WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:03.319 So I'm just going to read this quote straight from 2 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:06.000 the source material because it's it's quite the hook. The 3 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:09.800 operating system's war is over and Linux is won. Yeah, 4 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:12.800 which I mean, it's a pretty aggressive opening statement for 5 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:15.080 a textbook, isn't it. I'm looking around to our studio 6 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:18.280 right now, and I see three laptops. Two are running Windows, 7 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:19.079 one is a Mac. 8 00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:19.679 Right. 9 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.280 I don't see a single Linux penguin anywhere. So did 10 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:27.199 it really win? Or is the author just you know, 11 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:29.239 engaging in a bit of wishful thinking here? 12 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:32.799 It definitely sounds like hyperbole if you're just looking at 13 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:35.079 the surface level, right, I mean, if you walk into 14 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:37.159 a coffee shop, you aren't going to see people compiling 15 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:38.759 kernels while they sit their lattes. 16 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:39.960 Huh, No, definitely not. 17 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:42.920 But the argument here, and we're diving into the Linux 18 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:46.079 Bible eleventh edition, which just dropped in twenty twenty six, 19 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:50.000 is that the war wasn't actually fought for the desktop. Okay, 20 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:53.280 it was fought for the infrastructure of the world, and 21 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:55.640 in that arena, it's not even close. 22 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:58.640 Right, fair point. But before we get into the nuts 23 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.280 and bolts of how we kind of have to address 24 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.560 the elephant in the room because the irony here is 25 00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:07.480 just thick enough to cut with a knife. Yeah, you 26 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:09.079 have this quote from the book about. 27 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:11.879 Microsoft, oh, the Steve Bomber quote. Yeah, it's legendary. Linux 28 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:13.239 is a cancer, right. 29 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:16.159 The former CEO of Microsoft literally called it a cancer 30 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:20.040 that attaches itself to everything it touches. And yet here 31 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:22.079 we are in twenty twenty six and if you look 32 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:25.959 at Microsoft's own cloud platform, Azure, what is the majority 33 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.120 of it running on Linux? 34 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:30.000 Yeah, it's well over fifty percent, probably closer to seventy 35 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:32.400 or eighty percent by now, which is just why the 36 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:35.040 very company that tried to kill it is now making 37 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:37.040 billions of dollars sealing it. 38 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:40.400 It is the ultimate plot twist. So to guide us 39 00:01:40.439 --> 00:01:43.079 through this twist on today's deep Dive, we have the 40 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:47.439 author Christopher Nigas. And he's not just some academic observer, 41 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:47.799 is he. 42 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.359 No, absolutely not. Nigas has been writing about this stuff 43 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.640 since the late nineties. He's a former instructor at red 44 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.840 Hat and currently he's a senior technical writer for AWS 45 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:59.879 Amazon Web Services exactly. And for this eleventh edition he 46 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:03.359 brought in David Clinton, who is a serious Linux server 47 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:07.040 admin and an AWS solutions architect. So you have this 48 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.960 really nice blend of like how to teach it and 49 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:11.599 how it actually works in the trenches. 50 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:14.520 So the mission today for you listening is to figure 51 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:17.960 out how we got here. How did a hobby project 52 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:19.960 started by a university student. 53 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:23.080 In Finland, a student who explicitly said it wouldn't be 54 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:24.000 anything big. 55 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.759 Right, How does that become the backbone of the Internet, 56 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.360 the financial markets, and now the modern AI revolution. 57 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:32.680 And to do that, we really have to start by 58 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:35.039 defining what we are actually talking about. Because the turn 59 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:36.719 Linux gets thrown around a lot. 60 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:38.800 Yeah, people use it as a catchell exactly. 61 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:41.919 People conflate the whole operating system with just one part 62 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:42.199 of it. 63 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:44.919 So let's strip it down. When I say I'm running Linux, 64 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:46.919 what is actually happening under the hood. 65 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:50.560 So NAGUS breaks it down into three critical components. The first, 66 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:53.000 and honestly the most important, is the kernel. 67 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.000 The engine. 68 00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:55.840 Yeah, think of it more like the conductor of an 69 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:58.879 orchestra or maybe an air traffic controller. The kernel is 70 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:01.319 the only thing that's speaks directly to the hardware. 71 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:05.400 Okay, when you launch a web browser, that browser doesn't 72 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:07.639 know how to talk to your RAM or your processor. 73 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:11.319 It asks the kernel, hey, can I have some memory, 74 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:15.719 and the colonel says, yes, here's block four thousand, or no, 75 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:17.199 you're crashing. I'm shutting you down. 76 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:19.719 So without the kernel, the hardware is just a pile 77 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.479 of expensive metal and silicon exactly. 78 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:26.599 It manages the resources. Then, sitting above that you have 79 00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:27.639 the demons. 80 00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:30.400 Which I have to say is just terrible branding. It 81 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:32.319 sounds like my computer is possessed. 82 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:36.159 It does sound a little sinister, but it's actually very mundane. 83 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:38.599 A demon is just a process that runs in the 84 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:40.199 background waiting to. 85 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:41.840 Be useful, waiting for a summons. 86 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:44.280 Right. For example, if you want to print something, you 87 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.599 don't manually start a printing program. Every time there is 88 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:50.639 a print demon sitting silently in the background listening. When 89 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:53.080 it hears a request, it wakes up, handles the job, 90 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:54.120 and goes back to sleep. 91 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:56.759 So they are the service staff of the operating system. 92 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:57.639 Perfect analogy. 93 00:03:57.719 --> 00:03:59.919 Yes, okay, so we have the conductor, which is the kernel, 94 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:03.479 and the service staff the demons. What's the third piece, 95 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:07.039 the shell? This is the interface and this is where 96 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.599 the Linux Bible draws a real line in the sand. Yes, 97 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:13.080 you can use a graphical Windows Icons mouse clicks. 98 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:14.199 All that like a normal person. 99 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:17.040 Like a normal person. Sure, but the shell, the command 100 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:18.639 line is where the real power is. 101 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.240 We're talking about the matrix screen here, Yeah, just green 102 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:22.639 texts scrolling down. 103 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:25.680 A black box essentially. Yes, And Nigus makes a really 104 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:28.839 strong point here. If you want to administer a system, 105 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:32.759 you cannot rely on a GUI, a graphical user interface. 106 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:35.839 Guys are heavy, they require resources, and more importantly, they 107 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:36.879 hide things from you. 108 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:38.560 They hold your hand, right. 109 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:41.439 But the shell lets you talk directly to the kernel 110 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:44.720 with text commands. It is precise, it is scriptable, and 111 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:46.240 it is incredibly fast. 112 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.319 What I mean is that really necessary? In twenty twenty 113 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.040 six everything has a dashboard? Now, why do I need 114 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:53.959 to memorize archaic text commands? 115 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:57.639 Because of scale? Yeah, if you are managing one server, 116 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.519 sure click the icons. But if you are Google and 117 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:03.680 you're managing a fleet of five hundred thousand servers, you 118 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:06.120 cannot click on five hundred thousand icons. Oh god, No, 119 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:08.839 you need to write a script that says, go to 120 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:12.120 these half a million machines and update this specific library 121 00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:15.160 and then you hit enter once. That is only possible 122 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:15.720 through the shell. 123 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:18.600 That makes a lot of sense. It's the difference between 124 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:20.079 retail and wholesale. 125 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:24.040 Perfectly put, and that scalability is why Linux is so ubiquitous. 126 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:28.160 The book lists the heavy hitters. It's not just Google 127 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:31.160 and Facebook and Android phones, it's the financial sector too, 128 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:34.240 the New York Stock Exchange, the Tokyo Stock Exchange. 129 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:36.439 That one always gets me. We are talking about trillions 130 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:39.040 of dollars moving in microseconds, right. 131 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:41.439 And they don't use Linux because it's free. Believe me, 132 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:43.079 they can afford to buy Windows. 133 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:44.360 I think they have the budget. 134 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:46.639 They use it because they can strip it down. They 135 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:49.560 can take that kernel, remove every single demon they don't need, 136 00:05:49.879 --> 00:05:53.360 remove the graphical interface entirely, and have a system that 137 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:57.800 does exactly one thing with absolute zero latency because it's 138 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:01.399 open exactly. You can't do that with a proprietary black 139 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:04.319 box system like Windows or mac os. You can't see 140 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:06.959 the code, you can't fix bugs yourself, and you can't 141 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:08.279 rip out the parts you don't want. 142 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:11.920 And that leads us perfectly to the philosophy of it all. 143 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:15.360 Because Lenox didn't just appear out of nowhere in a vacuum. 144 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:19.040 It stands on the shoulders of giants. The book takes 145 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:21.759 us all the way back to Bell Labs in the 146 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:23.199 late sixties. 147 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:27.519 The grandparents of modern computing, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Right, 148 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:31.000 they created You and IX and the vibe at Bell 149 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:34.120 Labs is so important to understanding Lenox today. It wasn't 150 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:37.199 a product team trying to hit a quarterly revenue target. 151 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:38.240 It was a research group. 152 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:40.240 Yeah, it was a communal environment. 153 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:43.120 Nigus uses the word fellowship, which I love. It sounds 154 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:45.240 like Lord of the Rings, Aha, it does. But they 155 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:47.399 were basically building a system for themselves. 156 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:51.040 Right exactly. They wanted a comfortable environment to codin. And 157 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:54.920 because they were lazy in the smart, highly efficient way 158 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:58.160 that great programmers are lazy, they came up with some 159 00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:01.560 brilliant philosophies to make lives easier. 160 00:07:01.240 --> 00:07:04.600 And the biggest one being everything is a file. Okay, 161 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:08.160 unpack that for us, because obviously my keyboard isn't a file. 162 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:10.279 It's a physical piece of plastic. 163 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:14.439 Physically, yes, but to the operating system it's treated as 164 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:17.959 a file. In You and AXS and by extension Linux, 165 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:21.160 your hard drive is a file, your mouse is a file, 166 00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:23.879 your network card is a file. The data streaming in 167 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:25.279 from the internet is a file. 168 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:27.439 Well, why does that matter because. 169 00:07:27.160 --> 00:07:28.879 It means you can use the exact same set of 170 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:31.519 tools for everything. If I write a program that can 171 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.399 read text from a file, that same program can now 172 00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:36.839 read input from a keyboard, or read data from a 173 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:40.240 hard drive, or read data from a network socket. Oh wow, 174 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:42.839 I don't need to write five different custom drivers. It 175 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:46.199 unifies the entire system under one simple logic that. 176 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:47.480 Is actually incredibly elegant. 177 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:50.279 It is, and it leads to the second big idea, pipes. 178 00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:52.079 This is the lego block concept. 179 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:55.519 Yes, in the Windows world, at least historically, you'd have 180 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:59.360 these massive programs. Microsoft Word does typing and spell checking 181 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:01.680 and formatting, printing and mailing labels. 182 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:02.399 It's a monolith. 183 00:08:02.439 --> 00:08:05.480 It's a monolith. The UNX philosophy is the exact opposite. Right, 184 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:08.879 a tiny program that does one thing perfectly. Yeah, LS 185 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.600 lists files, GP finds text, sort sorts lines, and the 186 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.319 pipe connects them. Right. You take the output of LS, 187 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:18.639 you pipe it into grep to find the specific files 188 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:22.000 you want, and you pipe that into sort to organize 189 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:22.839 them alphabetically. 190 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:23.920 Do you string them together? 191 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:28.480 You build incredibly complex machines out of these simple, reliable parts. 192 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:30.759 It's modularity at its finest. 193 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:34.559 So if you ANDIX was so great and they had 194 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:38.279 this amazing fellowship going on, why aren't we all running 195 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:40.440 Unix right now? Why did Linux take over? 196 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:43.639 Because the lawyers got involved, Of course they did. In 197 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:46.519 nineteen eighty four, AT and T, the parent company of 198 00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:49.960 Bell Labs, was broken up, and they looked at uni Ix, 199 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.559 which they had been sharing pretty freely with universities up 200 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:54.480 to that point, and they saw dollar signs. 201 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:55.679 They realized what they asked. 202 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:58.279 Yeah, they tried to commercialize it. They closed off the 203 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:01.080 source code, They started souon doing people who tried to 204 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:05.039 make compatible versions, like the whole Berkeley Software Distribution thing BSD. 205 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:09.039 The split. It created a huge crisis. You had a 206 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.960 generation of computer scientists who had grown up on Unix principles, 207 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.480 and suddenly the rug was pulled out from under them. 208 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:18.279 They couldn't afford the licenses and they couldn't modify the 209 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:20.440 code anymore. Momentum just died. 210 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:24.399 And this vacuum draws in our two main characters. On 211 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:27.600 one side, you have the idealist Richard Stallman. 212 00:09:27.720 --> 00:09:31.120 Yeah, nineteen eighty four, Stallman quits his job at MIT 213 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:34.759 because he refuses to work on proprietary software. He starts 214 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:36.000 the GNU project. 215 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:39.159 GNU is not unyax. 216 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:43.000 Exactly a recursive acronym. His goal was just audacious. He 217 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:47.519 wanted to rebuild the entire Unix system from scratch, but 218 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:50.879 make it free, and not just free as in zero costs, 219 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.080 but free as in freedom, which. 220 00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:54.759 Is an important distinction we should make. We're talking about 221 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:56.240 the Open Source Initiative. 222 00:09:55.879 --> 00:09:59.720 Rules here ed right, free distribution, no royalties, the source 223 00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:02.600 code must be included, and no discrimination against who can 224 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:05.080 use it. Now, Stallman and the GNU project they did 225 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:06.919 a lot of the heavy lifting, they really did. They 226 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:10.360 built the compilers, the text editors like Emacs, the bash shell, 227 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:12.840 they built all the marginlar tools we just talked about. 228 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:16.080 But they got stuck on the kernel. The engine they're 229 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:18.000 trying to build this kernel called HERD, and it was 230 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.080 just it was over engineered. It never quite worked right. 231 00:10:21.240 --> 00:10:24.159 So they have a fully furnished house, but absolutely no 232 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:26.399 foundation to put it on exactly. 233 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:30.279 And meanwhile, over in Helsinki, Finland, you have the pragmatist 234 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:31.759 Linus Torvoltz. 235 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:33.879 He's not trying to start a revolution, is he. 236 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.279 Not at all. He's just a broke student who is 237 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:39.159 using Minix, which was a teaching OS and He wants 238 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:41.799 something better to run on his new three eighty six PC, 239 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:45.360 but he can't afford commercial unx. 240 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:47.360 And so he writes that famous email in nineteen ninety one, 241 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:50.759 I'm doing a free operating system, just a hobby. Won't 242 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:52.159 be big and professional like new. 243 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:55.960 It is the most understated announcement in tech history. But 244 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:00.759 here is the key. Linus wrote a working kernel the foundation. 245 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:04.399 He filled the exact hole that the GNU project had. 246 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:07.639 So it wasn't this like planned grand partnership. 247 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:11.080 No, it was total accidental synergy. The community saw Linus's 248 00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:14.039 colonel realized it actually worked and said, hey, let's take 249 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:16.120 all these GMU tools that have no kernel and run 250 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:18.320 them on top of this Linux current. Now I'm boom. 251 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:20.080 You have a complete operating system. 252 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:22.559 But there's one more piece to this puzzle that the 253 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:26.120 book really emphasizes. It wasn't just the code that made 254 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:28.440 Linux stick and become what it is today. It was 255 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:29.759 the license, yes. 256 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:32.840 The GPL, the General Public License. And this is Stallman's genius. 257 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:37.440 And look, we're not endorsing Stallman's personal politics or his 258 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.799 entire worldview here. The book just lays out the facts 259 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:41.559 of what happened. 260 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:44.320 Right, We're just talking about the mechanism of the license exactly. 261 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:50.159 The mechanism was undeniably effective because most companies actually love 262 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.399 open source licenses, like the BSD license. The BSD license 263 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:56.480 basically says, here's the code, do whatever you. 264 00:11:56.440 --> 00:11:59.200 Want with it, which is how Apple took BSD code 265 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:01.399 and used it to maccos right. 266 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:04.399 They took the free code, improved it, closed it off, 267 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:08.159 and kept the improvements for themselves. The GPL strictly forbids that. 268 00:12:08.200 --> 00:12:10.919 It uses a concept called copyleft copyleft deck. It says 269 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:13.440 you can use this code and you can modify it, 270 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.519 but if you distribute your modified version, you must share 271 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:19.279 your changes under the exact same open license. 272 00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:21.399 It's viral, It's completely. 273 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:25.519 Viral, and it's brilliant. It forces collaboration. If IBM or 274 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:28.600 Intel or even Microsoft makes an improvement to the Linux 275 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:31.440 kernel to make it run better on their servers, they 276 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:33.559 have to give that code back to the community. 277 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:34.480 They can't hoard it. 278 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:38.279 They can't, which means that every single company using Linux 279 00:12:38.519 --> 00:12:41.120 is inadvertently working on the same team. 280 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:44.039 So that brings us to the ecosystem we actually have today. 281 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:47.600 Because the book talks a lot about distributions, if I 282 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.440 want to install Linux right now, I don't usually download 283 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:51.879 the kernel and compile it myself. 284 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.240 No, and please don't try that unless you have a 285 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:55.679 lot of free time and patience. 286 00:12:55.799 --> 00:12:56.759 Aha noted. 287 00:12:56.960 --> 00:12:59.360 You download a distro, think of the kernel as the 288 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:02.720 engine and the gn you tools as the transmission. The 289 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.759 distro is the car manufacturer. They put it all together. 290 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:09.000 They add a dashboard, the desktop, they had tires and seats, 291 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:11.200 and an installer, and they give it to you as 292 00:13:11.240 --> 00:13:12.399 a complete package. 293 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:15.200 And the Linux Bible focuses really heavily on red Hat. 294 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.240 Why them, because red Hat proved you could actually make 295 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:21.480 billions of dollars giving away free software. They focus heavily 296 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:26.440 on the enterprise. But the dynamic between red Hat Enterprise, Linux, RHL, 297 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:28.480 and Fedora is really interesting. 298 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:30.840 I really liked the river analogy they use for this 299 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:31.480 in the text. 300 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:34.679 Yeah, it's perfect. Think of Fedora as the upstream. The 301 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:37.360 water is fast, it's fresh, but it might have some 302 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.279 rocks in it. It's where new features are tested. It's 303 00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:41.200 bleeding edge. 304 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:44.360 So if I'm a developer who wants the absolute latest toys, 305 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:46.320 I use Fedora. 306 00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:47.759 Right But if you run a bank. 307 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:48.960 I don't want rocks in my water. 308 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:52.399 You don't want rocks in your water. You want filtered, calm, 309 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:57.919 predictable water. That's RHEL. It's downstream. Red Hat takes the 310 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:02.440 features that survive Fedora, staybizes them, test them for months, 311 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:06.440 and then releases them in RHL with a guarantee of support. 312 00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:09.519 And that support is what companies are actually paying for exactly. 313 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.840 They also introduce the RPM package manager to make installing 314 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:15.919 software way easier than compiling raw source code. 315 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.279 And then you have Ubuntu and Debian, which are the 316 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:19.080 other big family. 317 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:23.240 Right. Debian is known for super strict stability and community governance, 318 00:14:23.559 --> 00:14:27.039 but Ubuntu built on Debian is crucial because they focused 319 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:28.080 on user friendliness. 320 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:29.360 Bring it to the desktop. 321 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:31.639 Yeah, they are the ones who really pushed to make 322 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.639 Linux installable by a normal human being. If you are 323 00:14:34.679 --> 00:14:36.399 listening to this and want to try Linux for the 324 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:38.440 first time, you probably want Ubuntu. 325 00:14:38.759 --> 00:14:41.559 Although there are others mentioned, right, Slackware, which is the 326 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:45.399 oldest supported one, Collie for cybersecurity and forensics Gen two. 327 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:48.799 Yeah, there are hundreds, but those are the main pillars. 328 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:51.639 Okay, let's pivot to the new stuff because this is 329 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:54.960 the eleventh edition. We're in twenty twenty six. The world 330 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.240 has changed immensely since nineteen ninety one. What is the 331 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:00.399 cutting edge right now? 332 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:03.440 The biggest shift is the cloud, which we touched on, 333 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:06.480 but specifically the way we interact with it. The book 334 00:15:06.519 --> 00:15:09.519 talks about cloud consoles. It used to be you had 335 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.279 to set up an SSH client secure shell to talk 336 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.639 to a remote server. Now AWS and Google Cloud just 337 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:17.399 give you a shell right in your web browser. 338 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:18.799 So the browser is the new. 339 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.200 Terminal, it really is. And containers are the other massive shift. 340 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:26.919 We're talking Kubernetes here, Kubernetes, Docker pod Man. The idea 341 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:31.039 here is moving away from managing servers to managing services. 342 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:34.200 Instead of installing a web server on a Linux machine 343 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:37.240 and hoping it doesn't conflict with your database, you wrap 344 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:39.519 the web server in a container. 345 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:40.639 Like a little isolated box. 346 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.919 Exactly. It has everything it needs inside that box. You 347 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:47.440 can ship that container anywhere and it runs exactly the same. 348 00:15:47.639 --> 00:15:49.759 It's literally shipping containers for code. 349 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:53.360 Yes, and Linux is the native home for this. Even 350 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:56.440 if you run containers on Windows, it's usually just running 351 00:15:56.519 --> 00:16:00.279 a hidden Linux virtual machine underneath to make it work. 352 00:16:00.440 --> 00:16:02.440 But the part that really jumped out at me in 353 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:04.399 this new edition, and maybe this is just the hype 354 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:06.600 cycle talking is the AI section. 355 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:10.399 It's not just hype anymore, it's infrastructure. The eleventh edition 356 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:14.120 explicitly adds a whole section on running AI workloads. It 357 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:15.399 mentions tools like a LAMA. 358 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.080 Yeah, I've actually played with the LAMA. Let you run 359 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:20.840 large language models locally on your laptop, right. 360 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:23.039 And think about the implication of that for the enterprise. 361 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:26.480 Everyone is worried about data privacy right now. Companies do 362 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:29.240 not want to send their proprietary data to open ai 363 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:30.200 or Google right. 364 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:31.200 They want to keep it in house. 365 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:33.279 They want to run their own models on their own hardware, 366 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:34.440 behind their own firewalls. 367 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:36.399 And to do that you need Linux. 368 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:42.360 The entire AI stack, PyTorch, TensorFlow, the drivers for the nvidgpus, 369 00:16:42.919 --> 00:16:46.039 it is all native to Linux. If you are serious 370 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.279 about AI engineering, you aren't doing it on Windows. Linux 371 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:52.360 has essentially become the operating system of the artificial mind. 372 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:55.639 That is just a wild thought, going from a broke 373 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:59.759 student's hobby project to the literal substrate of artificial intelligence. 374 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:02.679 It really is, and the tools are evolving to match 375 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.839 that complexity. We aren't just using the exact same tools 376 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:06.799 from nineteen eighty. 377 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:09.720 Four anymore, right, The book highlights a bunch of modern replacements. 378 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:12.680 Yeah, like, we used to use iptables for firewalls, which 379 00:17:12.759 --> 00:17:14.359 was honestly painful. 380 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:14.759 Huh. 381 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:18.200 Now we have firewalled on red Hat or UfW on 382 00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:21.319 a Buntu uncomplicated firewall. We used to use the top 383 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:24.640 command to see processes. Now there's a utility called prox 384 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:28.359 that gives you color coded, human readable data. Even personal 385 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:31.599 desktop apps are moving to things like snap and flat pack. 386 00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:34.759 The ecosystem is very much alive and still inventing. 387 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:37.920 So we've covered the history, the tech, and the future. 388 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:40.839 But let's bring it home for the listener. So what 389 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:44.279 why should you care? If someone listening isn't planning to 390 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:47.039 become a cloud server admin, why pick up this book 391 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:48.200 or learn Linux now? 392 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:50.400 If you do care about your tech career, it's a 393 00:17:50.440 --> 00:17:54.240 total no brainer. The book sites tens of thousands of 394 00:17:54.279 --> 00:17:56.039 open jobs on indeed. 395 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.839 Cloud architect, DevOps, engineer, cybersecurity. 396 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:02.200 Yeah, these are high paying, six figure jobs and they 397 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:05.359 all require Linux. It's not a nice to have anymore. 398 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:08.400 It's table stakes. You can't learn it without using it. 399 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:10.440 But what if I just want to use my personal computer. 400 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:12.119 I'm not looking for a new job. 401 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:14.400