How can linux be used for developing apps and hacking stuff?
Nov,27
at7:58 am
byadmin
I am using winxp sp3 but i’ve heard that linux is used for developing and all sorts of hacking.Can someone please tell me how?
I’m going to give you a perverse answer: because there is no there there. I was first introduced to computers when my brother in law, who worked at Bell Labs at the time, ordered and built a computer kit from Apple — one of their earliest. I learned to compute on the command line (using MS-DOS) and didn’t learn GUIs till I went back to college where I learned Windows, Mac and X-Windows, which was something Linux inherited from UNIX simultaneously. Linux was new — I was back in college and this was the early nineties. I’d already done some temp work on UNiX but the school couldn’t afford a license. And I got to talk it over with computer room monitors. I asked one what he ran at home and he said, "It used to be Linux but I changed it." My own cheapo computer ran MS-DOS with the gcc compiler (djgpp in those days: code::blocks or Dev-C++ today) and it worked for my needs. Our school got a Linux lab my last year there in part because our C++ compiler was such garbage and in part because it ran Netscape — which wouldn’t be available on Windows for another six months. It was then I learned the GNU tools, and about Unix and about how Linux was really just the kernel of an OS which ran UNIX programs. My understanding of what an OS changed at that moment and I started losing patience with the direction Windows was going in, though I got my degree in Fine Arts.
It’s a developer’s environment. I don’t even NEED an IDE so I don’t use one. For C/C++/Object C (I’m on slackware which has included it for over a decade)/Fortran programs I can just step through them by compiling them with the -g option and firing up gdb. For large projects I use make files. We have our choice of command shells including c shell, z shell, the bash shell we share with Mac OS X (we share all of them with UNIX and Mac OS X is a UNIX) and while they are all different they all have advantages over cmd.exe. I can type in a program from an MS-DOS box by going copy con > myprog.scr. When I am done I type ctl-Z and get the message 1 file copied, then I can read myprog.scr. In bash I just type cat > myprog.scr << "EOF". That last part << "EOF" means append EOF to it. It doesn’t. It waits for you to type a line int the keyboard which has the characters EOF on it then closes the file. The things you can do with iterators and enums as in:
for i in joe harvey alice meg Chauncey;
do
…
done
are incredible.
Linux is not easy, but it is straightforward to learn. And it is so simple you get LOTS of memory for your applications. You CAN do anything on Windows you can do on Linux, but it’s harder.
Anyhow here is what you do. I am NOT recommending Ubuntu. There is NO NEED to install Linux yet — at ALL — and Ubuntu shines when you install it, usually. Especially now. Download Knoppix:
http://www.knoppix.net/
I do recommend the 5.x version for this over the 6.x versions, because 6.x default to a command line for the visually impaired: you get a boot prompt you have to type "knoppix" at and because it uses compiz which can be disorienting. It has great hardware recognition, so you should be able to just get on line and surf over to:
http://info.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/
Which will teach you about UNIX/Linux shells and provide basic information about X-Windows.
Then you SHOULD be able to answer your own question.
Most Linux distributions include a full set of development tools (C, C++ compilers, make, autoconf etc.) for developing software. The source code for all the included software is also available. together with the instructions for building it, so one can fairly easily modify software, or download and build software that has not been packaged into binary form for your particular distribution.
Many open-source projects are joint collaborations, so it is possible to help develop software without having to write it all yourself. Much of this is hosted at sourceforge.com
Generally speaking, if you develop a program for one OS like Linux, it won’t run on others like Windows or MacOS. There are some exceptions, like Java and JavaScript.
There are some cross-compilers in Linux for other processors like Android. I have personal experience only with the ARM cross-compiler environment for the Nokia N8*0 tablets.
There is a fair amount of hacking that goes on in Linux, but I believe most of the money is in hacking commercial software like Windows and Adobe for various crime syndicates, building botnets etc.
References :
I’m going to give you a perverse answer: because there is no there there. I was first introduced to computers when my brother in law, who worked at Bell Labs at the time, ordered and built a computer kit from Apple — one of their earliest. I learned to compute on the command line (using MS-DOS) and didn’t learn GUIs till I went back to college where I learned Windows, Mac and X-Windows, which was something Linux inherited from UNIX simultaneously. Linux was new — I was back in college and this was the early nineties. I’d already done some temp work on UNiX but the school couldn’t afford a license. And I got to talk it over with computer room monitors. I asked one what he ran at home and he said, "It used to be Linux but I changed it." My own cheapo computer ran MS-DOS with the gcc compiler (djgpp in those days: code::blocks or Dev-C++ today) and it worked for my needs. Our school got a Linux lab my last year there in part because our C++ compiler was such garbage and in part because it ran Netscape — which wouldn’t be available on Windows for another six months. It was then I learned the GNU tools, and about Unix and about how Linux was really just the kernel of an OS which ran UNIX programs. My understanding of what an OS changed at that moment and I started losing patience with the direction Windows was going in, though I got my degree in Fine Arts.
It’s a developer’s environment. I don’t even NEED an IDE so I don’t use one. For C/C++/Object C (I’m on slackware which has included it for over a decade)/Fortran programs I can just step through them by compiling them with the -g option and firing up gdb. For large projects I use make files. We have our choice of command shells including c shell, z shell, the bash shell we share with Mac OS X (we share all of them with UNIX and Mac OS X is a UNIX) and while they are all different they all have advantages over cmd.exe. I can type in a program from an MS-DOS box by going copy con > myprog.scr. When I am done I type ctl-Z and get the message 1 file copied, then I can read myprog.scr. In bash I just type cat > myprog.scr << "EOF". That last part << "EOF" means append EOF to it. It doesn’t. It waits for you to type a line int the keyboard which has the characters EOF on it then closes the file. The things you can do with iterators and enums as in:
for i in joe harvey alice meg Chauncey;
do
…
done
are incredible.
Linux is not easy, but it is straightforward to learn. And it is so simple you get LOTS of memory for your applications. You CAN do anything on Windows you can do on Linux, but it’s harder.
Anyhow here is what you do. I am NOT recommending Ubuntu. There is NO NEED to install Linux yet — at ALL — and Ubuntu shines when you install it, usually. Especially now. Download Knoppix:
http://www.knoppix.net/
I do recommend the 5.x version for this over the 6.x versions, because 6.x default to a command line for the visually impaired: you get a boot prompt you have to type "knoppix" at and because it uses compiz which can be disorienting. It has great hardware recognition, so you should be able to just get on line and surf over to:
http://info.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/
Which will teach you about UNIX/Linux shells and provide basic information about X-Windows.
Then you SHOULD be able to answer your own question.
References :