Knowing your way around.

Beforehand: On this page you will find links and references related to UNIX™, UNIX based-systems and the Unix Community.

Biting the bullet...

Note: It is not always easy to use the correct name and I actually did not want to touch this but hey, it's part of the community... Personally i do not care mucht on how "you" classify software and operating system but you should [at least] know the difference.

Political correct naming:

• GNU / Linux
• F / OSS, FOSS, OSS / FS or even FLOSS
• UNIX based systems
• GNU or BSD style commands

Political incorrect or un-intended specification:

• Linux = The kernel, NOT the distribution (Red-Hat, SUSE, Debian, etc..)
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy
• OSS = Open Soure, NOT free software. It is free as in freedom not as in gratis.
  • http://www.opensource.org/
  • http://www.fsf.org/
• UNIX = Certified UNIX like AIX and Solaris, NOT like Linux or FreeBSD
  • http://www.opengroup.org/tm-guidelines.htm
• Linux or FreeBSD commands = commands like ls, ps, etc... are not OS (read kernel) dependend, there is no such thing as Linux commands. GNU tools can also be available on *BSD, this is then called something like GNU / FreeBSD!

Note: If anyone can write this more clearly, step forward and give it a shot by commenting.

Links

Organisations: The Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative (OSI), The Open Group, USENIX Association, Source Technology Group (OSTG), Linux Professional Institute, The UNIX System Home Page (Open Group), Open Invention Network

Project oriented: The GNU Project, OSDL, Debian -- Universal Operating System, The Linux Kernel,

Free OS: Distrowatch, FreeOS.com, Microsoft alternatives, Linux, *BSD variants, HURD (on Mach or L4), and various others, ...

Licenses

• Open source Initiative (OSI), approved licenses
  • MIT license
  • BSD license
• Free Software Foundation, GNU project, licenses
  • GNU General Public License
  • GNU Free Documentation License
  • GPL (in)compatible Licenses
• Creative Commons Publication licenses
  • Document license customisation
• Microsoft's wolve in sheepclothes licenses
  • Shared Source license
  • Shared Source, 18mrt2003 version

See also: OSS/FS reference from D.Wheeler

Social Contracts

• The GNU Manifesto
• Debian Social Contract (Earlier, The Debian Free Software Guidelines)
• The Open Source Definition
• From the archives: The Declaration of Software Freedom
• Open Standards: Principles and Practice

Standardisation efforts

• United Linux (history)
• Open Internationalisation Initiative (Earlier Li18nux, now OpenI18N)
• LSB
• Single Unix Specification (UNIX03)
• POSIX FAQ

See also: The Open Group Certification Programs, Free Standards Group

Extra community info...

• Who-is-who in the UNIX community
• The Linux Documentation Project
• Unix History -- Éric Lévénez
• LPI Certification Testing
• Univ. research sites:
  • UCC
  • MIT
  • UNC
  • UCI
• Recommended Reading
  • The Cathedral & the Bazaar
  • Voices fom the Open Source Revolution
  • Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution
  • The Art of Unix Programming
  • Jargon File Resources, The New Hacker's Dictionary
  • Free as in Freedom, Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software

Legal (should be further explored):

• see Licenses
• Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.0

FOSS Contributions for non-programmers

• testing
• bug reporting
• documentation
• web design/maintenance
• translations
• packaging

References: PuTTY Feedback and Bug Reporting, How to Report Bugs Effectively, How To Ask Questions The Smart Way, SF Project Help Wanted

Other

• Switching To Linux Checklist