GNU LINUX BASED OPERATING SYSTEM

WHAT IS AN OPERATING SYSTEM ?

An Operating System is a program, which acts as an interface between a user and the hardware (i.e., all computer resources).
An operating system is an important component of a computer system which controls all other components of a computer system. Major components of a computer system are :

• The Hardware
• The Software
• The Applocation program routines (compiler, linkers, database management systems, utility programms)
• The Humanware (users)

An operating system performs mainly following tasks :

• Provides user interface
• Controls hardware
• Assigns Memory
• Handles applications
• Handles/Manages devices.

FUNCTIONS OF OPERATING SYSTEM

The operating system provides certain services to program and to the users of the programs. Some common services provided by operating system can be listed as follows :

• Program Execution
• Handling Input/Output Operatons
• Manipulation of file system
• Error detection and handling
• Resources allocation
• Accounting
• information and Resources Protection

INTRODUCTION TO BOSS LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM (GNU LINUX Based)

We are going to learn and work upon BOSS (Bharat Operating Software Solutions) LINUX. It is the Indianized version of GNU LINUX operating system and is being promoted by Ministry of IT Govt. of India. The BOSS LINUX OS is an open source GNU/Linux based OS freely available and downloadable from URL bossLinux.in. The accompanying CDROM of this book contains BOSS Linux. Before you staert working on BOSS Linux, please refer to Appendix A that talks about how to boot your macjine with BOSS Linux.

A GNU LINUX operating system is free Unix-type operating system developed under the GNU General Public Licence¹. Other important characteristics of Linux operating system are :

• It is open source software.
• It is hugely popular.
• It supports most of the platforms available.

The BOSS Linux operating system uses both mouse and keyboard as input devices.

While working with mouse

• Click : Press and release the left mouse button once.
• Double-click : Quickly press and release the left mouse button twice.
• Right-click : Press and release the left mouse button once. A shortcut menu appears.

While working with the keyboard

• Activate the current menu box by tapping the key.
• Enter the underlined letter of the menu option in the active menu to choose that option.
• Arrow keys may be used to; highlight menu options.
• shortcut keys (a key or a key combination e.g., Alt + F4 for closing an application) can be used to issue commands within a particular application without activating a menu.

Linux Features

• The Desktop
• The Workspace
• The Window
  A window is a typical area pertaining to an Application or a Document or a Dialog.

Elements of Application Window

• Title Bar
• Menu Bar
• Workspace
• Scroll Bar
• Corners and Borders

The Icons

It is a graphic symbol representing a window Element.

Commnly used icons are :

• Application Icons
• Shortcut Icons
• Document Icons
• Disk-drive Icons

KNOW-ABOUTS OF GNU LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus hadan intrest in Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards. That is how he started work and the operating system so developed and released under the Linux Kernel i.e., the core of Linux OS is developed and released under the GNU - General Public License and its source code is freely available to everyone.

Features of Linux Operating System

• Free and Open Source
• Virus Free⁴
• Stable, Long trunning OS
• Multiple Workspace

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE OF LINUX OS⁵

• File : A file is a named collection of data stored on computer.
• Directories : Storage locations that store files or group of files under them are known as Directories.
• File system : It is a collection of files and certain of their attributes. It provides a mechanism to access these files stored on system.

Understanding Files and Directories

Let us now understand the concept of files and directories/folders. Consider the following diagrams for this purpose.

figure   (a)    (b)     (c)  

Concept of Path

Full name of a file consists of path/primaryname.extension.

Let us consider thefollowing directory structure :

Standard Directory Sturcutre Of Linux

Most Linux systems use a standard layout for files so that system resources and programs canbe easily located. This layout forms a directory tree, which starts at the "/" directory, also knoen as the "root directory" . Directly underneath/ are important subdirectories: /bin, /etc, /dec, and /usr, among others. These directoriesin turn contain other directories which contains system configuration files, programs, and so on. It is shown below in figure.

Home Directory

It is a unique directory under /home directoy assigned to each user where the user can store and manipulate his/her files created by him/her. Its pathname is /home/<username> e.g., /home/neha is the h ome directory of user 'neha'.

Wild Cards

Two special charcters, '?' (question mark) and '*' (asterisk) are called wildcards in BOSS Linux. They are useful in searching files because they give flexibility in specifying paths and files.

EXPLORE YOUR COMPUTER

Once your computer is booted up⁶, you are ready to explore your computer i.e.. you can now see what all things (files,application etc.) are there on your computer. Let us learn what all elements are thses on Boss Linux's default GNOME desktop.

Elements of GNOME Desktop

The GNOME desktop has three distinct areas. From top top bottom, they are :

• the top menu panel (the blue bar at the top).
• the desktop area (the picturesque area in the center that fills most of the screen).
• the window list panel (the blue-gray bar at the bottom).

The Top Menu panel

This panel stretches across the top of the screen. AS you can see it has some things on both its left as well as right sides.

• Left Side contains
  1. Application menu (on top top panel-left side)
  2. Places menu (on top panel-left side
  3. System menu (on top panel-left side)
• Right Side contains
  • The Notification area (on top panel-right side)
  • Windows Selection icon (on top panel-right side)
  • Volume control (on top panel-right side)
  • Clock and calendar (on top panel-right side)
  • The language keyboard switch area (on top panel-right side)

The Desktop Area

The default desktop area, or workspace, contains three icons

• The COmputer Icon
• The Home Icon
• The Trash Icon

The Window List Panel

This panel has three components

• The Show Desktop
• Open application in minimized form
• Workspace (w/s) switcher icons (switch w/s from here)

Viewing Contents of Your Computer

Computer icon is generally located at the upper left corners of your BOSS Linux screen, or desktop.

STARTING AND CLOSING PROGRAMS

Most of the programs installed on you computer are available from one convienent location - the Applications menu of the top panel.

To start a program (Say Calculator located on Accessories Group)

• Click the Applications menu option on top panel. The Application sub-menu appears.
• Point to the group (such as Accessories here) that contains the program you want to start and then click the program name i.e., on Calculator in our case.

To Quit an Open Program

• Just click the Close button in the upper- right corner of the program window
• Alternatively, you can also click upon Quit option available on the File menu of the application or you can also press the shortcut key Alt+F4.

Window Control Buttons

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