My LINUX Journey

My LINUX Journey

About Operating Systems

Since 1969, the computing world is being revolutionised by the advent of various operating systems. UNIX (Uniplexed Information and Computing System) was found by AT&T Employees at Bell lab and kick-started the OS revolution.

Then Xerox invented a PC and an ideal Desktop OS but was shy to market it. On a friendly visit to Xerox, Mr. Jobs of Apple saw the project and wondered as to the GUI. He set the Mac Project on. It was a big hit in 1985 and revolutionized the Computer world.

Since Mac is a closed project in the sense is not available for all hardware, IBM tried to find an OS-2 to compete with OS-X of Mac and failed miserably in 1987.

Hence MS was called to develop a OS for all systems having OS-X features to the extent possible by all Computer Manufacturers. The reason is two :

a) MS have been working with Apple for 10 years at that time and

b) Excel & DOS designed by MS was incredible.

Thus windows was born and it was a Very Big Hit and Windows 1987 to 1995 became the standard for all OS Development.

People wanted to give OS Free, this is an idea borrowed from Hackers and Wazinok of Apple. Therefore two separate Open Source Project was born from Unix – BSD and Linux.

As I referred in my earlier email, BSD stands for “Berkeley Software Distribution”. It is the name of distributions of source code from the University of California, Berkeley, which were originally extensions to AT&T's Research UNIX operating system. The BSD is being academic focused and is always used by closed group of persons, it is not known and I too despite a fact used it for a month, find it difficult to trace it back and use it.

Linus Torwalds of Finland invented the Linux Kernel and the platform on which all Linux Distros works. The word Linux stands for Linu's Unix. However again the Bell Lab guys put a case and the Linux no more represents Unix.

Then in 1991-4 Red Hat made a Binary Based Linux called Red-hat Enterprise Linux. They used Restricted Binary Package Manager – the concept found by themselves and as every one used the same concept and is made available free, they changed it to Red-Hat Package Management Concept to make it a proprietary one.

The Red-hat was forced to give some thing free to public as they are using GNU & Linux which are essentially open source. Hence they created two Projects – CENT-OS and Mandrakes Red-hat.Later on Mandrakes was spun off and it went to join a debian based linux company called Connectivia. The space was given to Fedora.

Debian came for academic purpose and then went on for Home and Office use.

From Red-hat and BSD some engineers moved and started a Gentoo Linux which have no per-compilers. Finally recently Arch Linux and few arch-based distributions have also come.

Debian Distribution

My sister gave me Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in April 2010. I was fascinated by the Live Boot, Gnome Tool Bar, Colour and Pink Splash Screen. I used it and customised it to the core that I was able to run my Company's ERP on it. The ERP is just windows based and would not support.

I found that it had the below problems:

a) The File Manager did not handled more than 4.5 GB.

b) If customise Grub, the OS becomes un-stable

c) Printing was not effective

d) I do not feel, I am more secured than Windows

e) I have to spend at least 4 hours to customise it my requirements

I tried then Ubuntu 10.10, 11.04, 11.10 & 12.04 LTS all had the same issues, however 12.04 LTS is better secured and stable than older versions.

Therefore I wanted to try some thing different.

M. Harish introduced me the below linux distributions:

a) Mandriva 2010

b) Puppy Linux 5.2.28

c) Linux Mint 11

d) PC-Linux 12

I tried all of them and my feed-back is the same for all.

Mandriva is worse than Ubuntu in stability. I tried 2011 edition also and found the same

Puppy Linux is a RAM based one, it was fascinating to use, however not fit to be a Desktop Distribution.

Linux Mint 11 was not stable, I tried 12, it was better and the Version 13 is more stable than 11 & 12. However, I still feel we need some thing more on default.

PC Linux is like Mandriva.

I also surfed internet and found the following Linux based on Debian

a) MEPIS

b) YLMF

c) G-OS

d) BOSS

e) eduBOSS

f) PIN-GUY-OS

g) Bodhi Linux

h) Dragora Linux

i) Dream Linux

Except the last 3 I tried all and found MEPIS, BOSS & eduBOSS are like Mandriva, YLMF is like Windows XP but not very effective. G-OS is bad and unsupported. Pin-Guy-OS was more promising but slower than Mint.

My Conclusion on Debian Distribution is that they are imitating windows and then trying to out-smart it. Similar to Japense Car Makers.

Therefore they are for those who wants a free window replacement and not for those who wants a perfect OS.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Linux Mint 13 and Pin-Guy-OS 12.04 LTS are better for newbies and can replace windows.

RPM Based Linux Distributions:

I tested Fedora 15 based on my friend's suggestion. He is a Red-Hat Guy and hence I felt he is boasting Fedora more than required. I was shocked that Fedora 15 Live Boot did not had office or media applications like Ubuntu. Hence, I dropped it at first sight.

I went for CENT-OS another RHD, it was very stable but very difficult to use and I did not liked the Open-Office.

Then the only left out company is by Novel – I tried Open-Suse 11.4. I was thrilled by the GUI, Networking Ability and User Friendly Behaviour. I installed and was cheated altogether. The live boot performance was totally missing.

Then I went back and tried Fedora. Wow! Yum commands like groupinstall, groupremove, grouperase were doing wonders and I was able to build Fedora in 3 Hours. I was able to move 320 GB data in 3 Hours. Zero Crash in File Management. The hardware worked extremely well and it was much stable and secure and it is clearly visible from a normal system usage. I became a fan of Fedora. However two things irritated me:

a) No good default application list

b) No direct media support – we have to go around and out of box for it.

Hence I ventured for Fedora Remixes with the help of M. Harish. He introduced me two remixes – Fuduntu and Kororaa. I on my own found Fusion Linux.

Fuduntu is like g-OS and not fit to be a proper Desktop OS in my opinion. Fusion tried to mimic Linux Mint but failed miserably in terms of speed and stability. Kororaa was a hit.

The only problem with Kororaa is support. The guy who made Kororaa is not as stable as Kororaa is. He was first with Gentoo Linux Platform. Then disappeared altogether for some years. Finally in 2009-10 reappeared with Fedora. Hence, I am afraid of continuity and support. I wanted to test Gentoo Linux.

Gentoo Linux Distributions:

I found that among many distributions two which I can test – Google Chromium – OS and Sabayon 6.

Though I am a fan of Google, I did not like their Chromium OS and Androix X86 Laptop OS. They were a crap. I surrendered the free license and went for Sabayon in a week's time.

Sabayon 6 – it is amazing. It had all default applications and played media seamlessly. It was so secured and stable, that I felt none could come near it. It was slower to Fedora, yet for me manageable. Suddenly an issue cropped, I wanted to install some new applications and alas!the package manager was the worst in the world. I could not update, configure further applications or edit it. I was cheated once again. I tried version 7, the same problem existed, however it was better than V.6 – if I have updated through terminal and left the computer in night to download and install patches, it worked well in the morning. It is for me not an effective idea and hence, I felt the only left over is to try Arch-based Distributions.

Arch-based Distributions:

M Harish introduced me Kahel OS and I found Chakra-OS.

Kahel OS was like Mint and Chakra resembled Mandriva.

Both suffered from the same problem of Sabayon and hence I moved out of them in 2 days.

Over-all Conclusion

I felt Fedora is the best. Hence I wanted to Go for Fedora. But for a better version. Hence I went for the DVD Image. It was better for me as the installation time is 45 Minutes and Customisation time is 35 Minutes. Thus in less than 2 hours I have a perfect desktop.

The issues this time I faced are two:

a) Shorter Shell life – in 1 year it is replaced. Ubuntu, Mint, etc., have LTS but Fedora is not having such one. Even CENT-OS has 7 years support, which is also by RH Guys. This part is irritating me a lot

b) Too many kernel upgrades spoiling applications like Virtual Box, virt-manager, revisor and certain post-sql based applications.

Currently I am using Fedora 17. I have customised it for all the needs of my home and office. I can e-file, digitally sign and do all that I can do with a window PC but with more efficiency, effectiveness and power.

I realised, let us re-engineer ourselves based on Functional Requirements than Graphical Requirements. This made me to have the best Desktop Experience.

Now, I feel I can't find a Fedora Replacement in the open-source world. Hence, I need to make a Re-Mix out of it which would be for me & my friends and should be devoid of Fedora's core problems. But I can't do it alone. Need some friends support. Hope you all can help.

Yours

V. Narayanan