this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Taken from the CompTIA IT Fundamentals Exam Guide book (2nd edition, published 2021). I'm not sure if they fixed this in newer versions, if at all.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

So much to unpack here.

GNU is not a Linux variant. It is a set of programs and shared libraries.

ISO 9660 has nothing to do with compression. Just calling it ISO isn't a good idea for an intro class like that because it is a set of MANY standards. They should have put a little side blurb and called it ISO 9660 in the table.

tar is an archive tool. It has no compression.

Why no mention of compression algorithms algorithms vs archive tools?

Why not have different compression algorithms and their tradeoffs?

ETA: jar files are just zip files for Java libs/programs. You can open them with zip file tools.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Just calling it ISO isn’t a good idea for an intro class like that because it is a set of MANY standards. They should have put a little side blurb and called it ISO 9660 in the table.

This is the only thing here I disagree with. The table is quite clearly putting extensions on the left and intro classes do not need to know about the International Organization for Standardization.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

That line implying 7zip and 7z are different formats has just been pulled out of the air too

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

There actually is a compression format that used .jar as an extension, a would-be successor to .arj. It’s quite archaic though, and God help you if you find one in the wild at this point.

http://www.arjsoftware.com/jar.htm

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

GNU is not a set of programs or libraries, it's an operating system.

GNU packages is what you are referring to. But GNU itself is the name of the OS.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It was intended to be an OS and is if you use the Hurd kernel. In practice, Hurd isn't really used, so it is just a bunch of programs and libraries. I guess it can go either way.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Agree. GNU Hurd is the OS. GNU Utils is a bunch of libre utilities that replicates the function of the UNIX utilities.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

It is not "intended" to be an OS if you use GNU Hurd. That is literally the name of the operating system that launched the entire libre software movement. You don't engage with it that way because linux comms don't bother to educate their users at all.

Rms was right, "linux" users don't care about history and "linux" communties stopped giving a shit.