of that?
You haven't been paying attention, have you? :-)
The general consensus is that SCO has no claim, is just muddying up the
waters, appears to be financed in its attacks against Linux by
Microsoft, and is basically heading for implosion.
Don't you read Slashdot?
Linux will always be free and open. Even if by the wildest imagination
SCO's claims were to be upheld, the worst that would happen is that some
parts of Linux would have to be re-written. If SCO would ever let the
world know what code in Linux supposedly belong to them (SCO keeps
claiming copyright infringement, but keeps failing to explain what
particular code is infringing, even under court order, and the few hints
it has given have been demonstrated conclusively to NOT be infringing
SCO's copyright), those parts would be clean-room rewritten in a matter
of hours by the open source community.
So even if SCO's claims were upheld in court (which would require a
really dense court, or a bought-and-paid-for court, in my opinion), it
would just be a minor blip for the Linux platform. The next day,
everyone would download new non-infringing packages, and life would go
on. SCO would be left holding a court victory (again, I can't see how
it'd happen), but it would be meaningless.
--
Kent
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