Linux4N00B

What Is Linux? Introduction to Linux Operating System

Linux is a UNIX-base operating system. Its original creator was a Finnish student name Linus Torvalds, although being ‘open source’ it has change a great deal since its original conception. It belongs to nobody, and is free to download and use. Any changes to it are open for all to adopt, and as a result it has developed into a very powerful OS that is rapidly gaining in popularity worldwide, particularly among those seeking an alternative to Windows.

In 1991, hardware was expanding rapidly, and DOS was the king of operating systems. Software development was slower, and Macs, while better, were also much pricier than PCs. UNIX was growing, but at that time in its history the source code was jealously guarded and expensive to use.

Linus Torvalds was a Helsinki university student who liked playing around with software and computers, and in 1991 he announced the creation of a new core operating system that he had named Linux. It is now one of the most used systems for the PC, and is particularly suitable for businesses with small IT budgets. Linux is free to use and install, and is more reliable than almost all other systems, running for many months and even years without a reboot being necessary.

Advantages and Benefits of Linux

One of the significant benefits of open source software such as Linux is that because it has no owner, it can be debugged without resource to a license owner or software proprietor. Businesses therefore have the flexibility to do as they wish with the OS without having to worry about conforming to complex license agreements.

The major advantage of Linux is its cost: the core OS is free, while many software applications also come with a GNU General public License. It can also be used simultaneously by large numbers of users without slowing down or freezing and it is very fast. It is an excellent networking platform and performs at optimum efficiency even with little available hard disk space.

Linux also runs on a wide range of hardware types, including PCs, Macs, mainframes, supercomputers, some cell phones and industrial robots. Some prefer to dual-boot Linux and Windows while others prefer Linux and Mac OS. System76 machines come pre-installed with Linux in the form of Ubuntu, a Debian distribution of Linux. This is the most popular distribution of Linux for laptops.

Linux Vs Windows

The main benefits and advantages of Linux over other operating systems, particularly Microsoft Windows, are:

It is free to use and distribute.
Support is free through online help sites, blogs and forums.
It is very reliable – more so than most other operating systems with very few crashes.
A huge amount of free open source software has been developed for it.
It is very resistant to malware such as spyware, adware and viruses.
It runs in a wide variety of machines than cannot be updated to use newer Windows versions.
Since the source code is visible, ‘backdoors’ are easily spotted, so Linux offers greater security for sensitive applications.
Linux offers a high degree of flexibility of configuration, and significant customization is possible without modifying the source code.

The Linux operating system is widely use by both home and business users, and its usage is increasing daily. It is considered that Linux will eventually overtake Microsoft Windows as the most popular operating system, which could also open the door further for more free software such as Open Office, The Gimp, Paint, Thunderbird, Firefox and Scribus. It is easy to install and run alongside your existing operating system, so give it a try, because it is also easy to remove if you don’t like it – which is unlikely

How to replace SLIM with LXDM in Archbang

SLIM is used in Archbang as the defaul login manager. SLIM is light weight and nice but unfortunately, its development has ceased so the future of SLIM is uncertain. If you are using Archbang and want to replace SLIM with LXDM (which is recommended by the Arch Wiki), this article will show you how to do it.

lxdm archbang

First, you need to install LXDM, the command will be:

sudo pacman -S lxdm

The next step is to edit the file /etc/inittab. You can use either vi, nano or leafpad to edit this file in Archbang. To edit it using leafpad, run this command:

sudo leafpad /etc/inittab

In this file, find this line:

x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null

And replace it with:

x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/lxdm >& /dev/null

Save the file and you will use LXDM instead of SLIM in the next boot time. To configure and customize LXDM, you can edit 2 files, /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf and /etc/lxdm/Xsession. The comments in these 2 files are really self-explained so you can easily edit them as you prefer.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

How can I change lxdm theme (complete)?

Ok ! what I did.... Thanks again valtman...he helped me via irc for this

1. get the theme: http://allanmcrae.com/files/lxdm-theme.tar.gz

2. extract it to /usr/share/lxdm/themes

3. Change /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf to adapt the theme

this is the output of my lxdm.conf (I changed the theme folder name to archtheme)

[base]

## uncomment and set autologin username to enable autologin

# autologin=dgod

## uncomment and set timeout to enable timeout autologin,

## the value should >=5

# timeout=10

## default session or desktop used when no systemwide config

session=/usr/bin/openbox-session

## uncomment and set to set numlock on your keyboard

# numlock=0

## set this if you don't want to put xauth file at ~/.Xauthority

# xauth_path=/tmp

## greeter used to welcome the user

greeter=/usr/lib/lxdm/lxdm-greeter-gtk

[server]

## arg used to start xserver, not fully function

# arg=/usr/bin/X -background vt1

[display]

## gtk theme used by greeter

gtk_theme=Clearlooks

## background of the greeter

bg=/usr/share/lxdm/themes/archtheme/background.png

## if show bottom pane

bottom_pane=1

## if show language select control

lang=0

## if show keyboard layout select control

keyboard=0

## the theme of greeter

theme=archtheme

[input]

[userlist]

## if disable the user list control at greeter

disable=0

## whitelist user

white=

## blacklist user

black=

reboot and voila Smile

i'm in tears