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Section 0: Introduction 0.1: Is Linux Right for You? There is no such thing as "the best computer" or "the best operating system": it all depends on what you have to do. For instance, I don't like the Mac (sacrilege! ;-): it's surely easy to use, but to do some things I prefer the PC by far. (Try the equivalent of dir/s/w >lst on a Mac!) Yet, to many folks the Mac is simply "the best" computer. Likewise, I don't believe that Linux is "the best" os: it is undoubtedly superior to, say, Win 95, but many might prefer the latter. Un*x is aimed at programmers/scientists, while Mac & Win are aimed at nontechnical users. Therefore, you are going to benefit immensely from Linux if what you need are compilers, network, and scientific sw in general, and if you don't mind fiddling around and fixing things yourself: in a word, if you like hacking. You'll hate Linux if you want everything to work out of the box, if you need mostly commercial sw, and if you feel lost typing in commands. It's up to you. Remember that Linux and DOS/Windows can coexist on the same machine, anyway. 0.2: It is. Tell Me More You installed Linux on the PC. You gave yourself an account following the installation instructions (if this is not the case, see Section 6.1) and Linux is running. Somebody told you that all the programs you needed were there, and all you have to do is login and go. You've just entered your name and password, and now you are looking at the screen thinking: "Well, now what?" Now, don't despair. You're almost ready to do the same things you used to do with DOS, and many more. If you were running DOS instead of Linux, you would be doing some of the following tasks: 1. executing programs and creating, copying, viewing, deleting, renaming files; 2. CD'ing, MD'ing, RD'ing, and DIR'ring your directories; 3. formatting floppies and copying files from/to them; 4. mending your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS; 5. writing your own .BAT files and/or QBASIC programs; 6. the remaining 1%. You'll be glad to know that these tasks can be accomplished under Linux in a fashion similar to DOS. Under DOS, the average user uses very few of the 100+ commands available: the same, up to a point, can be said for Linux. Incidentally, if you don't know the DOS commands for the tasks in the list, drop out now: I won't be explaining what such things as a directory or the PATH variable are. A few things to point out before going on: 1) unlike DOS, Linux has built-in security mechanisms. When you turn the PC on and fire up Linux, you have to "log in", that is make yourself known to the system; this is because Un*x is a multi-user os. Besides, the normal user doesn't really own the system; at login time, only the user whose login name is "root" has the power. (This guy's the system administrator. If you work on your own PC, you'll be root.) Files and directories have permissions associated to them, and therefore some cannot be accessed by the normal user. DOS, on the other hand, will let you wipe out the entire contents of your hard disk; 2) once you have finished working, you *must not* switch off your PC! Instead, you must follow the correct shutdown procedure (press CTRL-ALT- DEL, wait for the system to fix its innards and tell you everything is OK, then switch off the PC). Anyway, Linux is such a reliable os that it is *extremely* unlikely that an ill-behaved application will ever hang your machine - you'll never need to reset. 3) you are strongly encouraged to experiment, play, try by yourself: it surely won't hurt. You can get some help typing at the prompt ($ is the standard prompt, # is the prompt for root): $ help (pretty logical), or get info about a command typing $ man <command> which, if you have installed the man pages, will invoke the manual ("man") page associated to <command>. You may also try $ apropos <command> or $ whatis <command> 4) conventions: a) <...> means something that must be specified, while [...] something optional. Example: $ tar -tf <file.tar> [> redir_file] file.tar must be indicated, but redirection to redir_file is optional. b) from now on "RMP" means "read the man pages for further information". You are now ready to refer to the following sections. Section 1: Working with Files 1.1. Files: Preliminary Notions Linux has a file system - meaning by that "the structure of directories and files in them" - very similar to that of DOS. Files have filenames that obey special rules, are stored in directories, some are executable, and among these most have command switches. Moreover, you can use wildcard characters, redirection, and piping. There are only a few minor differences. - First difference: under DOS, file names are in the so-called 8.3 form; e.g. NOTENOUG.TXT. Under Linux we can do better. If you installed Linux using a filesystem (you needn't know what it means now) like ext2 or umsdos, you can use longer filenames, and with more than one dot in them: for example, This_is.a.VERY_long.filename. Please note that I used both upper case and lower case characters. In fact... - Second difference: upper case and lower case characters are different. Therefore, FILENAME.tar.gz and filename.tar.gz are two different files. The same holds true for commands: if you issue the command ls (the same as DIR under DOS) you'll get a list of files in your directory, but if you enter LS you'll get an error message. - Third difference: if you start a filename with a period, the file will be considered as hidden. Example: the file .I.am.a.hidden.file won't show up after an ls command. - Fourth difference: there are no compulsory exensions like .COM and .EXE for programs, or .BAT for batch files. Executable files are marked by a star * at the end of their name when you issue the ls -F command. For example: $ ls -F letter_to_Joe Cindy.jpg cjpg* I_am_a_dir/ my_1st_script* The files cjpg* and my_1st_script* are executable - "programs". Under DOS, files ending in .BAK represent backup files; under Linux, such files are those ending with a tilde ~. - Fifth difference: DOS program switches are obtained with /switch, while under Linux with -switch. Example: dir /s becomes ls -R. Note that many DOS programs, like PKZIP or ARJ, use Un*x-style switches. 1.2. Files: Translating Commands from DOS to Linux On the left, the DOS commands; on the right, their Linux counterpart. COPY: cp DEL: rm REN: mv TYPE: more, less, cat Redirection and plumbing operators: < > >> | Wildcards: * ? nul: /dev/null prn, lst: /dev/lp0; lpr - EXAMPLES - DOS Linux C:\GUIDO>copy joe.txt joe.doc $ cp joe.txt joe.doc C:\GUIDO>copy *.* total $ cat * > total C:\GUIDO>copy fractals.doc prn $ cat fractals.doc | lpr C:\GUIDO>del temp $ rm temp C:\GUIDO>del *.bak $ rm *~ C:\GUIDO>ren paper.txt paper.asc $ mv paper.txt paper.asc C:\GUIDO>type letter.txt $ more letter.txt C:\GUIDO>type letter.txt $ less letter.txt C:\GUIDO>type letter.txt > nul $ cat letter.txt >/dev/null n/a $ more *.txt *.asc n/a $ cat section*.txt Notes: 1) * is smarter under Linux: - * matches all files except the hidden ones; .* matches all hidden files; *.* matches only those ending with . plus other characters; - p*r matches both peter and piper; *c* matches both picked and peck; 2) when using more, press <space> to read through the file, 'q' or CTRL-C to exit. less is more inuitive and lets you use the arrow keys; 3) there is no UNDELETE, so *think twice* before deleting anything; 4) in addition to DOS's < > >>, Linux has 2> to redirect error messages (stderr); 6) Linux has another wildcard: the []. Use: - [abc]* matches files starting with a, b, c; - [I-N]* matches files starting with I, J, K, L, M, N. 7) there is no DOS-like RENAME; that is, ren *.xxx *.yyy won't work. 1.3. Executing Programs: Multitasking and Sessions To run a program, type in its name as you would do under DOS. If the directory (Section 2) where the program is stored is included in the PATH (Section 4), the program will start. Exception: unlike DOS, under Linux a program located in the current directory won't run unless the directory is included in the PATH. Escamotage: being <prog> your program, type ./<prog>. This is what the typical command line looks like: $ command -s1 -s2 ... -sn par1 par2 ... parn <input >output where -s1, ..., -sn are the program switches, par1, ..., parn are the program parameters. It is possible to issue several commands on the command line: $ command1 ; command2 ; ... ; commandn That's all about running programs, but it's easy to go a step beyond. One of the main reasons for using Linux is that it is a multitasking os - it can run several programs (from now on, processes) at the same time. You can launch processes in background and continue working straight away. Moreover, Linux lets you have several sessions: it's like having many computers to work on at once! - To switch to session 1..8: $ <ALT-F1> ... <ALT-F8>. - To start a new session without leaving the current one: $ su - <loginname> Example: $ su - root This is useful, for one, when you need to mount a disk (Section 3): only root can do that. - To end a session: $ exit - To launch a process in foreground: $ progname [-switches] [parameters] [<input] [>output] - To launch a process in background, add an ampersend (&) at the end of the line: $ progname [-switches] [parameters] [<input] [>output] & - To see how many processes there are: $ ps This will output a list of processes currently running. Each one is identified by a PID, a number. - To kill a process: $ kill <PID> You may need to kill a process when you don't know how to quit it the right way... ;-). Sometimes, a process will only be killed by either one of the following: $ kill -15 <PID> $ kill -9 <PID> In addition to this, the shell (the equivalent of COMMAND.COM; most folks use a shell called bash) allows you to stop or temporarily suspend a process, send a process to background, and bring a process from background to foreground. In this context, processes are called "jobs". - To see how many jobs there are: $ jobs here jobs are identified by the numbers the shell gives them, not by their PID. - To stop a process running in foreground: $ <CTRL-C> (it doesn't always work) - To suspend a process running in foreground: $ <CTRL-Z> (ditto) - To send a suspended process into background: $ bg <job> - To bring a process to foreground: $ fg <job> - Again, to kill a process: $ kill %<job> where <job> may be 1, 2, 3, ... Using these commands you can format a disk, zip a bunch of files, compile a program, and unzip an archive all at the same time, and still have the prompt at your disposal. Try this with DOS! And try with Windows, just to see the difference in performance. Section 2: Using Directories 2.1. Directories: Preliminary Notions We have seen the differences between files under DOS and Linux. As for directories, under DOS the root directory is \, under Linux / is. Similarly, nested directories are separated by \ under DOS, by / under Linux. Example of file paths: DOS: \PROGRAMS\C++\SOURCES\HELLO.CPP Linux: /home/guido/papers/geology/mid_eocene.tex As usual, .. is the parent directory, . is the current directory. Remember that the system won't let you cd, rd, or md everywhere you want. Every user starts from his or her own directory called home, given by the system administrator; for instance, on my PC my home dir is /home/guido. 2.2. Translating Commands from DOS to Linux DIR: ls, find, du CD: cd, pwd MD: mkdir RD: rmdir - EXAMPLES - DOS Linux C:\GUIDO>dir $ ls C:\GUIDO>dir file.txt $ ls file.txt C:\GUIDO>dir *.h *.c $ ls *.h *.c C:\GUIDO>dir/p $ ls | more C:\GUIDO>dir \*.tmp /s $ find / -name "*.tmp" C:\GUIDO>cd $ pwd n/a - see note $ cd n/a - see note $ cd ~ n/a - see note $ cd ~/temp C:\GUIDO>cd \other $ cd /other C:\GUIDO>cd ..\temp\trash $ cd ../temp/trash C:\GUIDO>md newprogs $ mkdir newprogs C:\GUIDO>md \progs\turbo $ mkdir /progs/turbo C:\GUIDO>rd newprogs $ rmdir newprogs C:\GUIDO>rd \progs\turbo $ rmdir /progs/turbo Note: the character ~ is a shortcut for the name of your home directory. The commands cd or cd ~ will take you to your home directory from wherever you are; the command cd ~/tmp will take you to /home/your_home/tmp. Got the hang of it? Section 3: Floppies, Hard Disks, and the Like 3.1. Using a floppy disk You have never thought about it, but the DOS command FORMAT A: does a lot more work than it seems. In fact, when you issue the command FORMAT it will: 1) physically format the disk; 2) create the A:\ directory (= create a filesystem); 3) make the disk available to the user (= mount the disk). These three steps are addressed separately under Linux. It is possible to prepare and use floppies in MS-DOS format, though other formats are available; the most common is perhaps ext2. Here is how to prepare a disk (you'll need to start a session as root): - To format a standard 1,44 Meg floppy disk (A:): # fdformat /dev/fd0H1440 - To create a filesystem: # mkfs -t ext2 -c /dev/fd0H1440 or # mformat a: to create an MS-DOS filesystem. Beore using the disk, you must mount it. - To mount the disk: # mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt or # mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt Now you can address the files in the floppy. When you've finished, before extracting the disk you must unmount it. (*very important!*) - To unmount the disk: # umount /mnt Now you can extract the disk. Obviously, you have to fdformat and mkfs only unformatted disks, not previously used ones. If you want to use drive B:, refer to fd1H1440 and fd1 instead of fd0H1440 and fd0 in the examples above. All you used to do with A: or B: is now done using /mnt instead. Examples: DOS Linux C:\GUIDO>dir a: $ ls /mnt C:\GUIDO>copy a:*.* \docs\temp $ cp /mnt/* /docs/temp C:\GUIDO>copy *.zip a:\zip $ cp *.zip /mnt/zip C:\GUIDO>a: $ cd /mnt A:\> /mnt$ Needless to say, what holds for floppies holds for whatever device you can think of; for instance, you may want to mount another hard disk or a CD-ROM drive. Have a look at the list of devices in directory /dev. Here's how to mount the CD-ROM: # mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /cdrom Section 4: Tayloring the System 4.1. System Initialization Files Two important files under DOS are AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, which are used at boot time to initialise the system, set some environment variables like PATH and FILES, and possibly launch a program or batch file. Under Linux there are several initialisation files, some of which you had better not tamper with until you know exactly what you are doing. I'll tell you what the most important are, anyway: FILES NOTES /etc/inittab don't touch for now! /etc/rc.d/* ditto If all you need is setting the PATH and other environment variables, or you want to change the login messages or automatically launch a program after the login, have a look at the following files: FILES NOTES /etc/issue sets pre-login message /etc/motd sets post-login message /etc/profile sets PATH and other variables, etc. /home/your_home/.profile does whatever you want If the latter file exists (note that it is a hidden file), it will be read after the login and the commands in it will be executed. Example - look at this .profile: # I am a comment echo Environment: printenv | more # equivalent of command SET under DOS alias d='ls -l' # easy to understand what an alias is alias up='cd ..' echo "I remind you that the path is "$PATH echo "Have a good day, "$LOGNAME PATH and LOGNAME, you guessed right, are environment variables. 4.2. Program Initialization Files Under Linux, virtually everything can be tailored to your needs. Most programs have one or more initialization files you can fiddle with, often as a .prognamerc in your home dir. The first ones you'll want to modify are: .xinitrc: used by startx to initialize X Window System. .fvwmrc: used by the window manager fvwm. A sample can be found in: /usr/lib/X11/fvwm/system.fvwmrc .xfm/*: used by xfm, a file manager for X. .Xdefault: used by rxvt, a terminal emulator for X. For all of these and the others you'll come across sooner or later, RMP. Section 5: A Bit of Programming 5.1. Writing Scripts: .BAT Files on Steroids If you used .BAT files to create shortcuts of long command lines (I did a lot), this goal can be attained by inserting appropriate alias lines (see example above) in profile or .profile. But if your .BATs were more complicated, then you'll love the scripting language made available by the shell: it's as powerful as Qbasic, if not more. It has variables, structures like while, for, case, if... then... else, and lots of other features: it can be a good alternative to a "real" programming language. To write a script - the equivalent of a .BAT file under DOS - all you have to do is write a standard ASCII file containing the instructions, save it, then make it executable with the command $ chgmod u+x <scriptfile> To execute it, type in its name. A word of warning. The system editor is called vi, it's rather difficult to use, and I'm sure you'll find it lousy. I'm not going to explain how to use it, because I myself can't find my way around in it yet; see Matt Welsh's "Linux installation... ", page 109. You had better get hold of another editor like joe or emacs for X. Suffice it here to say that: - to insert some text, type i then your text; - to quit vi whithout saving, type ESC then :q! - to save and quit, type ESC then :wq Writing scripts under Linux is such a vast subject it would require a book by itself, and I will not delve into the subject any further. I'll just give you a few (hopefully) useful examples from which you can extract some basic rules. EXAMPLE 1: first_script #!/bin/sh # I am a comment # don't change the first line - it's got to be there echo "Today is `date`" echo "My name is "$0 echo "You gave me the following "$#" parameters: "$* echo "First parameter is "$1 echo "Have you grasped the trick?" EXAMPLE 2: 2exe #!/bin/sh echo "making "$1" executable... " chmod u+x $1 EXAMPLE 3: backup #!/bin/sh echo "Copying files in ~/bak... " for name in $* do cp ${name} ~/bak done EXAMPLE 4: fmta #!/bin/sh echo "I remind you that only root can format disks" fdformat /dev/fd0H1440 mkfs -t ext2 -c /dev/fd0H1440 echo "disk formatted." EXAMPLE 5: mnta #!/bin/sh echo "I remind you that only root can mount disks" mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt echo "don't forget to umount when you've done." 5.2. C for Yourself You're not expecting to find GW/Qbasic under Linux, are you? Under Un*x, the system language is C, love it or hate it. Lots of other languages (FORTRAN, Pascal, Lisp, Basic... but not Turbo Pascal, helas) are also available. Taken for granted that you know C, here are a couple of guidelines for those of you who have been pampered by Turbo C++ or one of its DOS brothers. Linux's C compiler is called gcc and lacks all the bells and whistles that usually accompany its DOS counterparts: no IDE, on-line help, integrated debugger, etc. It's just a rough command-line compiler, very powerful and efficient. To compile your standard hello.c you'll do: $ gcc hello.c which will create an executable file called a.out. To give the executable a different name, do $ gcc -o hola hello.c To link a program with a library, add the switch -l<arg>. For example, to link the math library do $ gcc -o mathprog mathprog.c -lm (The -l<arg> switch forces gcc to link the library /usr/lib/lib<arg>.a; so -lm links /usr/lib/libm.a). All this is good for small programs. But when your prog is made of several source files, you'll need to use the utility make. Let's suppose you have written an expression parser: its source file is called parser.c and #includes two header files, parser.h and xy.h. Then you want to use the routines in parser.c in a program, say, calc.c, which in turn #includes parser.h. What a mess! What do you have to do to compile calc.c? You'll have to write a so-called makefile, which tells the compiler the dependencies between sources and objects files. In our example: # This is makefile, used to compile calc.c # Press the <TAB> key at appropriate positions! calc: calc.o parser.o <TAB>gcc -o calc calc.o parser.o -lm # calc depends on two object files: calc.o and parser.o calc.o: calc.c parser.h <TAB>gcc -c calc.c # calc.o depends on two source files parser.o: parser.c parser.h xy.h <TAB>gcc -c parser.c # parser.o depends on three source files # end of makefile. Save this file as makefile and then type $ make to compile your program; alternatively, save it as calc.mak and then type $ make -f calc.mak And of course, RMP. In addition to all this, remember that you can invoke some help about the C functions, which are covered by man pages; for example, $ man printf Section 6: The Remaining 1% 6.1. Unroot Yourself It's a very bad idea to login as root to do everyday work; such account is dangerous and should be used for system administration only. To give yourself a new account, login as root and issue the command # adduser entering then the information the system will ask you. (Enter <RET> to the questions you don't understand; default values will be used.) 6.2. Making Virtual Memory Although Linux can theoretically run with only 2 megs of RAM, the more you have, the more you can do. X Window System won't run unless you have at least 8 megs. To create an additional 8 megs of virtual memory, type as root: # dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=8192 # mkswap /swapfile 8192 # sync # swapon /swapfile Add the last line in /etc/rc.d/rc.local to make the swapfile available the next time you boot. 6.3. Using tar & gzip Under Un*x there are some widely used applications to archive and compress files. tar is used to make archives - it's like PKZIP but doesn't compress, it only archives. To make a new archive: $ tar -cvf <archive_name.tar> <file> [file...] To extract files from an archive: $ tar -xpvf <archive_name.tar> [file...] To list the contents of an archive: $ tar -tf <archive_name.tar> | less You can compress files using compress, which is obsolete and shouldn't be used any more, or gzip: $ compress <file> or: $ gzip <file> that creates a compressed file with extension .Z (compress) or .gz (gzip). These programs can compress only one file at a time. To decompress, use $ compress -d <file> or $ gzip -d <file> RMP. The arj, zip and unzip (PK??ZIP compatible) utilities are also available. Files with extension .tar.gz or .tgz (archived with tar, then compressed with gzip) are as common in the Un*x world as .ZIP files are under DOS. Here's how to list the contents of a .tar.gz archive: $ gzip -dc <file.tar.gz> | tar tf - | less 6.4. Installing Applications Most Linux applications are distributed as .tar.gz archives, specifically prepared so that they can be decompressed from / typing the following command: # gzip -dc <file.tar.gz> | tar xvf - The files will be decompressed in the right directory, which will be created on the fly. Great, isn't it? Users of the Slackware distribution (and perhaps other distributions - I don't know) have a user-friendly pkgtool program, though. Others packages have their own installation instructions; read the documentation. Besides, some packages are distributed as C or C++ source files, which you'll have to compile to create the binaries. In most cases, all you have to do is issue # make Obviously, you'll need the gcc compiler, included in most distributions. And remember that installing packages is root's work. 6.5. Tips You Can't Do Without Command completion: pressing <TAB> when issuing a command will complete the command line for you. Example: you have to type gcc this_is_a_long_name.c; typing in gcc thi<TAB> will suffice. (If you have other files that start with the same characters, type enough characters to resolve any ambiguity.) Backscrolling: pressing SHIFT + PAG UP (the grey key) allows you to backscroll a few pages, depending on how much video memory you have. Moreover, if you issue the command $ script <script_file> everything that appears on screen until you issue the command exit will be copied to the file script_file, which you can examine later on. Resetting the screen: if you happen to more or cat a binary file, your screen may end up full of garbage. To fix things, blind type $ reset or this sequence of characters: echo CTRL-V ESC c RETURN. Messages from the kernel: have a look at /var/adm/messages as root to see what the kernel has to tell you, including bootup messages. 6.6. Useful Programs First of all, where to find them. Since you all know how to surf the Net and how to use archie and ftp, I'll just give you three of the most important addresses for Linux: sunsite.unc.edu, TSX-11.mit.edu, and nic.funet.fi. Please use your nearest mirror. at allows you to run programs at a specified date and time; delete-undelete do what their name means; df gives you info about the hard disk(s); dosemu allows you to run several (not all) DOS programs - including Windows 3.x, with a bit of fiddling; file <filename> tells you what a file is (ASCII text, executable, archive, etc.); find (see section 2.2) is one of the most powerful and useful commands. It can be used to find files that match several characteristics and perform actions on them. General use of find is: $ find <directory> <expression> where <expression> includes search criteria and actions. Examples: $ find . -type l -exec ls -l {} \; finds all the files that are symbolic links and show what they point to. $ find / -name "*.old" -ok rm {} \; finds all the files matching the pattern and deletes them, asking for your permission first. $ find . -perm 755 finds all the files whose permissions match 755 (executable). $ find . -user root finds all the files that belong to root. Lots of possibilities here - RMP. grep finds text patterns within files. For example, $ grep -l "geology" *.tex lists the files *.tex that contain the word "geology". RMP; gzexe compresses executable binaries keeping them executable; joe is an excellent editor. Invoking it by typing jstar you'll get the same key bindings as WordStar and its offspring, including the DOS editor; lpr <file> prints a file in background. To check the status of the printing queue, use lpq; mc is a very useful file manager; pine is a nice e-mailing program; sudo allows users to perform some of root's tasks (e.g. formatting and mounting disks; RMP) uname -a gives you info about your system; zcat and zless are useful for viewing gzipped text files without ungzipping them. Possible use: $ zless textfile.gz $ zcat textfile.gz | lpr 6.6. Common Extensions and Related Programs You may come across scores of file extensions. Excluding the more exotic ones (i.e. fonts, etc.), here's a list of who's what: .1 ... .8: man pages. Get man. .arj: archive made with arj. .dvi: output file produced by TeX (see below). xdvi to visualize it; dvips to turn it into a postscript .ps file. .gif: graphic file. Get seejpeg or xpaint. .gz: archive made with gzip. .info: info file (sort of alternative to man pages). Get info. .jpg,.jpeg: graphic file. Get seejpeg. .ps: postscript file. To visualize it get gs and, optionally, ghostview. (great!) .tgz,.tar.gz: archive made with tar and compressed with gzip. .tex: text file to submit to TeX, a powerful typesetting program. Get the package tex, available in many distributions. .texi: texinfo file (cp. .info). Get texinfo. .xbm,.xpm,.xwd: graphic file. Get xpaint. .zip: archive made with zip. Get zip and unzip. .Z: archive made with compress. The End, for Now Congratulations! You have now grasped a little bit of Un*x and are ready to start working. Remember that your knowledge of the system is still positively limited, and that you are expected to do more practice with Linux to use it comfortably. But if all you had to do was get a bunch of applications and start working with them, I bet that what I included here is enough: by now I don't know much more, yet I manage to work with Linux every day! I'm sure you'll enjoy using Linux and will keep learning more about it - everybody does. I bet, too, that you'll never go back to DOS! I hope I made myself understood and did a good service to my 3 or 4 readers. Disclaimer "From DOS to Linux - Quick!" was written by Guido Gonzato, <Guido@ibogfs.cineca.it>, April 1996. Many thanks to Matt Welsh, the author of "Linux Installation and Getting Started", to Ian Jackson, the author of "Linux frequently asked questions with answers", to Giuseppe Zanetti, the author of "Linux - Il sistema operativo FREE SOFTWARE per personal computer 386/486", to all the folks who emailed me suggestions, and especially to Linus Torvalds and GNU who gave us Linux. This document is provided "as is". I put great effort into writing it as accurately as I could, but you use the information contained in it at your own risk. In no event shall I be liable for any damages resulting from the use of this work. This document can be freely distributed as long as: - it is distributed in its entirety, including this disclaimer and permission notice; - no money is charged for it; - it is not modified in any way without my permission. Translations, prints, re-editings, or extractions from this document must be approved by me before being distributed. For any requests, suggestions, flames, etc., feel free to contact me. If you don't have e-mail access, my snail-mail address is: Guido Gonzato - Via Monte Ortigara 19/a, 37127 Verona - Italy Enjoy life! Guido =8-)