Software Sunday: Bare Metal Linux

In our Open Source Sunday articles, we will be doing our best to present Open Source software that works on all three major operating systems (Win/Mac/Lin).  In some cases, that's just not an option.  But there are ways to use Open Source software, even if your OS isn't supported.

One of the ways to use non-native, Open Source software is to use a virtual machine.  A piece of software that can emulate a piece of hardware that can then run a supported OS.  That is an option we will be covering in another article.

In this article, we will be discussing Bare Metal Linux.  That is a phrase that basically means that Linux runs on the physical hardware layer of the computer.  And of course, Linux runs on pretty much every piece of hardware out there, as we will touch on, as we present the Open Source software called Linux.

As many, perhaps most people these days are aware,  Linux is an Operating System.  That means, like OS/X or Windows, it is a piece of software that runs on and controls some hardware, and can then have additional software which runs on top of it, in order for people to gain some desired level of functionality out of the hardware.

There are many versions of Linux distributions.  Each one catering to a specific user base interest and focus.  That focus might have to do with the type of software that comes with the distribution.  It might have to do with the type of hardware that the Operating System will control and operate.  It might have to do with some philosophical reasoning.  It may simply need to be light weight enough to function on a specific type of hardware that may not be powerful enough to run a more mainstream, popular distribution.

Yes, there may be many versions of Linux distributions, but there is only one Linux Kernel.

For those with none or little knowledge of GNU, it pre-dates Linux.  GNU is a tool set of software that was dreamed up by Richard Stallman, who basically became the front man and public figure of the Free Software movement and was developed as an alternative to software that did the same job, but under a proprietary, no sharing license.

This is where things get interesting.  The GNU toolset, including what is known as HURD, was developed first.  It was the eventual goal of GNU to produce the final software, the Kernel software, that would control the hardware and then layer the GNU software on top of it.  Before that happened, along came Linus Torvalds and Linux.

It seemed like a match made in heaven.  Linus was creating a Unix like operating system with an Open license framework so that people could openly share, but it did not have software utilities.  Stallman had the GNU software utilities, but did not have a Kernel.

While for most people, this is a great collaboration, perhaps one of the all time greatest in the Open Source Software world, this began a long, drawn out philosophical dialogue which continues to exist today, over twenty years later.

This revolves around whether a system that runs Linux, perhaps the Linux Kernel itself, should actually be refereed to as GNU/Linux.  Some took up the call and refer to their distributions as being GNU/Linux.  Others, did not.  Regardless of the politics, GNU is NOT Linux, and Linux is Not GNU.  These are two seperate pieces of software or software sets, which interoperate to give us at least some Linux distributions.  Some GNU/Linux distributions do not provide any proprietary software with them, and some Linux distributions could actually have no GNU software.  The discussion is often a distraction and ultimately, without the Linux Kernel, GNU could continue on and vice versa, and in the vast majority of Linux distributions, there remains a significant amount of GNU code.

Whether one wants to call it GNU/Linux or not, at the end of the day, people simply want an operating system that works on any piece of hardware for any purpose that they want to use the hardware / software, and they want it to be as secure and stable as possible.

As mentioned, there are many Linux distributions.  As shown in the very tiny image (scaled to display) to the right, the Linux distribution family tree is very, very, very, very large.  Some distributions barely get started and then stop development, and others appear to carry on and on.  But most distributions tend to have a core starting point of Debian, Slackware, and Redhat.  With the latter being pure commercial roots and the former being, of course, open source freedom roots.

The best way to determine what distribution might be best for you, is to ask a friend.  If they don't know, a quick internet search of Linux might work for you.  Pick one that seems to be "right" and start there.  That, or any option, might require you to try out a number of Linux flavours before you find one that works best for you, although ultimately, with any one distribution, you can generally add and remove components and software until your version is customized to the extent that it really works of you.

Finally, probably one of the best resources on Linux distributions is distrowatch.

Perhaps it falls under the category of "too much information", but it does a great job of presenting all the current and popular distributions out there, without necessarily showing any bias towards any one distribution or core.  Each description generally provides what the distribution offers, along with what hardware it might run on, and minimum requirements.  So you could even run Bare Metal Linux on your Mac...  if you wanted to.

I'm not really sure if this article is helpful to those who are trying to decide whether to run Linux, which distribution to use, and how to do it on bare metal.  Perhaps that really wasn't the end goal, because while many just want something that works, Linux and Open Source software really is a personal thing, for each to discover on their own.

So whether you want a full blown operating system for your computer, or want to run Linux on your home router, or want to create a media centre, web, file or torrent server, you will have options in Linux that will allow you to do what ever you want with your hardware, without many, if any, proprietary software licensing concerns.