Wiley Beginning Linux Programming, 4th Edition 978-0-470-14762-7 Manuale Utente

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978-0-470-14762-7
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1
Getting Star ted
In this chapter, you discover what Linux is and how it relates to its inspiration, UNIX. You take a
guided tour of the facilities provided by a Linux development system, and write and run your first
program. Along the way, you’ll be looking at
UNIX, Linux, and GNU
Programs and programming languages for Linux
How to locate development resources
Static and shared libraries
The UNIX philosophy
An Introduction to UNIX, Linux, and GNU
In recent years Linux has become a phenomenon. Hardly a day goes by without Linux cropping
up in the media in some way. We’ve lost count of the number of applications that have been made
available on Linux and the number of organizations that have adopted it, including some govern-
ment departments and city administrations. Major hardware vendors like IBM and Dell now sup-
port Linux, and major software vendors like Oracle support their software running on Linux.
Linux truly has become a viable operating system, especially in the server market.
Linux owes its success to systems and applications that preceded it: UNIX and GNU software.
This section looks at how Linux came to be and what its roots are.
What Is UNIX?
The UNIX operating system was originally developed at Bell Laboratories, once part of the
telecommunications giant AT&T. Designed in the 1970s for Digital Equipment PDP computers,
UNIX has become a very popular multiuser, multitasking operating system for a wide variety of
hardware platforms, from PC workstations to multiprocessor servers and supercomputers.
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